McAfee is giving me a headache

[1Patriciann]

Programs McAfee has 'forced' 'FULL ACCESS' being given on the FIREWALL where I am LOCKED OUT from EDITING OR DELETING any of these programs and have no OVER-RIDE access.  These programs are being given full access to the 'PUBLIC' INTERNET.  Why am I LOCKED OUT of being given ANY ACCESS to modify or delete any of these programs being provided FULL public internet access?  I am an AT&T high speed Internet customer and had their technical support remote access my computer to check the settings and they also could not alter any of the access settings McAfee was giving to these programs.  Also, McAfee provided no 'ATTACK DETECTION' as part of the firewall as all of these settings were 'defaulted' to OFF where I had to 'learn the hard way' to know enough to activate them on my own.  McAfee support told me a long while back that I did not need to KNOW how to set up these PROTECTIONS on my computer and could trust McAfee to provide the needed protection - I don't feel this was an accurate statement and the more I do learn the less protected I realize I in fact am.  How do I REGAIN CONTROL over these vital program McAfee has DEMANDED be provided FULL ACCESS to the PUBLIC INTERNET -- and does this put me at ANY RISK from these programs having been given FULL PUBLIC INTERNET ACCESS - and WHY is FULL ACCESS being given to these programs by McAfee AT ALL - are there any VITAL reasons these programs MUST have this FORCED public internet access?  I switched the 'Smart Advice and Advanced Settings" to - 'Ask me to decide' from their default of 'Decide automatically' along with selecting the 'Block internet access at startup' and 'Enable UDP tracking'. 

What I need to KNOW is if I am SAFE the way McAfee is set up on my computer - I have purchased Symantec’s Norton Internet Security 2012 and am thinking of deleting the McAfee and installing the Symantec product as a few weeks ago when I had issues and tried to get McAfee support to help they told me it was AT&T's problem and left me stranded to go from there.  As a result of these unresolved issues from my not knowing enough to help myself I experienced a complete computer crash and had to reformat my hard drive - FOUR TIMES.  I think I had a 'breach of security' with this McAfee product and was 'infected' but don't know as I am not a techie by any stretch of the imagination, but am trying to get up to speed on these issues as I realize there is no basis for my trusting McAfee as I have been let down too many times from investing this 'misplaced' trust in their product but felt if AT&T trusted their product enough to make it a part of their paid internet service to me as their customer then it must be a good product - I am beginning to 'wonder' about how accurate of a thought this was on my part.  

These programs McAfee is FORCING FULL ACCESS to the public internet while LOCKING me out of having ANY CONTROL to edit or delete any of them are located in the "Internet Connections for Programs" in the McAfee Firewall settings:

'Services and Controller app - File name: C\windows\system32\services.exe - Company: Microsoft Corporation  

'Host Process for Windows Services' - File name: C\windows\system32\svchost.exe - Company: Microsoft Corporation  

'Host Process for Windows Services' - File name: C\windows\syswow64\svchost.exe - Company: Microsoft Corporation  

'Local Security Authority Process' - File name: C\windows\system32\Isass.exe - Company: Microsoft Corporation  

'Userinit Logon Application' - File name: C\windows\system32\userinit.exe - Company: Microsoft Corporation  

'Userinit Logon Application' - File name: C\windows\syswow64\userinit.exe - Company Microsoft Corporation

'Windows Start-up Application' - File name: C\windows\system32\wininit.exe - Company: Microsoft Corporation  

'Windows Start-Up Application' - File name: C\windows\syswow64\winitit.exe - Company: Microsoft Corporation   

'Windows Logon Application' - File name: C\windows\system32\winlogon.exe - Company: Microsoft Corporation

Thank you for any helpful information.