How to turn off McAfee’s CenturyLink cybersecurity warnings

Many CenturyLink users have found that attempting to visit certain webpages and websites results in a giant McAfee cybersecurity “warning” message that says something along the lines of “A warning! (website url) seems risky. This may be because it is new or does not have the latest security version.” or “A warning! This site has been flagged as malicious. Visiting this site may expose your device to malware or hacking, allowing your personal information to be stolen.” or a variant of a similar error message.

You have the option to click “Go to site”, but what if you trust sites or just don’t want CenturyLink to determine which sites are “safe” to visit and want to get rid of CenturyLink’s warnings? for some websites? If you are an advanced user, you might be interested in disabling this feature and disabling cyber security warnings from the router.

This guide shows you how to disable the CenturyLink McAfee Cyber ​​Security feature and all warnings associated with it.

The cybersecurity feature is enabled by default for most CenturyLink accounts and routers, so it must be disabled manually.

How to turn off the cybersecurity feature for CenturyLink website alerts

We assume that your CenturyLink modem/router is on the network at 192.168.0.1 IP address, if it is a different IP address you will need to select it.

The router’s IP address and administrator login information must be located on the physical CenturyLink modem or router, either on the bottom panel or on a label on the equipment.

1. Open a web browser and navigate to https://192.168.0.1/.
2. Log in to the CenturyLink modem/router with an administrator account (this account must be located on the physical modem/router itself)
3. In the left menu bar, find “Advanced settings” or “Security”.
4. Select “Cyber ​​Security”
5. Find the Cyber ​​Security option and disable it from the dropdown menu *
6. Save changes and exit the CenturyLink router**

You should now be able to surf the web, any website, without CenturyLink cybersecurity warnings appearing on various URLs.

Some users have found that “warning” messages from CenturyLink’s cybersecurity erroneously appear on sites that are valid and not dangerous, but simply related to topics or subjects that are less common or somewhat controversial. Also, sometimes warnings appear on sites experiencing certificate issues, which can also show up as “connection is not private” errors in Safari for other users (certificate issues most often occur on the server side of the website, not on the users side). , but may also be displayed if the user’s device clock is inaccurate). And, of course, warnings pop up on legitimately questionable sites as well. But if you’re confident enough in your ability to tell the sketchy from the untrustworthy, you might be interested in turning off the cybersecurity feature if you keep encountering it.

McAfee CenturyLink Cyber ​​Security alerts may look different depending on the device you’re using, but typically look something like this:

“A warning! This site has been flagged as malicious. Visiting this site may expose your device to malware or hacking, allowing your personal information to be stolen.”

Or this sort; “A warning! (website url) seems risky. This may be because it is new or does not have the latest security version.”

This tip came to us from a reader who contacted us suggesting that somehow McAfee’s antivirus software was installed on their Mac and iPad, which they found curious as they never downloaded or installed any software. McAfee security on any device. After investigating the issue for a while, we realized that the website alerts and filtering actually comes from their CenturyLink modem, which bundles the McAfee Cyber ​​Security Service feature and turns it on by default. This service likely prevents some malware from appearing (especially on Windows PCs where there is an increased risk), but may also erroneously flag some sites as problematic or unsafe. Thus, for advanced users who are comfortable with determining what is safe on the Internet on their own, disabling this feature may be desirable.

*Important note: For some CenturyLink modems, the only option to disable Cyber ​​Security is to turn off before restarting the modem/router, or turn off and then on again. If you have this option on your modem, you need to remember to manually disable this feature every time you reboot your modem, power outage, or modem/router shuts down for any reason.

** Some CenturyLink modems/routers have a slightly different location of settings depending on the modem, firmware, service, etc., but as a general rule, you are always looking for a “Security” or “Cyber ​​Security” related feature.