CA Internet Security (64 bit)-stay away!

When Time Warner became my ISP, they gave me an email box (I can get 10 more, if needed). When I first checked mine, there was a message & a gift from Time Warner, CA Internet Security 2010. It includes an AV, malware protection, family protection, a firewall.

On Windows 7 Home Basic (32 bit), it runs perfectly fine, scans thoroughly, updates every thirty minutes, without hindering me. I've checked behind it several times with MBAM, all is clean.

On Windows 7 Ultimate (64 bit) the opposite is true, it's sluggish, causes my computer to be so, also. I'm always getting warnings that my firewall isn't on, it shouldn't be on, but the performance, and the constant updating, was dragging down my computer.

I uninstalled it, installed MSE, and Emsisoft Anti-Malware, my problems are over.

So my message to the members here is to stay away from Time Warner's "gifts", especially CA Internet Security 64 bit version. You'll be glad you did.

Cat

A long time ago I used a program called VET it was a great anti virus program with local Australian support.
It became or joined with CA and was the worse for it, support moved to America and was crap it also was resource hungry and slow. I stopped useing it yrs ago.

Mychael, I found that out, the hard way. But since it was free, I had nothing to lose in trying it out. It turned out to be a disaster on my desktop (a 64 bit one).

However, I still have it installed on 32 bit Windows 7 Home Basic (on my notebook), and it runs with no issues (as of yet). I installed it about a month ago.

I don't mind installing new software on my evaluation OS's, in fact, that's the main reason for these OS's, is to evaluate it, try out software, see how far you can go until it crashes, and so forth.

But on my main OEM OS's, I won't run any new software until it passes the test on the other ones. Unless it's well known branded software that's proven itself.

Cat

Good it still works for you, pity when sometimes software developers have a good thing then "develop" it into something less then it was. It was the registered 32bit version I was running. Of course maybe they "re-developed" it again since I stopped useing it and have improved it again. One of the main issues for me was going from telephone support with an Australian phone number to email support in America which was slow and never helpfull.

I found another combo AV & malware scanner (Emsisoft AntiMalware) that seems to be popular in Australia, perhaps more so than the US. It is a stand alone scanner, like MBAM is (the free version).

It seems to do a good job in scanning, giving you four options as to how to scan. I found it in the Free Software Database suggestions, it was suggested by draceena. But I didn't look to see if it was included in the final list. Anyway, it's worth trying out.

Back to CA Internet Security, I didn't know where it's roots were from, didn't take time to look it up. Perhaps that's something I should consider doing before trying it out. But since Time Warner was offering it, I thought at the least it would be decent. I just don't understand why a security suite works perfectly fine in a 32 bit version of Win 7, and like crap in the 64 bit one. If it weren't doing it's job on the 32 bit OS, MBAM would be finding what's missed, however, MBAM has found nothing at all.

I wonder though, how good their firewall really is, not having anything to test it with, and don't even know how to, if I did. What I think I'll do is run the Belarc Advisor program, it'll alert me to any known security problems. Also, Windows Live Safety Scanner may also alert me. I just want to know that damn firewall is working as it should.

Sorry to hear that the email support from the US to where you live is not that good (or vice versa). Another member from Australia has had a similar issue. I hope that's not the norm for your area. The communication link on the forum seems fine, it must be in certain ISP's where the problem is at.

Cat

Not that Cat, is was that their support in terms of information and problem solving was pretty ordinary. They were slow to respond to queries even allowing for our time differences and they simply were not very helpfull.

I must check out that other AV you mentioned, never heard of it before.

It's at:

http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/antimalware/

Hope that you find it useful. It takes a while to update, but only uses resources when you update or scan. It's completely free. They have a paid version, with realtime protection, but I trust MSE for that.

I figured if draceena recommended it, it must be good.

Cat