My ISP has given me a free version of CA Internet Security Suite 2010. It includes a firewall and av program plus I believe some kind of malware catcher. I currently have Microsoft Security Essentials and the built in Microsoft Firewall. I am running Windows 7. Does this sound like a deal? I wonder if it's worth the trouble to uninstall all that stuff and install the CA stuff? Appreciate some opinions. Thanks.
I'd keep it simple and stick with what you already have. I don't think that CA is all that good anyway, from what I've heard. MSE is good, and so is the built-in Win Firewall. A suite is likely to just be more bloated and bulky, without offering much more protection. Just my 2 cents....
Just because CA Internet Security Suite 2010 is handed out by your ISP doesn't automatically make it better, my ISP used to do the same thing. I looked it's rating up at the time and it was worse than what I was using. I would stay with what you have right now.
I can say by experience that CA products are the worst mainstream consumer security products made. Their av is essentially crapware. And the firewall they use, I suppose that is the Tiny Personal Firewall product they essentially stole from license holders a few years back. The firewall is almost impossible to uninstall. If the horrid products of CA are not bad enough you could always check out the social conscience of the company. As stated before CA took over Tiny Personal Firewall a few years back- I believe it was 2005 or 2006. Then the company froze support, updates and upgrades until all the outstanding licenses ran out. There eventually were some TPF users that helped each other as the forum was abandoned by any official mods. But there was no support at all from CA- and we're talking about license holders who paid $49.99 to $99.99 per license. You could always head to google and do a search with the terms Computer Associates and Prison. You'll find several results there too. I believe the company moved it headquarters overseas a few years ago, I may be wrong about that though. http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q="computer associates" prison
They're still on Long Island. http://www.ca.com/us/contact/offices.aspx It's been a long time since I've used their AV / firewall, and I was unimpressed, though I wouldn't say they gave me any trouble. That said, the financial mid-dealings by some CA executives several years ago (see Wikipedia) don't seem relevent to the merits of the software.
I used CA's av some years ago when it was free (I'm kind of addicted to free stuff), and I believe it was called eTrust or something. At the time they didn't have a firewall included. It was ok, but I have no idea how good it was. I stopped when it became pay. I have to agree that the financial shenanigans done by some company execs in no way impacts their software, I'll just stay with what I have. Thanks for the replies.
Last I checked CA security suite was really a ton of programs pushed together. Anti-Spyware: The Acquired PestPatrol AV: Etrust Firewall: The Acquired Tiny Personal Firewall Hips Module: In House Web Protection Module: In House So each part of the suite really worked on its on instead of as one.
Good choice to stay with MSE and the Windows Firewall. Those programs have worked well for me on Windows 7. CA was never impressive anyway.
