Customer Reviews

CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2009 5-User (with$10,000 warranty)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I worked for a now-defunct big-box electronics retailer for a couple of years installing software. CA software was universally loathed by myself and all the other technicians because it was fragile, bloated, and never actually worked right. It's also packaged with the single worst uninstaller I'd ever encountered this side of certain Bloated Dial-up Internet Companies, and would usually require a reformat to actually get rid of the product.

Many, many people would get this product "free" after mail in rebates, take it home and try to get it installed... only to bring the computers back demanding to know why their machine was suddenly very slow, not connecting to the internet, etc. It got to the point where our sales force would actively warn people away from this company.
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Edit 04-21-2010: There is absolutely no reason to buy this product. Microsoft now offers absolutely free anti-malware software, known as Microsoft Security Essentials. This utility is free, lightweight, and offers every bit of the protection a suite like this promises. Now that Windows has a built in Firewall, Anti-Spyware (Windows Defender), and Anti-Malware (Security Essentials) there is no reason to buy a third-party security product; Especially one this bad.

Ok, first of all my problems are with their Vista 64Bit version, i also installed this product on a XP system and have not had as many problems.
Their tech support people only know these fixes: "it was not properly installed", "you need to reinstall", "we do not support 64bit"
I reformatted my hard drive three times trying to unistanll the product, have talked to their support via chat because you cannot communicate with them over the phone for about two weekes now. One of them had the balls to tell me i had to use their "advanced paid support" meaning i would need to pay for their support possibly to hear again "you need to reinstall"
I have even asked for a refund and they have not assumed their responsibility saying they do not offer refunds, so be really careful about buying from this people.

I bought CA Anti-virus 2007 and have kept paying for the renewals. first, this product is MUCH better than Norton SystemWorks - which literally killed my system. What I liked about CA-Anti-Virus was just that - it was one package - not a suite that sucked up system resources. All of this is great unless you get a virus - which I did. The computer was getting daily updates from CA and also had Windows Updates turned on. One day I could not get any virus definitions and the computer became much slower. After a week of trying to fix it, I went online for chat support - I could not get anyone. I tried to pay for telephone - I could not get the site to accept payment. I dug into my manual and located the holy grail - a TELEPHONE NUMBER!!! After several twists, I finally got an Indian CSR who barely spoke a lick of English. After saying over and over I was willing to pay for support - she finally took my CC info. Unfortunately there were not any reps ready - I got a call back within 30 minutes. The tech was Annand and he was outstanding. After four hours he removed the virus and the computer is up and running again. Today, looking at my $1,500 protection against virus's, I called CA for my $19.99 back. Not because Annand was bad, but because it was guaranteed to protect against virus' which somehow it did not. Talk about the run around. I was told by one rep - it is ONLY GOOD FOR ONE YEAR!!! However, when you 'renew', that is not renewed! I looked at my paperwork and could find nothing stating this. I then got transferred again to another horribly accented Indian - and she said it was not a virurs! Annand took four hours removing this thing and she said I needed to go back and remember my conversation with him! What are companies thinking of when they offshore CS to place like this.

So, there are a few things to consider if purchasing this package. First, while it will not rob your system of processing power - it also failed catching a virus. Is that what you want? Second, the promise of monetary compensation is meaningless! If you do purchase the package - do NOT RENEW!!! Lastly, if you need help and support - you pay for what you get. Go free and get ready to kill yourself. Pay (when you should not have to) and get a person who can help you out.

I just renewed my subscription a month ago. Never again - time to find a better AV company that backs up their product (and does not crush a system's resources).

I received a copy of CA's Internet Security Suite Plus 2009 with a computer I purchased from Tiger Direct. On the CD case, it says it's compatible with 32- and 64-bit Vista, but has a footnote indicating the 64-bit version is a download from their website. So I downloaded the 64-bit version and installed it with the CD key. I was previously using Norton and uninstalled that just prior.

The product seemed to work ok in the first couple of days. The first virus scan was probably the longest I have ever seen any virus scan run on any of my PCs. When the scan finished, it said it found 4 "viruses", which were all benign tracking cookies.

Unfortunately within about 2-3 days of installing the product, Windows would not boot. (I would just get a black screen.) I could only boot in safe mode. I suspected the CA Security Suite to be the problem, so I disabled the services from safe mode and rebooted into normal mode--this time successfully. I then reenabled from safe-mode and confirmed that Windows would not boot with the CA Security Suite turned on.

At this point I decided to uninstall the product. I booted back into safe mode and used the uninstall from Vista's Add/Remove Programs. A few of the components uninstalled correctly, but the Antivirus and Firewall failed to uninstall. I tried several times, rebooting etc. with the same result. Then I searched CA's support forums and found an uninstaller program. When I ran that and reran the uninstall, the anti-virus uninstalled successfully, but the firewall still did not. I rebooted and tried again with same result.

So I searched some more forums and found a list of files and registry keys to manually uninstall the 32-bit version of the CA Security Suite. I decided to follow these instructions, but also adding the folders and keys that exist in 64-bit Vista. That appeared to have worked. But I still couldn't turn Windows Firewall back on because it thought the CA Firewall was still running (it wasn't).

To get help on the last part, I tried to use CA's remote assist feature on their website; however their remote assist software kept failing to run--no surpise at this point. So I sent them an email to ask how to finish uninstalling it. Instead of waiting for their response, I decided to download and install McAfee Security Suite (a much better product), and the final reference to the CA Firewall just disappeared. My computer has been working fine ever since. All in all, I wasted almost an entire day with this product.

The software did work for about 3 days. So here are some other observations:

1. As part of the security suite, a CA Security toolbar is installed in the upper right corner of Internet Explorer. Unlike most toolbars, there is no option to hide or disable it.

2. My CA license key had a full year subscription. But every time I opened the CA Security Center it displayed a security warning telling me to extend my subscription (to make sure I stay protected!). It clearly displayed my subscription expiration date to be one year in the future, and yet continually displayed the warning icon on the taskbar warning me to renew. Apparently, the only way to get rid of the warning is to disable all security warnings or extend my license beyond a year. No thanks, I'll pass. Security warnings should be used for actual security concerns, not for marketing.

Bottom line: If you have 64-bit Vista, do not waste your time with this.

It didn't protect my PC from a Trojan, eventually had to reformat. Stick with Macaffe or Norton products.

CA is. That's right. CA. This is not a company that got it's start by helping consumers like you and I. I have now wasted nearly a day of my life trying to install my free 2009 upgrade to my current 2008 CA Suite subscription. It has been a nightmare. I should have cut my losses a year ago when the initial installation of the 2008 Suite was plagued with hurdles. Unbelievable! We all need virus protection, but I will not be getting mine from CA in the future.

My CA "security suite" has "detected" 9 infections (8 incidents of the same infection +1 additional), however it can't seem to remove or quarrantine them. It only "detects" them. After a few minutes on the online chat tech support, I was informed that I needed to call telephone tech support and pay $20 to get instructions on how to get these removed. How awesome is that?

My advice...invest your money in Security software that actually "secures" your computer, rather than "detecting" it and charging you to remove it.

I haven't used their product in quite some time because it was inadequate and cumbersome, yet I just got an email that they are going to charge my account $30. There is no phone number (unless I want to pay $19.95) and the only support available doesn't work no matter how many times I tried to fill out all their forms. The end answers are ridiculous and get me no closer to getting these rip off artists out of my bank accounts.

There is a reason why there is no phone number and no email address and no snail mail address at their website.

This is a all encompassing suite of protection that for the novice -might- have been a good choice to protect them from every internet problem. What is bad, is the computer I install everything on is now so bogged down and slow I hate using it.

Installation-
During installation you are offered the chance to not install all components. On subsequent computers I didn't install everything and they are a little better

Modification-
You can turn off components but then it nags you constantly that you aren't protected. You CANNOT uninstall components.

Usage-
On the computer that has everything, I've tried to turn off website inspector. When on, when you hover it tells you the real site a link goes. That is good if you don't know what phishing is. But because of the popup, it interferes with function. On webpages that use java for navigation you have to click the link 3 times for it to work. After I turn it to 'silent' mode it only works when you press the 'ctrl' key. But what this does is PREVENT you from being able to use any shortcuts - ie CTRL-F to find something on the page, CTRL-C to copy, CTRL-V to paste.

Summary-
It was probably a good idea, but trying to put too much into a package has made it unusable and unfriendly. If you are an inexperienced user it may keep you safer, but if you are familiar with basics (like determining where a link goes without clicking on it) then this is a total waste of computer resources that will slow your computer to a crawl. It is more frustrating than functional.

I don't recommend this product for anybody. There are better ones out there.

I was initially happy with this purchase until...my bank blocked me from logging into my account online. I called and they told me I can't log in because I have too many viruses/spyware on my computer. Huh? But I have CA Internet Security installed on my computer. I run weekly updates and scans. I then purchased and ran Norton. Guess what? CA had missed 130 VIRUSES in its scans. I called support and got someone in India who was useless to say the least. THIS SOFTWARE DOES NOT WORK AS IT SHOULD AND ITS NOT SUPPORTED AS IT SHOULD BE! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.