CA Internet Security 2010 is a new program offered by Computer Associates. The company claims to protect 97% of fortune 500 companies and has brought the same technology to the consumer program. The company is currently providing a free download and activation code. CA Internet Security 2010 is aimed primarily at beginner or novice computer users. Being a power user, I found some serious problems with this free antivirus program.
Installation:
The CA Internet Security installation was very easy and quick. Large screens and graphics display the progress and the program automatically downloads the installation file. One thing that sets CA apart from other free antivirus installations is that the software automatically performs a scan on install. This was a surprise as at the end of the installation, CA internet security already had detected 6 viruses. The software does not perform an automatic update after an install which is interesting for a product targeted at beginner users.
Interface:
The interface of CA internet Security is clearly unique. The home screen consists of 4 tabs that rotate around according to which option is selected. If there are problems such as a full scan not completed or a virus update not performed, all a user has to do is click “Fix Now” rather than clicking the respective buttons. There are also helpful pop ups that only alert a user to important problems; expect CA to not frequently bug or annoy the user.
While the antivirus interface is very beautiful, it slowed the test system to a crawl. Just clicking on a tab and then viewing the rotating graphic would barely function on a core 2 duo with Vista’s “power saver” functionality. If the power plan was changed to “high performance”, the rotating graphic would move faster but still had considerable lag. I think even the slightest bit of lag on a 2 GHz computer is completely unacceptable.
Antivirus settings were also a hassle to change. In some instances the setting sliders were almost too large. This forces a user to have to scroll down repeatedly within a window that can’t be resized. This is a hassle if a user wants to frequently tweak settings.
Features:
If other free internet security suites were thought to have few features, CA Internet Security takes the icing on the cake. There really are no standout features except the parental controls.
Parental Controls. CA offers the most in depth “My Kids” parental controls (website and applications filters) available in a free antivirus program. This filtering functionality is very clearly adopted from a corporate system. First, the software supports multiple users (kids) accounts under the administrator. Access to the internet or applications can be allowed or disallowed according to the time of day or day of the week. The administrator can select the users (kids) age range and have filters that are relevant to the group. Next, the administrator can be alerted to certain events such as a kid tampering with CA internet security. I thought this feature was particularly appealing and maybe even a little overboard.
In terms of application filtering, CA internet security 2010 has filters for P2P and Messaging programs such as Bitorrent, AIM, MSN, and other instant messengers. The administrator can even set blocked keywords and restrict contacts to a trusted list.
Helpful Antivirus Support. CA internet security 2010 has an innovative support system. Rather than utilizing the standard Windows help interface, CA has designed their own interface within the program. One of the best features is the inclusion of help videos. For example, if a user doesn’t know how to run an antivirus scan or update, there are videos to help the user understand. This is perfect for the elderly or novice users and is the only free internet security suite that I know of that provides this functionality.
Firewall. The included firewall is basically useless and is extremely difficult to configure. While the firewall automatically configures rules for certain applications (great for novice users), if one wants to tweak any of these rules it is almost impossible. Unlike other internet security programs where one can select the individual program (displays an icon) to set inbound and outbound rules, CA internet security 2010 only displays a log file of disallowed connections. From this log file, which is displayed in an extremely small window and in light grey, a user has to look through all the disallowed connections and individually enable the desired connection. Adding a new rule to the firewall is also tedious because a user can't see the other programs that have rules already configured for them. This is completely contrary to 99% of the other free firewalls. Finally, the firewall performance is abysmal. When browsing the web there is a clear 2 second added delay when loading a webpage.
Backup Capability. The backup capability is one of the most pathetic I have ever seen. What the backup does is essentially make one file of all of the selected computer files. This is like using a compression program (zip) and putting the files one wants to back up in it. Why is this even called a “backup” utility?
Identity and Link Scanner Toolbar. The toolbar is one of the features that CA actually did correctly. The toolbar installs into Firefox and internet explorer. When a user visits a website the toolbar will give the user a risk rating, the whois information, and the server location. The link scanner will also tell the user if a link is safe simply by highlighting the link. These features are great for novice users as it is color coded green, yellow, or red according to website safety. However, sometimes the server location doesn’t come up correctly (the toolbars fault) and it falsely claims the website is high risk.
Resource Usage:
CA Internet Security 2010 has the worst resource management of any antivirus or security program ever. After installation, the test system was forced into a crawl and started to sound like a jet engine. Just opening the Windows Vista start menu would elicit a 60% move in CPU usage. Browsing the web turned a 6 megabit connection into a 56k connection. Windows startup took 2 times as long. In addition to all these problems, svchost.exe had a memory leak and would go up to 370 megabytes of RAM usage and the event viewer service would go up to 106 megabytes. I have never seen these services reach these levels.
CA Internet Security needs 11 different processes just to function correctly. In idle mode, the software uses 348 megabytes of RAM. I thought McAfee antivirus was bad, but this is clearly the worst. When a user wants to perform a virus scan, the software will start a new process (caamscaner.exe) at 50 megabytes bringing the test system burden close to 400 megabytes and 50% CPU power.
It appears the CA software designers had no intention of making an efficient lightweight program. Maybe they intentionally made a slow antivirus as it gives a user a second to think about their actions? Or, maybe they designed the software to make Kiosk computers slower? Maybe elderly don’t want a lot things happening on their computer? Unfortunately, I am (the user) left to infer why this antivirus program is crippled.
Antivirus Scanning Detection:
The antivirus scanning is again the worst I have seen in any free antivirus. When an antivirus scan is run, there is no indication when the scan started or is going to finish; there isn’t even a progress bar! The antivirus scan is slow taking at least 2 hours plus.
The antivirus scan detected 6 “viruses” called P2P Grokster (really Frostwire) and automatically quarantined the program. This is clearly where a corporate antivirus has conflicts of interest when directly implemented into a consumer product. Simply put, most consumers have P2P software on their computer and don’t want it automatically disabled.
One advantage of the CA Internet Security virus scan is that it stops quickly when canceled compared to competitors. Usually, other free antivirus take a few seconds to cancel a scan.
Uninstallation:
This is what a user will probably do after they use CA internet Security for a few minutes. It simply made the test computer unusable. Interestingly, the uninstallation screen has a great graphic (contrary to other antivirus) probably because users see it so often.
Conclusion:
If one still wants to download this software or they have a grandma that needs an antivirus program, get the download below. One positive point, there is $10,000 of damage protection if a user gets a devastating virus or their identity stolen. But, I feel few will be able to get that far.
