Customer Reviews
Do some homework before you install security products! 
2007-01-11
I am a computer repair tech and I can bet 90% of the problems reported in these reviews for this product is because people double install security programs. You should never install more than 1 antivirus program into your OS. Most of the decriptions of problems are from doing just that, double installs. PLEASE PLEASE ..remove/uninstall any previous antivirus programs and 3rd party firewalls. then reboot..use a good registry cleaner-freeware program like CCleaner to remove leftover registry keys, then reboot again and then and only then install your new Antivirus/Security program. I have this program and when installed properly on a cleaned system, it works great. A very good product at a very good price. I can't comment on it's tech support, I have never used it!
Anti virus/ spam protection 
2007-01-10
I'm satisfied with the product. I seem to be getting the protection on my pc; for the cost of product you can't go wrong.
Too many workarounds - too complex for the average user 
2006-12-29
I am by no means a computer idiot, I audit computer systems security for a living. I have had to contact customer support (webchat) at least 3-4 times during the first 30 days of installing the software. The install was on a brand new system (Windows XP Pro), with all of the Microsoft patches and service packs and little to nothing else installed.
First Pest Patrol would crash numerous times a day until technical support walked me through a complex workaround to prevent an Active Protection error window appearing over 100 times every 10 minutes (which you had to click to clear each one). Second, the firewall would tell me I was not authorized to visit certain webpages until technical support walked me through a complex process of deleting certain files created by the firewall and resetting the firewall after a process involving safe mode. Third, Pest Patrol never would run a thorough scan. I'd receive two separate errors that either said a fatal error occurred with the Pest Patrol GUI, or that system resources was not available. I contacted the customer support and they told me that yes, sometimes Pest Patrol doesn't work at all unless you use MSCONFIG to disable all startup services (systems.ini, etc) reboot, run Pest Patrol, then use MSCONFIG to enable the startup services. It was a canned reply during a live web session, which means that the operators were probably used to giving since it likely occurs to many people.
I haven't tried out the third solution yet because I wanted to remind myself to write an Amazon review.
If you are looking for simplicity, or don't know much about computers, look elsewhere. Otherwise you will be in for one major headache trying to implement several technically involved workarounds. I'll give it two stars, since it didn't cause my dog to choke, explode my house, or cause irreparable damage to clothing (which is my one-star).
Bad Software 
2006-11-03
After installing this software in to My PC. Some functions of my keyboard stopped working. Even some multimedia buttons disappeared. After that I had to concatct HP to download drivers again.
Even after installing the drivers, it did not start working as beore till I uninstalled this third rate software from my PC. After uninstalling every thing got fine. I will not recommand this soft ware to any one.
Multiple crashes -- unacceptable quality. 2006-10-08
The program crashed during Setup. When I finally got it installed, it crashed my machine every night until I uninstalled it.
CA Associates eTrust EZ Armor 2008-02-17
The software installed and worked as promoted. However, after 1 year, I decided not to renew. First, the file vsmon.exe was a nightmare to remove. Second, if the eTrust software is uninstalled, I can never get an internet connection, despite having a perfectly working local area connection. All this on a comcast cable connection using a linksys router. Other computers on this connection have internet just fine. Consequence is that the eTrust software must remain installed even though it isn't run.
Customer Support??? 2007-10-15
Installation nightmare!!!!
This company has no customer support. It blocks your internet access. Shutting it off doesn't work; you have to uninstall it to get your internet access back. Then if the FAQ page that they have for customer service doesn't help (which it won't), the require that you fork over 19.99 for help!!! Stay away from this!!
Sorry Soloman 2007-07-01
Sorry Solomanwise. I too am a computer professional, 20 years in the making. And I have the same problems as Mr. Burgess. In fact, it's worse. Not only does the real-time protection turn itself off, so does the e-mail protection.
Despite your scolding about multiple installations of anti-virus and firewalls, my installation was run without anything except the CA product. And yes, I do use CCleaner AND Registry Mechanic to remove or repair any erroneous registry entries or remnants left over from previous installs. The problem remains.
CA seems to have no clue about how to fix the problem. Not a company I would recommend.
Antivirus Real-time Scanner may die 
2007-03-19
Having used this product for over half a year, I feel I should warn fellow computer users of a recurrent problem (also alluded to by another reviewer). The Real-time Scanner for the antivirus product often turns itself off. After a looong wait on the phone, the support folks in India politely walked me through turning it back on. The procedure is to turn Real-Time Scanning off, reboot the computer, turn Real-time Scanning back on, and reboot again.
The support tech I had the first time assured me this should only have to be fixed once, and the product worked fine for a few months. Now the Real-time Scanner turns itself off every time the product checks for updates. So if I want to keep scanning for viruses, I have to regularly go through the multi-reboot cycle. A Real-Time Pain-in-the-&$$, if you ask me.
As with my problems with the Norton Suite a while back, I am mystified as to why none of the downloaded patches fix the manufacturer's own coding errors.
In other respects, the Computer Associates suite has performed similarly to the competent ZoneAlarm suite of which it is a derivative; the scanning quality is not the greatest, though, as it does miss items the free Lavasoft Ad-Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy non-real-time scanners regularly weed from my system. Of the products I have used, the Norton suite worked fine in earlier revisions, but the last version I had was a disaster. So I switched to ZoneAlarm, which I kept for the life of the first year's subscription. Though it functioned very well, I did not continue with ZoneAlarm due to rising costs. The Computer Associates suite has become a nagging problem, so it will be dumped as soon as I can find a competent, cost-effective replacement.
Protection Objection 2007-03-03
These days, if anyone owns a computer, they have to purchase protection software for spyware, firewalls and anti-virus. Although there are many different kinds of popular brands like Norton, and McAffe that have n't done very well at protecting against these certain brands. For EZ Armor and CA's Etrust, they do a mostly good job at making the grade at computer protection. Their Internet Security Suite delivers good quality service on some programs on protection, like Anti-Virus and firewall. Unfortunately, the anti-spam and spyware prtection doesn't actually deliver well, and if you have other internet protection software for spyware, it could definitely interfere either way. I suggest for those who just need an anti-virus software to get this. Otherwise, get something that might be better for your computer.
Price: C
Convience: C-
Protection: C+
Overall: C 1/2-
