Customer Reviews
Use Another Firewall 
2007-10-10
I purchased this product because it was inexpensive and I needed an anti-virus program. Before I was running ZoneAlarm firewall and was happy with it. Figured getting this suite I'd give all the CA stuff a try. The antivirus seems fine, however the personal firewall blocks way too much, to the point I have problems running programs locally and using my LAN. I've tried specifying each program, opening up the safe zone and adding expert rules with very little success. So when I need to access a network printer, delete something in gmail or even perform a search on CA's knowledge center, I have to disable the firewall. Unless you want to spend all your time programming the firewall in minute details of what should have access, the firewall is practically useless.
If you already own this product, you can disable CA's firewall and use the Windows firewall. ZoneAlarm will not install with the CA Antivirus, because of potential conflicts. When the CA suite expires next year, I'm going to dump it and re-install ZoneAlarm with another AV, but save yourself the time and pass on this product.
CA Security Center 
2007-08-30
Well I bought this and installed it on my Vista machine. The spyware and anti-virus work great. But the only major complaint I had was that the Firewall slowed down my internet connection DRASTICALLY. Then when I uninstalled the firewall, everything was running fast again. I installed this at the same time I installed Vista on my comp so I originally thought it was Vista that was causing my internet to lag..but nope..it was the firewall.
So far so good... 
2007-08-26
I was very hesitant to install this suite on one of my computers. It was previously running "Freedom" from Adelphia and since Time-Warner bought them out and Comcast aswell, they switched A/V suites (they are free to TW Cable subscribers). While Freedom wasn't the best, it worked and had some nice extras. A month or so ago Freedom stopped updating, and said the license was expired. I did not want to install CA Internet Security Suite because of all the negative reviewes I've read here and on other sites. Well recently I decided for the heck of it to install it on said machine. Installed all portions of the application and it is working fine. I had to call a TW tech to get the link to install this and I mentioned all the bad reviews I had read, the tech told me there is a whole new version up mainly because the older one would not work correctly with Vista and they were getting complaints, which was sent off to the company. So I figured what the heck, removed Freedom and installed this. It's been running for over a day now with zero problems. It doesn't slow down my machine, I did monitor the previously mentioned file "ITMRTSVC.exe" from the Task Manager. And while I have some other programs running in the background, this file is not eatting any resources up. Upon installation it does disable the Windows Firewall and states it will turn it back on upon uninstall. I've played several online games with it running and I see no slow downs. Hitting the About tab states it is Product Version 3.2.1.14, CA Anti-Virus 8.4.0.24, CA Anti-Spyware 9.1.0.18, CA Personal Firewall 9.1.0.33 & CA Anti-Spam 5.1.17.0. I am running this on WinXP Home all updated. I ran a scan of an 80GB IDE, a 160GB IDE and 2x 120GBs SATA in RAID 0 array hard drives and it went very quickly. So far it works better then I expected. Lots of people have said not to use it's firewall, but I installed it and it has not given me any problems. So 4 stars as it could have some more features but overall it seems okay.
Stay away fron this software 2007-07-24
I've been in IT for 11 years and I have never had the issues I've had with this software. It has a component ITMRTSVC.exe that has practically burned up my processors because it runs at 60 to 90% cpu usage.
this works like a charm. worth a try 2007-07-10
I installed this on my PC and had no issue with installation, was able to get it running in just 15 minutes. Spyware scanning is very cool, it detected spywares which were residing on my machine from years which other spyware softwares couldn't detect.
So bad that won't dare buying CA product again 2008-05-26
I have used previous versions of CA firewall and they were good. This version is a nightmare of user interface. Its sluggishly slow and on top of it I just can't make it work other than to lock out everything. I am a geek and still can't make it do flexible stuff, can't imagine for an average user!! Stay out
CA Internet Security Suite 2007 - 3 User 2007-12-27
Very good protection and does not bog down the computer as much as some virus software does and does not have that invasive annoying popup window that some virus software has
hens4 2007-12-12
I read reviews on this product.I purchased it with any way and thought I would see if that many problems where there.I have had no problem with this and it installed perfect.I had CA anti-virus with my DSL for about 2 years with no problems.
Worst product ever - Negative 5 stars!! 2007-11-26
This is the worst software I have ever used! First, I got about 15 virus' while using the program that totally disabled my computer. After I had to go to outside help, I was finally up and running again only to discover that I could not connect to the internet throught MSN. I contacted my provider and figured out the the firewall was preventing access. We disbled the firewall (since I couldn't tell it that MSN was ok no matter which level of security I chose) and it worked just fine. I went back to McAfee through my provider and have had no problems since. I deleted the antivirus and antispyware from the CA suite, however the firewall software will not remove and I cannot remove the actual CA software from my system. It says I don't have suffient right to do this. Now each time I turn my computer on I have to manually disable the firewall from CA. This is a pain and I hope my license expires really soon!! This is terrible software that I DO NOT recommend to anyone!
Worst virus I've ever had on my PC 2007-11-07
I agree with the bad reviews here, and wish minus ratings were allowed. I've never before had a virus so destructive and hard to get rid of. My PC was stable for years when I upgraded to CA Security Suite (CASS) for free from San Diego Road Runner. As soon as installation was complete:
THE GOOD
The interface looks nice. It caught a lot of spyware that the previous iteration of CA Security had missed.
THE BAD
- I lost internet connectivity. That took about a full day to come up with a workaround (cold boot the cable modem).
- When I got partial internet connectivity, the computer hung frequently, or I lost connectivity periodically.
- Full and stable connectivity wasn't restored until I uninstalled CASS.
- The computer hung even in standalone work, like opening two Word documents. CASS is a resource hog, on a par or worse than Rhapsody.
- Cookies were destroyed almost as fast as created. That means I had to log in with passwords for most of the internet sites. Who remembers dozens of passwords and user names?
- My Outlook Express stopped working. RR support told me how to reset the password, which worked for incoming mail, but not the pop-server. Repeated calls to RR support didn't cure this.
- My PC became slooooow.
- With CASS on it, Windows XP often didn't come up. I'd have to boot up in protected mode, shut down, and restart...sometimes two or three times.
- CA has no email or chat room support from their site. I gave up on phone support after hours of retrying and waiting.
THE UGLY
- There is no UNINSTALL function with CASS. Attempting to uninstall using the Windows Control Panel generated an E9011 error and a suggestion that I log in as administrator. On a standalone PC? It took another day to figure out how to log in as administrator.
- When logged in as administrator, Control Panel Uninstall only removed a few components of CASS. Those components and others deleted manually (I decided to worry about a messed up register later) were promptly reinstalled automatically by CA.
- In Protected Mode as administrator, I removed all that I could find in the windows/programs/CA tree and elsewhere.
- Upon reboot, CA reinstalled CA Personal Firewall. I've already installed ZoneAlarm Security Suite which included a firewall.
- Its been almost a week, most of it in front of my PC, trying to kill that last CA Personal Firewall-install-demon lurking in my once beloved computer.
- My PC now has a very different look and feel, and I'm about $80 poorer from buying all that Zone Alarm offered.
I'm outraged that CA could take over my personal PC like that, do so much damage, and not allow itself to be uninstalled.
If you install this on your PC, you may not have the many problems I've had, but why take the chance? I've got a hunch that the people who like CASS have the latest and fastest PC so they don't notice the slowdown, and they may have gotten lucky and set the CASS switches differently than I did, but the instructions and implications when installing aren't that clear. Once it's installed, you're stuck with it. I doubt that many would persevere getting rid of it like I have. The only alternative is to wipe your PC and start again, or have a costly Microsoft Certified technician try to clean up the mess.
Beware, you have been warned.
