Thoughts on ZoneAlarm's / ComputerAssociates's Anti Virus Engine?

Hi All,
First of all I admit I am in no way shape or form an expert on viruses/worms/vulnerabilities or threats. However, I do run ZoneAlarm's AntiVirus (which comes as part of the Internet Security Suite).

I was wondering how effective this peice of software is in comparison to say mcAffee, Symantec's Norton, Nod32, Panda, AVG, etc..

From what I can tell, ZoneAlarm uses licensed technology from Computer Associates, and its Anti Virus is nothing more than one provided by CA and rebranded by ZA. (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong)

According to Secunia, the top clients it recognizes are Norton, McAffee, Sophos, and sometimes Panda. I did not see CA or ZoneAlarm anywehere on my last visit, and on ZoneAlarm's security response, the last major threat they have posted there is Sober.P [Posted on October 5th 2005].

So the basic question here is for any security and/or virus experts out there. How well (if at all) does ZoneAlarm/Computer Associates defend against virus threats?

NOTE: By sheer nature of this topic, it is entirely open to speculation and opinion. I encourage those of you with something interesting to say to step forward, knowing that any meaningful input would certainly be very much appreciated.

I have Rogers cable, here in Ontario, Canada. They have their own browser, which also has CA's anti-virus built into it. After a month of running the browser with the AV enabled, I dumped CA's anti-virus, I'm not impressed.

My browser was crashing to the desktop constantly, and the error was always with CA. Lost the CA part of the browser, no more crashes. I run AVG now, no probs at all.

I'm just not impressed with CA. Norton and Mcafee are notorius for taking over your system, and then they just won't go away.

Tried Kaspersky, then "ATTEMPTED" to uninstall it, what a nightmare! I ended up with two of EVERYTHING on my system, every freakin thing now had a "twin". Twin folders, twin files, shortcuts, the control panel had two of everything, just one huge mess.

Eventually, I had to format, even my restore point, which I made before installing Kaspersky, was the same, two of everything.

I'll stick to the freebies from now on. BTW, I have a hardware firewall built into my router, so that's not an issue to me.

Thanx for the reply.
As you have mentioned Norton and McAffee are notorious for attempting to control everything and taking over your machine. This is one of PLENTY reasons I am avoiding them altogether.
As far as crashes, I have never experienced any with ZA/CA AV. The only thing that I am interested in in some sort of evaluation or comparison of the AV engine that comes with ZA to see how (if at all) effective it is.

Thank you for the input. Please keep it coming folks

Originally posted by Relic:


That browser wouldn't happen to be Internet Explorer would it? Sorry but it don't take much to crash that Peice Of Lard commonly known as Internet Explorer :P

and correct me if I am wrong but in a recent test of the major AV software AVG came in LAST for detection., this is why I avoid that one.
personnaly I run Nortons AV and I am quite happy with it. it is not as much a resource hog as is implied especially when compared to Mcafee.
S

Originally posted by shassouneh:


Of course it was ExpLODER, heh heh heh.
But, since I dumped CA, no probs. I was running FF, but that started crashing, so I dumped it. Besides, there are still a lot of sites I visit that require Exploder, so that would mean having to have 2 browsers.

The rest of Rogers stuff in their browser works, I'm impressed, so I'll keep using it.

Originally posted by thatsteveguy:


I just keep it handy for my email, other than that, I don't worry about viruses.

Killer combo's if you are running windows and want to keep everything save but not bogged down...

Antivirus - try AVAST at www.avast.com... they have a personal edition that is all most average pc users will need. It features a similar auto-update to norton, mcafee, etc. but doesn't suck half the life out of your PC...

Oh and a side note!

DON'T USE NORTON'S New feature to lighten it's load on your pc... you might as well scrap everything!

Firewall - even if you've got a decent router with a hardware firewall, it's not a bad idea to install a software version. I'm using sygate's personal edition (very nice gui), but i just found out that Symantic (norton) bought them out... I am not impressed at all... this really sucks... hopefully the personal edition is still available (do a google search for sygate personal firewall or check www.snapfiles.com)... don't bother trying to find it on their website... Symantech's got it buried...)

Popup blocker... I'm using MyPopupKiller (got it from www.snapfiles.com). There's nothing wrong with IE's version, but this software seems to know when some stuff is okay and other popups aren't better than the rest...

Spyware... I do use lavasoft's ad-aware in combination with Spybot Search and Destroy (make sure you're not getting the other version that you have to pay for!!!)... MS's spyware software is actually a pretty good product! Don't hesitate to try it out if you have XP!

Hope this helps... I've never had any problems with any kind of internet related attacks. As an intranet developer, this is what i recommend to most of my friends/ obviously... have to suggest the licensed copies of Avast, Sygate and Ad-Aware, to any businesses...

Oh wow. Quite a bit of input here. Thanx guys.

Ok well as far as system resources are concerned, ZoneAlarm's Internet Security suite does a fabulous job. I barely even notice its runnign at all. It seems NOTEPAD has a heavier footprint than ZA (lol, an exaggeration I know but still shows a point).

As far as hardware firewall, I am behind a router (Netgear MR814). I figure an extra level of software firewall cannot hurt.

I have had personal experience with Norton products. Ever since 2004 versions of their software, their software has grown to become monsters that take over the machine, have severe problems with stability, prone to "Activation" problems and requiring random re-activation, as long as not un-installing properly and leaving loads of Symantec junk and spam behind. The only Norton product I have true respect for is Norton Ghost 2003. (Ghost 9 was a huge flop which was not even made by Symantec! Noticing a pattern of sloppiness yet?, and it seems from the new activation hassles of ghost 10 that Symantec is losing its reign in this feild).

Anywho, I am still open to any input, especially that which can offer some insight into the ZoneAlarm and/or CA AntiViral engines. Has anyone been able to confirm 100% that ZA AntiVirus = CA AntiVirus?


Originally posted by Relic:


Have you tried Opera? I "used" to be a HUGE fan of Mozilla, up until they decided to drop Mozilla Suite (Seamonkey) and go with the annoying Firefox.