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CNET editors' rating:
2.5 stars
OK
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Product summary
The good: eTrust PestPatrol performs fast scans.
The bad: eTrust PestPatrol free trial requires a credit card number first; CA provides confusing documentation and expensive technical support for this app.
The bottom line: eTrust PestPatrol offers fast spyware protection, but you can find better protection with Lavasoft Ad-aware.
Specifications: License qty: 1 user; License type: Complete package; Min Operating system: Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition, Microsoft Windows 2000; ; See full specs
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 02/24/2006
- Released on: 12/10/2004
CA eTrust PestPatrol 5 aggressively scans your PC system for spyware, Trojan horses, and many other software pests. With its easy-to-use interface and extensive configuration options, eTrust PestPatrol is an excellent spyware-protection choice for home or office. However, based on testing done by Download.com, CA eTrust PestPatrol 5 finished at the bottom of our list for removing known spyware, and it was dead last in overall performance. CA eTrust PestPatrol 5 costs $29.95, about what you'd pay for other antispyware apps. For small businesses, reduced-price packages of 5 and 10 copies are also available. The free 30-day demo is a full working version; however, you're asked to provide a lot of personal information, including a credit card number, to take this app for a spin. Privacy issues aside, CA also charges the most we've seen for antispyware live technical support--a whopping $49.95 per incident. That said, Lavasoft Ad-aware, which offers a fully functioning free version, remains our overall recommendation for best antispyware application.
Installation of CA eTrust PestPatrol 5 is a breeze: After downloading the 5.42MB file, just provide your name and e-mail address, and with a single click, eTrust PestPatrol starts scanning your system. As with most antispyware programs, you can select the individual directories you want to scan or choose to scan your entire drive. The eTrust PestPatrol interface is easy to navigate, and it provides clear and useful information about the pests it finds, including links back to details available on PestPatrol's Web site. For example, when eTrust PestPatrol found NavExcel on one of our test machines, it reported what the vendor claims the apps will do ("...provide Internet businesses a better way to market online..."), then categorized the reasons why eTrust PestPatrol recommends quarantine ("Search Hijacker, Adware").
eTrust PestPatrol includes a sophisticated scheduling feature that lets you set up scans in advance so that you can, say, let your system scan while you sleep, and it has separate program modules that detect spyware cookies, scan for key loggers, and perform active scans for pests residing in your system's memory. Even more important, eTrust PestPatrol includes ActiveProtection, monitoring your activities and alerting you whenever suspected spyware attempts to download onto your system. However, ActiveProtection is turned off by default; you have to access Advanced Settings to change that. For most people that's not a problem, but the word advanced scares off some users. Other than a Prevalence Report, wherein other eTrust PestPatrol users contribute the results of their own scans to compile lists of recent spyware, there aren't many notable features.
Continue reading- See more CNET content tagged:
- CA eTrust,
- Computer Associates International Inc.,
- anti-spyware,
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