Who's spying on you? 6 anti-spyware apps tested

Computer Associates eTrust Pest Patrol v5

The anti-spyware application CA has recently added to its eTrust security portfolio is called Pest Patrol. You probably have already heard of Pest Patrol -- it's been around for quite some time. Installation of the Pest Patrol application was very straightforward. While the version that we were sent for the review by CA, had not been "CA-efied", we are sure that the coming released will be branded with the dual moniker. The actual version tested was Pest Patrol Corporate Edition v5. It should also be noted that the machine upon which the application is to be installed needs to have the Microsoft .NET framework pre-installed -- this is freely available from the Microsoft Web site and is approx 20MB in size.

Once the CA package is installed and launched, the first thing it does is check for available online updates -- the one we tested found 41MB of updates. Further configuration is handled very efficiently by the well laid-out user interface with all of the controls at the administrator's fingertips. Administration, like the configuration, is a breeze; in fact, for the administrator who likes apps that are set-and-forget, the Pest Patrol product is marvelous. One great advantage is the system's ability to scan multiple systems on a network from a single centralised system. This is particularly desirable if one has a large multi-node network to administer and clean up.

Pest Patrol has been in this business for quite some time and their product has obviously been developed and matured enough to satisfy most corporate network administrators' needs. It would be very difficult to go past this application for networked scanning of systems for spyware.

  Spyware
  CA eTrust PestPatrol
  F-Secure
  Lavasoft Ad-Aware
  McAfee AntiSpyware
  Trend Micro OfficeScan
  Websense

 Specifications
 How We Tested
 Sample Scenarios
 Editor's choice
 About RMIT
Product eTrust Pest Patrol Anti-Spyware
Price US$39.95/volume discounts
Vendor Computer Associates
Phone 02 9937 0500
Web www.pestpatrol.com
 
Interoperability ½
Designed to work very well in a small-to-medium sized network environment.
Futureproofing ½
Well-designed and developed product with just the right amount of features specifically targeting spyware.
ROI
Very well priced.
Service ½
12 months appears to be the standard warranty with all these applications which is very good for software applications in general.
Rating ½

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Talkback 7 comments

  1. Nastyware - a collective descriptive term... Anonymous -- 16/11/04

    Nastyware - a collective descriptive term...

  2. You obviously have not seen the very recent advice from Pest Patrol, which now is no longer supported, but has been replaced (free of charge to current users) with a new Spyware called "Counterspy". I have had it installed for about a week and a Anonymous -- 20/12/04

    You obviously have not seen the very recent advice from Pest Patrol, which now is no longer supported, but has been replaced (free of charge to current users) with a new Spyware called "Counterspy". I have had it installed for about a week and although I was happy with Pest patrol, Counterspy does have a number of improved features
    Ken Hillier

    1. Spyware John Taylor -- 22/12/05

      Tosh and nonsense, CA are announcing a new version of PestPatrol to be released soon and have incorporated the product into the new Integrated Threat Manager which has both a/v and Anti-Spyware. I sit on the CA Advisory Council as a UK memeber so I should know!) You are not by chance an old PestPatrol Reseller who now sells Counterspy are you Ken? Very cheap swipe at CA Ken, very cheap indeed!

  3. eTrust Pest Patrol contains the virus Win32.Bagle.4.Gen@mm. Everytime the program updates it re-download the same virus. Buyer beware on this application. Anonymous -- 26/12/04

    eTrust Pest Patrol contains the virus Win32.Bagle.4.Gen@mm. Everytime the program updates it re-download the same virus. Buyer beware on this application.

    1. Spyware John Taylor -- 22/12/05

      Yes, and what is more the tooth fairy met with Santa yesterday to discuss leaving a tube of Flouride Toothpaste under the pillow of everyone in the World on Saturday Night! Come on, lets not get silly here. You really think the World's 3rd largest Software Company ships a virus in it's products? hmmm

  4. we use officescan 6.5 in our company and even though i've followed all the steps to make sure that the spyware part of officescan is active, we still get spywares! most notable is those spywares like gator.b, gator.c. i'm the network administrat Anonymous -- 28/02/05

    we use officescan 6.5 in our company and even though i've followed all the steps to make sure that the spyware part of officescan is active, we still get spywares! most notable is those spywares like gator.b, gator.c.

    i'm the network administrator and i'm thinking of dumping officescan for a better one.

  5. readability blind bob -- 27/12/05

    black ink on a dark blue background. Good job!

    AND it never tells me my comment was submitted!

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