By sticking with the same intuitive management console, the latest version of Computer Associates' (CA) antivirus software remains notably easy to use, and has increased its coverage by adding new virus-scanning capabilities for PDAs, plug-ins for a variety of gateways, and protection options for Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes/Domino. You also get remote browser access and the option to designate secondary signature servers, which clients will use if the primary distribution server fails.

Installation is simple and a remote-deploy utility is provided for Windows NT 4, 2000, XP and 2003 systems. A discovery routine scans selected subnets and displays all systems with the anti-virus software installed, and you can use containers to group them to represent different areas of the network. However, we found that the online Help files and general documentation weren't particularly helpful.

Policy-based protection makes light work of administration, as you create sets of rules that determine scanning behaviour, reactions to infections, and apply them to selected groups. Lists of banned file extensions may also be created, to automatically remove attachments even if they are not infected.

For remote management via a Web browser, an extra service may be selected and installed on the main server along with the main product. Virtual directories on the Web server are created automatically and the only prerequisite is installing the Java Runtime Environment. This offers an identical interface to the local administrator utility so it's just as easy to use. You can also access the server's on-demand scanner. However, you can't remotely monitor signature download progress and it doesn't support the creation of Exchange and Notes email policies.

When creating rules for the real-time and on-demand scanner, you're able to choose between InnoculateIT and Vet engines. Once again, the documentation doesn't offer any insight into choosing the best one, although we recommend selecting the more powerful InnoculateIT engine, as Vet is used by CA's EZ Antivirus budget-priced personal software. There are plenty of other options for extending control over workstations. You can lock down local scanner settings to stop users from fiddling with them, and a useful quarantine feature allows you to log off users who try to copy an infected file to a server.
The primary server takes signature downloads directly from CA's FTP site, but it's also possible to specify secondary sources such as local FTP servers or a shared directory on other systems. With viruses now proliferating at an alarming rate, you need to keep your software up to date, and the main download can be scheduled to run as often as once a minute. So, as long as CA stays on the ball, you'll be able to catch the latest outbreak before it does any damage.