CA Security Center Browser Problems

I may or may not have mentioned that I have had problems with my computer after it had been compromised. In an attempt to be a responsible internet surfer, and because Insight Broadband insisted, I have downloaded the free CA Security Center from the Insight website.  Yes they offer it for free to paying customers.  Score.

However, I’ve come to find out… through trial and error and a lot of banging my head against the wall, that my internet experience is not optimal with the CA Security Center default settings running.  To date, I have encountered three separate problems for which I am passing along the answers in hopes that I can own the search term, CA Security WTF? – or something to that effect. 

Here you go:

Downloading For Fun and Profit

If you like to download .exe and .zip files, and let’s face it, who doesn’t these days, then you will need to adjust your inbound E-mail settings.  CA Security Center turns all downloaded .exe and .zip files into .ewf files. If you’re not into .ewf files then you just need to go into your CA Security Center’s personal firewall’s advanced settings, click on E-mail and then turn inbound E-mail protection off. 

Javascript Mayham

This was a fun one that took a particularly large amount of trouble-shooting for some reason… I wasn’t able to access cool javascript functionality like menus on TwitterMass and Edit buttons on my LouisvillePM ning and I uninstalled and reinstalled Firefox, Explorer and Chrome to no avail. It turns out that the CA Security Center’s Ad Pop-up blocker was really putting a damper on the sites that I tend to frequent. The fix is to once again go into your CA Security Center firewall’s advanced settings, this time click on privacy and turn your ad blocking off.

G-Mail Loading Issues

Have you ever tried to log into G-mail and instead of being taken to your account you get to watch the URL stutter while the screen flashes in various shades of white, only to receive some sort of cryptic error message after a five minute wait?  If you have your CA Security Center cookie control on high then you know what I’m talking about… To fix this problem, simply go back into the CA Security Center firewall’s advanced settings, click on privacy and set your cookie control to medium or lower depending on your comfort zone.

That’s it.  Pretty simple when you can go through it without the self doubt involved in thinking that you may still have some sort of malware bot on your machine… It took me a while to figure it all out, so if I can help just one person with this post then it will all have been worth it.

:)

photo by: lizjones112