 Simply Impressive All-Around Security |
| Review Date: August 16, 2008 |
| Reviewer: S. Barnes, Philadelphia, PA USA |
As background, I've used quite a few internet security suites: ZoneAlarm, Norton, McAfee, OneCare, and previous Kaspersky products. With Kaspersky, I've come to expect a product that is top-tier for protection, but requires some technical understanding to configure. Its actually why I stopped using the previous version - While I have a technical background, I really don't want to spend my time on a computer configuring the security software, I want to use the PC.
Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 is a complete change, and even manages to improve the protection in the process. First, the Automatic Mode (where Kaspersky takes care of new applications, internet connections, etc.) is now worth using in my opinion. This takes a lot of the "manual" work out of the picture.
Kaspersky licensed technology from Bit9 in this release for whitelisting. Whitelisting is using a list of "known good" applications that can be trusted to go to the internet. For example, Microsoft's Internet Explorer is a known piece of software, so it can be trusted. For applications not on the whitelist, the software determines from its actions if it may be malicious, and categorizes them as such (and therefore, pays more attention to them). What does this mean for you? Less overhead using applications it knows it can trust - Faster browsing, using your PC, etc.
Finally, the last addition that I think is perfect is the security analysis it performs during full scans. Besides checking for viruses, malware, etc., it also checks your applications to see if there are known, patchable vulnerabilities. One of the most prevalent ways bad stuff gets on your PC these days is through unpatched "holes" in software. Kaspersky will alert you to these holes, so you can patch them before someone can get to your computer. An ounce of prevention being better than a pound of cure, so to speak (although with Kaspersky, you get both).
I have no noticeable slowdown on my machine, the product is using less than 25MB of RAM presently, and I know I have one of the best security products protecting my data. I highly recommend this product! |
So happy I had to comment
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| Review Date: September 9, 2008 |
| Reviewer: An Architect, |
Starting originally with Norton Internet Security I've been through recent versions of just about every popular programs out there: McCafee, System Works (with some other thing added to it), Bitdefender, Trend Micro PcCillin. The complaints from me are always the same: Too intrusive! These people just don't understand that my business and life don't revolve around maintaining my computer. They hang up the system at inconvenient times. They pop up annoyingly when I'm in the middle of something. The auto update has to be totally turned off because it is constantly taking over computer resources. Everything runs slow as molasses while the security program is loaded. System start up takes forever.
Reading reviews, I discovered that the NEW Norton Internet Security had been redesigned and was no longer the memory hog I had experienced earlier. But there were other reasons why I hated Norton IS: First, it would only protect 1 computer and I have 3, whereas other companies are reasonable about the fact that one owner should not have to pay full license fee for both desktop and laptops (I think Norton may now have met the competition on this). Second, instead of giving you a reduced price for an upgrade, Norton has this scam where you pay full price and then have to spend an hour filling in rebate forms, copying the bars on the side and the receipt. To top it off, Norton denied my last rebate after giving me very little time to turn it in and I missed their deadline by a few days (Believe me, I was more irate over the time lost than the money and they lost themselves a customer!) Lastly, I went to Norton's website to see if the SPAM protection was compatible with Thunderbird (one of the most common email programs), and could find no technical information whatsoever -- just sales fluff (I had already been burned on Trend Micro because they claimed to support Thunderbird, but did not support it for SPAM protection -- in fact, with Trend Micro you get no SPAM protection whatsoever unless you use Outlook).
Enter Kaspersky Internet 2009. The first thing I found is that it took almost as little memory as the new Norton IS. It certainly takes less than any of the other IS programs I had used. The second was that their website was quite informative and told me clearly that I would get the Kaspersky toolbar in Thunderbird as well as Outlook (To be sure I downloaded a free trial version and yes, SPAM filtering worked fine in Thunderbird.) Third, it protects three computers for a very reasonble price (and at Best Buy there was a terrific sale which required no time consuming rebate nonsense).
Now, I'm running it like a breath of fresh air. The hourly auto updates are not too intrusive, but if they bother you, it's easy to schedule exactly when you want them (mine are for 2am daily). There seems to be little hesitation when the system loads and no intrusion into my daily work. If it detects an intrusion or virus it lets you know, otherwise the only thing you see is when you first start a new program: a small screen briefly comes up in the left lower corner to let you know that a program is starting and how they classified it. Another reviewer mentioned the "white list" and "black list". These are accessed easily (at least in Thunderbird) by clicking on the Kaspersky icon which is installed in the TBird interface. The console screen which controls Kaspersky is very well organized and easy to understand. They provide a full scan and a quick scan. Both scans seem to get it over with much quicker than other IS programs. I appreciate the fact that, unlike other programs, Kaspersky doesn't scream and yell and pop up warnings because you don't run the full scan whenever it thinks you should, as some programs do (Don't they understand that I'm looking up information for a client on the phone and the last thing I want to do is make them wait a half hour for my IS program to do some thing that can wait til later?)
I highly recommend this program. |
Works very well on 64-bit system
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| Review Date: August 19, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Hideki Saito, Issaquah, WA, USA |
I use Vista 64-bit system, and Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 works very well on it.
Firewall is well configurable, and comes with some advanced features, like packet scanner, as well as virtual keyboard. Spam protection comes with Mozilla Thunderbird support, which is relatively rare.
I've used F-Secure, ESET Smart Security, and numerous other, and while Kaspersky may not be highest in score in some aspect of it, but it is certainly well balanced. (Don't think too much into those scoring, they are affected very much by a lot of factors...) |
Free from Norton at last!
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| Review Date: September 30, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Pete, New England, USA |
I bought Kaspersky in desperation after endless problems with Norton. My Dell-installed Norton ran ok for a while, but then it started flaking out. Tried a reinstall but it would keep claiming my software (original shrink-wrapped official copy) was "beta" and it didn't want to update properly. That was how I discovered that Symantec's help desk is the worst, even by offshore standards. Their only goal was to answer quickly. They'd send me the same uninstall/reinstall procedure, even when I started notes with "Here's what I've tried"! Tried the chat, but the guy forgot me, then when I said "are you stil there?" he realized I'd been on too long for his metrics and disconnected me!
Even though I had time left on Norton, it was time for something else. I found good ratings for Kaspersky vs. Norton and tried a 30 day demo. I had to run tne Norton Uninstall Tool (downloaded from Symantec), then load Kaspersky. Installation was smooth sailing. The first scan was an eye opener -- about 15 vulnerabilities that Norton had not caught. Kaspersky displays a list and a right click takes you straight to the appropriate site for each fix.
Near the end of my trial, I ordered from Amazon which was cheaper than ordering direct. I didn't have to reinstall, just entered the license code on my demo copy and I was good to go. My machine is clean, stable, and maybe even a little faster. Great product! |
Better Than Norton
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| Review Date: July 23, 2009 |
| Reviewer: M. Garcia, Boston, MA |
After having my Norton Antivirus expire recently, I was hesitant to renew another year of Norton headaches, decided to try something different and after reading mixed reviews on various Internet Security, I settled on (Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 (3 user). So far so good.
Pros:
Installing this thing was easy compared to other internet security products, I've been a Computer Technician for 7 years and I have tried almost all the Security software in the market today and this one was by far the easiest to install, during this period, very little user interaction is needed, it recognizes all the programs that need internet access and immediately recognizes threats on your PC during installation, also the option to leave Windows Firewall (optional) running along side with no conflicts and the ability for this software to automated hourly updates against the latest threats free, which makes this product the most updated every month, that's important.
Users need to keep in mind that installing/running this product with traces of other security orphan files left behind during the uninstall process with cause conflict and instability, so the best thing to perform first is to remove the old software with the Add/Remove utility in Windows, restart the PC, then head to the Registry (Using the Run Command enter: Regedit) and carefully look for HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\Symantec for example and delete this file or the company you was running, then look for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Symantec Folder and delete it, close out the editor and restart PC, then proceed to install this product.
I performed a system wide scan (Recommended Monthly) rather quickly considering the size of my Hardrive and found 50 worm/trojan items Norton Antivirus never recognize for an entire year, way to go Norton and disinfected them during the scan automatically without my input, Anti-File, Mail, Web and Spam are always scanning the system constantly needing little user interaction never asking how to proceed. I personally like the Parental control feature which limits online time and access to forbidden sites with tracking, good for monitoring children and visitors, (Specially the latter)...lol... The product comes pre-configured, but you can change settings as you wish. Read the Manual (Recommended) to learn more additional tips and features.
I like the fact that it needs the least amount of processor, memory and bandwidth resources of any product I used before, usually these security suites are resource hogs, clogging the system and slow up overall performance, not this product, my computer is performing faster than ever without a hitch, and I'm very pleased.
Conclusion:
Overall a solid Internet Security Suite for 3 computers, Free Technical Support, Hourly Automated Updates, Firewall, Privacy and Parental Control and Impressive System Performance (My Favorite) and a great price (If You Can Get the CashBack Rebate). What else can you ask for? I hope this review helps you, Good Luck. |
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