KIS 2011 has some problems. If interested, post here and I shall elucidate.

Hi.

Yes, I am interested. I am about to upgrade to KIS 2011 but there are also other Internet Security options :-)

TIA, Franz

Franz Grieser wrote:

Hi.

Yes, I am interested. I am about to upgrade to KIS 2011 but there are also other
Internet Security options :-)

TIA, Franz

--------------------------------------------------

OK, hold on to your hat!

Problems with Kaspersky Internet Security 2011:

Prior to installing KIS 2011, I ran KIS2009. While its user interface left something to be desired and I encountered one or two false positives over the course of 3 years, in general it did quite well in protecting me.

KIS2011, however, has some aggravating problems that have appeared in less than two weeks of operation:

1. While scanning in the background, it will pop up a window that warns that possibly malicious code has been added to a file or program. This has occurred about 4 times, and as far as I can tell all of these warnings have been false. (The second time this occurred, I thoroughly checked, and there had been no change in the flagged program. Sometimes the entire path of the suspect file is given, sometimes not.
One time the warning was for "Setup Application." I have no idea what file KIS was referring to.

2. A window popped up on my wife's computer (but not mine) stating that her computer was trying to connect to a "Public Network." Apparent KIS was referring to connecting to our home's PROTECTED wireless modem.

3. The default setting for detected malicious items is to DELETE the file. Not a good idea if it turns our that the warning was a false positive.

BE SURE TO REVIEW ALL OF THE SETTINGS IN KIS 2011.

4. It is possible to recover a KIS-deleted file, but I could find no mention of how in the Help file. (If you need to know, let me know.)

5. KIS support is virtually worthless. Email support never looks at your written comments, but just sends you canned answers based on what problem you've checked. (Whoops! Not all possibilities are provided and there is no "none of the above.")

On-line chat is not much better, having given me wrong answers.

Telephone support is better, but management apparently has told it that if KIS detects a false positive, it is up to the developer of the mischaracterized file or program to contact
Kaspersky to fix things.

Technical support in USA for home products:
http://support.kaspersky.ru/helpdesk.html?LANG=en
phone: 1-781-503-1820 or 1-866-525-9094
Virus lab: http://support.kaspersky.ru/virlab/helpdesk.html?LANG=en

I'm not an IT expert, so I know next to nothing about all the intricacies of internet security, other than I try to be sensible and don't download or run files that I don't trust. However, I have to say that for the past 6 years or so I only had AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition installed and I've never ever had any problems with viruses. Over that period it did catch a dozen or so viruses and eliminated them. Which always made me wonder, why I should pay a monthly fee for another anti-virus software, if AVG protects me just fine. Now, it could be that my PC is riddled with viruses and might be part of a vast botnet empire and I just don't know about it. However, I have not noticed any performance issues or any other negative consequences. So am I missing anything? Sorry if this sounds very naive.

Thanks Cassius.

Looks like I will stick with KIS 2010 and only renew the subscription. After all I've been very satisfied with the protection.

@Dr.Andrus: AVG Freeware is fine. My son uses it, as does my wife and a friend of ours. But it is only for personal and not for business use. And it is "only" virus protection. KIS and the AVG paid software has also a good spam filter, a desktop firewall (I know that some users say that a firewall is useless or even harmful), spyware protection, etc.

Franz

P.S. Costco had KIS 2011 on sale (& maybe still does) for $20 for a one-year subscription for three home computers.

Here is a link to a recent "PC World" article on paid and free anti-virus software (although I've read uncomplimentary things about earlier versions of Norton.).

www.pcworld.com/article/210589/free_vs_fee_free_and_paid_antivirus_programs_compared.html

Dr Andus wrote:

I'm not an IT expert, so I know next to nothing about all the intricacies of internet
security, other than I try to be sensible and don't download or run files that I don't
trust. However, I have to say that for the past 6 years or so I only had AVG Anti-Virus
Free Edition installed and I've never ever had any problems with viruses. Over that
period it did catch a dozen or so viruses and eliminated them. Which always made me
wonder, why I should pay a monthly fee for another anti-virus software, if AVG
protects me just fine. Now, it could be that my PC is riddled with viruses and might be
part of a vast botnet empire and I just don't know about it. However, I have not noticed
any performance issues or any other negative consequences. So am I missing anything?
Sorry if this sounds very naive.

I have previously used AVG free, and now use Avira free on my home machines. Both are reasonable, as well as many others. In addition to an anti-virus program, you should probably be using a firewall program, like Comodo, if you do not have a firewall already installed, and a malware program, like Malwarebytes. You can probably take many other steps to protect yourself, but these three types of software will take you a long ways towards safe web use.

--Ken

Notebookreview.com also did a review that may be of interest: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5775&review=Best+Antivirus+2010+Buyers+Guide . Its not the most detailed review, but it is useful if you in the market for new AV software.

--Ken

More problems with KS2011. Now on my wife's computer itb has started popping up windows telling her that perfectly good WORD 2000 documents may be dangerous.

Also, KS2011 takes much longer to scan a file than did KS2009.

I'm about to ask for my $$$ back.