Battle Alternative Required. Kaspersky Internet Security vs...?

[superleeds27]

Hi all.

I'm looking for something alternative to KIS. With the latest web browsing issue that wont be fixed for up to ~4 weeks, and the issue with it destroying all my email attachments around 9-12 months ago I'm on the look out for something else.

I've been looking on here at the threads, the videos, the comparisons and I cant make my mind up!

What's everyone else's thoughts?

Firewall included would preferred, unless there's a reason it's not needed?

Thanks in advance

 

[superleeds27]

Sorry to intrude, but just for information.

The problem about Web Browsing relating to Kaspersky (if it is the same problem I am thinking of - ERR_HTTP2_PROTOCOL_ERROR) will soon be fixed.

The issue that is occurring is already known to the Kaspersky staff, and the entire development and support team are working on fixing it.

The issue will be resolved with patch 'h', which is scheduled for gradual release from January 31st until February 14th.

Meanwhile, you can alternatively add the problematic sites to the exclusions under Settings → Network settings → Trusted addresses → Add.

Yeah I'd seen that and that's what's kind of left me a little annoyed.

There's a fair few sites that have issues,

• we can't expect to whitelist each one, on the 5 devices I have it's a chore/annoyance
• Kaspersky haven't published information anywhere other than their forum about this - what happens to the non tech folk who have no idea this is an AV issue. The error message screams website down/moved/disappeared more than it does a 'glitch' with the AV. - Could cause major complications to business oweners.
• Why the wait of 2-4 weeks to release the fix? Surely, just push a quick hotfix?
• One of the sites that was blocked, now works, how? if no fix has been pushed?

It all seems a bit backwards? Like I say, that along with the issue i had a while back with Email attachments in Outlook being renamed - .pdf to .pd_ etc, then the safe kids issue (I didn't personally have this but was aware of people who did) Kind feels like it's becoming less reliable?

Sorry for the rant! Just think it's time maybe for something else!? - As much as I do like Kaspersky!

 

[superleeds27]

Out of all your requirements, BitDefender is your choice:

1. It's light (one of the lightest there is, it's not heavy as it was in the past)
2. It's smart and efficient (doesn't need the user, it's sophisticated and sensitive, reactive to all malware, including newest)
3. It's ransomware-proof (include ransomware rollback module in case any file was affected)
4. It has on of the best internet protection modules (its only extension is widely used amongst users of other AVs), great against phishing, malicious sites
5. Has a firewall which works with app reputation
6. Has banking protection, and payment protection, includes VPN

Doesn't have bloatware. Doesn't bother you. Doesn't need you. It just works on its own and it's extremely easy to use.

I may look at this - again - and see if it's any better than it was last time.

 

[Guilhermesene]

Yeah I'd seen that and that's what's kind of left me a little annoyed.

There's a fair few sites that have issues,

• we can't expect to whitelist each one, on the 5 devices I have it's a chore/annoyance
• Kaspersky haven't published information anywhere other than their forum about this - what happens to the non tech folk who have no idea this is an AV issue. The error message screams website down/moved/disappeared more than it does a 'glitch' with the AV. - Could cause major complications to business oweners.
• Why the wait of 2-4 weeks to release the fix? Surely, just push a quick hotfix?
• One of the sites that was blocked, now works, how? if no fix has been pushed?

It all seems a bit backwards? Like I say, that along with the issue i had a while back with Email attachments in Outlook being renamed - .pdf to .pd_ etc, then the safe kids issue (I didn't personally have this but was aware of people who did) Kind feels like it's becoming less reliable?

Sorry for the rant! Just think it's time maybe for something else!? - As much as I do like Kaspersky!

Hi @superleeds27,

I understand that with this problem you are a bit disappointed with Kaspersky, and that is totally normal and understandable now.

But here are some interesting points:

1) I understand that this is exhausting and not very productive, we are sorry and apologize for that.

2) Yes, Kaspersky has not yet spoken out anywhere other than their official forum. But on the other hand, we must understand that not all users may be with this same issue, I speak from experience, the sites I browse on the 'internet' are working normally, perhaps they did not want to “alarm” all users because the fix will be available soon and quietly via update.

3) In computing, it is not as easy as it seems. I am a developer and all software has problems (this happens to everyone… from large companies to small companies). It occurs because software is developed by humans (who are flawed), so software will also fail at some point. Furthermore, fixes need to be tested before they are released to the public because a new failure will generate a negative, worn-out image of sloppiness for the company. Many times the software is patched, and as it involves many variables, it may occur the correction of a certain issue and the appearance of new issues that did not exist before, for this reason, it is justifiable to have more time to deliver the update.

4) This question I also can't answer, maybe it's some incompatibility of the site server with a mechanism used by Kaspersky (I'm not sure about this, just guessing).

See I'm not paid to defend Kaspersky and I fully agree with your frustration, perhaps I would be having the same feelings as yours if I had been suffering from these problems.

I'm just a user and helper of the Kaspersky community (more precisely the Brazilian community), postulating to be a moderator in the Kaspersky official forum.

Kindly note that the answers I've given you here are not 100% guaranteed (I'm not a Kaspersky employee), it's just my view based on my experience as a developer and as a helper of the Kaspersky community.

Anyway, as a helper and candidate moderator, we regret that this is happening and apologize for the situation.

 

[Anthony Qian]

1. BitDefender. Very power behavior detection system (ATD). Almost no performance impact on web browsing performance. Poor cloud-based detection system, resulting in relatively slow response to new undetected malwares. Not very configurable.
2. F-Secure. DeepGuard is also nice. Very light resources usage. Ransomware protection is not so nice. Uses Avira's engine, which is good at PE malware and not good at script malware. Unlike Avira, F-Secure cannot send unknown and suspicious samples to APC for analysis; instead, it can only check suspicious samples' hashes against APC database. No firewall.
3. ESET. No comments.
4. Avira. Can send unknown and suspicious samples to APC for analysis (proactive analysis) and get result in real time. Old engine. No improvements in terms of protection recently. Add infamous cryptominer recently. Bad performance scores based on AV-C. No firewall.
5. Avast. Comprehensive protection. All-in-one. Responsive to new threats that can be identified by Avast's automatic analysis system. Behavior detection is improving. CyberCapture is very weak, and it misses a lot of unknown threats. Slight impact on system performance.
6. Norton. See above for my review.
7. McAfee. Improved a lot overall. Love its UI. Artemis and RealProtect combined offer great protection. Not good at script malware. Laggy even when AppBoost turned on. Very hard to submit False Positive samples. Heavily dependent on internet connection.

 

[Guilhermesene]

3. ESET. No comments.

Just out of curiosity. Is this good or bad?

 

[superleeds27]

Hi @superleeds27,

I understand that with this problem you are a bit disappointed with Kaspersky, and that is totally normal and understandable now.

But here are some interesting points:

1) I understand that this is exhausting and not very productive, we are sorry and apologize for that.

2) Yes, Kaspersky has not yet spoken out anywhere other than their official forum. But on the other hand, we must understand that not all users may be with this same issue, I speak from experience, the sites I browse on the 'internet' are working normally, perhaps they did not want to “alarm” all users because the fix will be available soon and quietly via update.

3) In computing, it is not as easy as it seems. I am a developer and all software has problems (this happens to everyone… from large companies to small companies). It occurs because software is developed by humans (who are flawed), so software will also fail at some point. Furthermore, fixes need to be tested before they are released to the public because a new failure will generate a negative, worn-out image of sloppiness for the company. Many times the software is patched, and as it involves many variables, it may occur the correction of a certain issue and the appearance of new issues that did not exist before, for this reason, it is justifiable to have more time to deliver the update.

4) This question I also can't answer, maybe it's some incompatibility of the site server with a mechanism used by Kaspersky (I'm not sure about this, just guessing).

See I'm not paid to defend Kaspersky and I fully agree with your frustration, perhaps I would be having the same feelings as yours if I had been suffering from these problems.

I'm just a user and helper of the Kaspersky community (more precisely the Brazilian community), postulating to be a moderator in the Kaspersky official forum.

Kindly note that the answers I've given you here are not 100% guaranteed (I'm not a Kaspersky employee), it's just my view based on my experience as a developer and as a helper of the Kaspersky community.

Anyway, as a helper and candidate moderator, we regret that this is happening and apologize for the situation.

Appreciate the response.

 

[Anthony Qian]

Just out of curiosity. Is this good or bad?

Because I had a bad experience with ESET's customer support (malware analysis team), I, personally, would not recommend this product and do not want to comment on it.

 

[superleeds27]

Because I had a bad experience with ESET's customer support (malware analysis team), I, personally, would not recommend this product and do not want to comment on it.

That's fair. Maybe it is Norton I try then

 

[Guilhermesene]

That's fair. Maybe it is Norton I try then

If you really want to change AV then...

In my point of view and based on the performance I've observed on my machine, a strong competitor and very similar to Kaspersky would be Bitdefender and since in your case you want something more automated without much or almost any user interaction, I agree with @RoboMan, my vote would be Bitdefender.

 

[superleeds27]

If you really want to change AV then...

In my point of view and based on the performance I've observed on my machine, a strong competitor and very similar to Kaspersky would be Bitdefender and since in your case you want something more automated without much or almost any user interaction, I agree with @RoboMan, my vote would be Bitdefender.

Too many options and choice and things to take into consideration haha

 

[Guilhermesene]

Too many options and choice and things to take into consideration haha

Observe what will be best on your machine. But, I confess that with Bitdefender, you won't regret it.

 

[RansomwareRemediation]

Because I had a bad experience with ESET's customer support (malware analysis team), I, personally, would not recommend this product and do not want to comment on it.

And your opinion of Kaspersky and Norton? am I curious?
Thank you.

 

[Shadowra]

Because I had a bad experience with ESET's customer support (malware analysis team), I, personally, would not recommend this product and do not want to comment on it.

I'm interested in your bad feedback :/
Personally they always answered me well when I sent :/

 

[Guilhermesene]

Just for information, according to a Kaspersky employee, they are working on additional temporary fixes for the problem while in parallel they are working on a complete solution to the problem

 

[oldschool]

Too many options and choice and things to take into consideration haha

BD is a simple, automatic and powerful AV. Definitely worth a trial to check performance impact on your machines.

 

[superleeds27]

Just for information, according to a Kaspersky employee, they are working on additional temporary fixes for the problem while in parallel they are working on a complete solution to the problem

Just seen that. Surprised they didn't just do that from the off. I get that the h patch fixes a bunch of stuff but a quick fix for the website issues would have made more sense as a stop gap.

 

[Anthony Qian]

I'm interested in your bad feedback :/
Personally they always answered me well when I sent :/

1. I submitted the same undetected phishing site to ESET, Kaspersky (opentip), McAfee (trusted source), and Norton (site review). Mcafee was the first to respond and block this site. Norton and Kaspersky were the second. ESET, however, took more than 12 hours to analyze and this phishing website has become unavailable (dead).
2. I submitted undetected samples (analyzed by Kaspersky malware analysts and proven to be malicious) to ESET many times in the past. But, unfortunately, the malware response team hardly ever replied to my submission. I don’t know whether ESET has analyzed them in the end but I do know ESET does not attach enough importance to users’ submissions.
3. A year ago, I used the customer support form to report some translation errors in the Chinese version. However, the error persists, and I have yet to hear from the customer service personnel.

 

[Anthony Qian]

And your opinion of Kaspersky and Norton? am I curious?
Thank you.

Norton -> see my review at User Feedback - Norton 360 Review
Kaspersky -> Top protection. Nothing to complain about. Love KSN. Slight impact on web browsing experience.

 

[franz]

If you do not have any experience with antivirus programs, then you should not install Kaspersky, it has some problems. Many people get a message that says "Certificate verification problem detected". This is what Kaspersky advised my friend, and he understood nothing. He tried via support, but it became too technical for him so he could not perform what he was told to do. He then received this message by email.

1) Close Firefox / Thunderbird 2) Go to Kaspersky Settings -> Network settings -> under 'Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird' select 'Use Mozilla certificate store' -> click 'Save' to apply the change in settings 3) Open Firefox / Thunderbird 4) Close Firefox / Thunderbird 5) Go to Kaspersky Settings -> Network settings -> under 'Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird' select 'Use Windows certificate store (recommended)' -> click 'Save' to apply the change 6) Restart PC

 

[superleeds27]

why are you just not follow the instructions supplied by Kaspersky on that community board to whitelist the sites that are throwing the error until the fix is released?
Kaspersky getting a fix out within 60 or so days, considering the holiday season many staff took vacation, is as good as it gets, none of the other av you are considering switching to does it better, nobody stops the clock to push out immediate fixes within days, not even for critical vulnerabilities, not even for active malicious campaigns, microsoft responded to wannacry it took almost 1 month for a full complete response which rolled out in phases over another month

I've already explained why on this thread. Along with why I'm looking to try something different