Advice Request Sophos Home Premium is now on my main PC!

[Al-Faqir]

Hello members! Today I have done a clean install of Windows 10 Pro and I installed Sophos Home Premium instead of KIS. To be honest, it took me days to decide to take this step. Although I am happy with KIS, I wanted to change for the sake of change. I instantly installed SHP after I finished installing the system drivers. This gives me the opportunity to see how Sophos notifications work. The first notification was strange; Sophos warned me about an unknown usb keyboard is connected and asked me whether to allow it or not. I allowed the keyboard but was shocked to know that the keyboard stopped working. Sophos started the first system scan which caused a significant system impact. After I restarted the system, the keyboard is working again and the system is very responsive. I have to admit that KIS feels a little bit lighter, at least on my system. The full system scan took only 4 mins and this is very good. Actually I did not the way sophos updates its signatures. It just checks for updates and tells you nothing after that. No progress bar is shown.

Each time I open Firefox or Edge, I get a notification from Sophos that the browser is being protected from intruders. This is not the case in Vivaldi as i don't get that notification. But I believe I am still protected.

This is just my first impression on Sophos as I still have not taken any look on the online Dashboard, which I still need to play around with for a while, and settings. I will update the post when I try the product for a few more hours. So far I like Sophos as it has not caused any significant system impact.

 

[Moonhorse]

When i used sophos free premium a month or two ago, website filtering werent working for vivaldi at all

Seems i shouldve reported it to sophos back then already, if this problem still exist.
Web filtering (adult content) werent working very smooth on chrome/firefox anyways, no idea about how phishing/ malware filter does

Edit: i can actually write up message to their customer support tomorrow, if you dont want to bit busy tonight

 

[Al-Faqir]

When i used sophos free premium a month or two ago, website filtering werent working for vivaldi at all

Seems i shouldve reported it to sophos back then already, if this problem still exist.
Web filtering (adult content) werent working very smooth on chrome/firefox anyways, no idea about how phishing/ malware filter does

Thanks for bringing that to attention. I will use it for a few more hours and then surely will I report any problems.

 

[Moonhorse]

Thanks for bringing that to attention. I will use it for a few more hours and then surely will I report any problems.

I have reported this issue to sophos customer support now.

I think im gonna test this product again tomorrow, with comodo firewall

 

[Deleted Member 3a5v73x]

Actually I did not the way sophos updates its signatures. It just checks for updates and tells you nothing after that. No progress bar is shown.

All updates/upgrades are done automatically in the background, if some major module is updated, you will get an notification to perform a system restart.

There's a lot more to get started with so I'd suggest to read "Configuration and Settings" as well as "Resolving Technical Issues" articles to have better understanding. Configuring Sophos Home – Sophos Home Help. If you still face some problems or look for more interesting information, take a look at Q&A - Sophos Home Premium? Also, Sophos Home Premium do not support Vivaldi browser and so exploit protection won't work.

 

[Moonhorse]

@davisd is it stated somewhere they wont add support to vivaldi browser?

Since vivaldi is growing fast and it has big customer base

 

[Deleted Member 3a5v73x]

@davisd is it stated somewhere they wont add support to vivaldi browser?

Since vivaldi is growing fast and it has big customer base

It is added to suggestion list, but no ETA.

 

[TheJokerz]

When I tried it when they first came out, it made my browsers extreamly slow and unresponsive at times. And have not used sense.

 

[Moonhorse]

@davisd Cheers, thanks

@Al-Faqir should be using other browser, meanwhile?

 

[oldschool]

I used to use Sophos Home Free and when they rolled out the Premium edition I got upgraded to the 30 day trial. I reverted back to SH Free right away since my config. was all set. I always liked the Free version but it doesn’t get any love here on MT. SHP is well liked here by some folks though.

 

[Al-Faqir]

When I tried it when they first came out, it made my browsers extreamly slow and unresponsive at times. And have not used sense.

Yes, it does slow down the supported browsers. In my case, Microsoft Edge and Firefox. Significant slowdowns unfortunately!

 

[Al-Faqir]

Does anyone know how sophos web filter work? I thought it was similar to Eset's. Eset does scan all web traffic so it does not matter what browser you are using. This does not seem the case with Sophos.

 

[Al-Faqir]

After some hours, I still feel slowdowns from time to time. Firefox and edge are very slow even on startup. Sophos slowed down Windows startup a little bit. I cloud not use my PC normally when Sophos was scanning my external hdd. KIS is definitely lighter. Another point to bring to attention is Sophos does not block the testing phishing page from (amtso.org) even on Firefox and edge. Sophos does pass other security features test from the same site but only after download finishes. Sophos anti-phishihg started to worry me.

 

[ForgottenSeer 58943]

SHP in it's current phase shouldn't slow a system to any noticeable level, and I find it speedier than KIS to be honest.

I wouldn't worry about Sopho's in the web protection department, it's top tier by a longshot, and every bit as equal to Fortiguard/Kaspersky in heuristic detection of malicious web activity. SHP is a nice product IMO, one that I still routinely recommend. Once all of the protection models are factored, it's more than sufficient protection for most people. Also due to the active and passive caching, any system impact will reduce over the next 48 hours of running it in my experience.

 

[Ink]

Only used Sophos Home when it was first released, this was a long time before the Premium tier.

 

[kev216]

I used to use Sophos Home Free and when they rolled out the Premium edition I got upgraded to the 30 day trial. I reverted back to SH Free right away since my config. was all set. I always liked the Free version but it doesn’t get any love here on MT. SHP is well liked here by some folks though.

It does get love from me
I also reverted back with the trial. The free version is all I need. Using the free version for two years now on my main machine and I have no complains about it. It detected some stuff it needs to detect and kept my system clean since then. I tried much AV products, but Sophos Home Free is the one that works for me.

@Al-Faqir anti-exploit does not work yet for Vivaldi, however the web protection is fully working. If you go to a malicious site, Sophos will give you a nice alert in Vivaldi, just like in every other browser.

 

[Deleted Member 3a5v73x]

Does anyone know how sophos web filter work? I thought it was similar to Eset's. Eset does scan all web traffic so it does not matter what browser you are using. This does not seem the case with Sophos.

The web filtering feature on Sophos Home works by intercepting all website requests from browsers and then that website url is sent to SophosLabs, then Sophos returns a website category for the url and then that category is compared to the web control policy that was set in the web filtering page. Compatible web browsers, are: Microsoft Internet Expolorer 10 or later, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari.

Traffic scanning scans in&out connections to your system, by default ports 80(HTTP) and 443(HTTPS) are scanned, if you allow other ports to be open, then they are scanned as well.

Another point to bring to attention is Sophos does not block the testing phishing page from (amtso.org) even on Firefox and edge.

Feature Settings Check – Phishing Page – AMTSO is currently detected by Sophos enterprise solutions. For me SHP passes 5/6 Security Features Check – AMTSO tests, except phishing one.

After some hours, I still feel slowdowns from time to time. Firefox and edge are very slow even on startup. Sophos slowed down Windows startup a little bit. I cloud not use my PC normally when Sophos was scanning my external hdd.

It's normal if system feels a bit heavy after installing SHP, it does caching internally in the software in various logging and online connections. (passive and active as mentioned by @ForgottenSeer 58943 ) But It could be a day, it could be an hour or multiple days before SHP and resource usage settles down, It matters on how the computer user uses the computer, eventually it will by learning your software.

 

[oldschool]

@kev216 - good to hear if I ever decide to drop WD.

 

[ForgottenSeer 58943]

I have nothing but good things to say about Sophos. Either the free or premium, I like them both. Support is very solid. Protection is better than the Cylance shills claim. It's a product I do not hesitate to recommend people try out and see if it works for them.

 

[Al-Faqir]

@ForgottenSeer 58943 @davisd Thank you for the clarification. I do understand the point of caching but, does it have anything to do with slowing down the browsing in both Firefox and Edge. This is very hard to live with. To a great extent it is a deal breaker for me.