Sophos Home: Totally free antivirus for home

[Kim at Sophos]

Will Sophos incorporate HitmanPro.Alert into this product?

Sophos Home will be receiving constant improvements over the coming months and years. While it’s not completely certain whether HitmanPro will be incorporated in Sophos Home, I can say that HitmanPro can work in unison with Sophos Home. Other AV products have to be removed before you can install Sophos Home, but not HitmanPro. We’ve specifically designed it so they can work together. And if you want to add an Home XG Firewall to the mix, we are definitely not stopping you!

 

[Kim at Sophos]

Agreed with AzurePhoenix. A Sophos light but deadly suite - XG Firewall, Antivirus, Hitman Pro (where we can enable all or any of the ones we choose) would be wonderful.

Kim, are there any plans in place for a scenario like this? A standalone Sophos antivirus... I think I'll wait for a "Sophos Internet Security" with firewall. I use it on my Android, I hope the (hopefully soon-to-be-built) suite as good on PC.

You can certainly add the Sophos Home XG Firewall to the mix, however, I'm not sure at this point if we have plans for Sophos Home to incorporate UTM and become one integrated product for home use.

 

[Kim at Sophos]

What are its "unique" technologies that somehow make it stand out against other free AVs?

Not many info on the product but it seems it's just a simple antivirus. Anyone has any idea what kind of protection it offers?
I agree with @Azure Phoenix that if they add hitman pro alert within the product it will be powerful but they will probably only add it in their endpoint security software.

I'll update my post to reflect this, but Sophos Home protects with both signature based and signature-less/behavioral-based (zero day) detection (like you see in Sophos Cloud) including on-demand malware scan, on-access malware scan, malicious URL blocking, phishing protection, web filtering, and potentially unwanted app detection. Yes, I'll admit the product looks simple but it's got a lot of firepower behind it.

 

[JKozarac]

Shame for the list of the supported web browsers for the Sophos dashboard.
There is no Opera and Pale Moon.

Of course, thumbs up for the free version of a great AV solution.

 

[Alex at Sophos]

Kim what's the idea behind going into free AV product market?
3 years ago I used Sophos Web Security when it was paid. I went for a trial period, did not pay but impressions were good. Also before that there was a rootkit search tool (free) and virus removal too (free). And I first tried another Sophos antivirus (can't even remember the name) in 2004 or something. Good to see the company is now offering full featured free AV.

Sophos has offered free security tools (like the virsus removal tool, home UTM firewall, etc.) primarily as a means to expand the visibility and awareness of Sophos products and to encourage users to experience what Sophos can do first hand. Our business customers can also improve their security when they protect their employees' personal computers, so we offer the free tools for that as well.

 

[upnorth]

I hoped the sanctions would be gone after the nuclear agreement

Cuba should also hopefully soon be removed from the same restriction/embargo but the wheels turns slow as usual...

 

[jamescv7]

I like the way Sophos have indeed potential and effective in the world of security landscape and having with straightforward free version open to users for having alternatives.

One of the up to date on latest threats especially the blog which matches to the current threats happening today.

 

[Pat MacKnife]

Kim what's the idea behind going into free AV product market?
3 years ago I used Sophos Web Security when it was paid. I went for a trial period, did not pay but impressions were good. Also before that there was a rootkit search tool (free) and virus removal too (free). And I first tried another Sophos antivirus (can't even remember the name) in 2004 or something. Good to see the company is now offering full featured free AV.

A free version will also make publicity for their paid solutions i think ?!
This is now my main AV

 

[ifacedown]

I have been using Sophos Home since it was in Beta. It is by far the best free product I have used, in terms of stability, UI, lightness on resources and protection. I have used free products from Comodo, Avast, Panda, Bitdefender, AVG, Avira and 360 and in my opinion, this is the best. Keep up the great work.

Please do tell us, how do you say that Sophos Home is better than free Comodo, Avast, etc. Please do tell us why. I tried it before but because it has no quarantine I uninstalled it.

 

[XavierGaming]

Please do add a local settings page or dashboard. I find this product quite decent over some free antiviruses, however, this product needs a local settings page or dashboard. By the way, please add the feature to delete logs from the online dashboard.

 

[CySecy825]

One Reason why i don,t use Sophos home is that it will Automate remove threats.

 

[Axelrod Sven]

Supposing I have only one dedicated PC, what Firewall should I use alongside Sophos Antivirus? People say Windows Firewall is good enough, but really... is there anyone here who would hire a Microsoft security guard or Microsoft security software for their bank vaults?

Jokes apart, I like the fact that the XG Firewall is free for home users too. But it requires a dedicated PC... and I need both my laptops for home & work (BYOD).

 

[XavierGaming]

Supposing I have only one dedicated PC, what Firewall should I use alongside Sophos Antivirus? People say Windows Firewall is good enough, but really... is there anyone here who would hire a Microsoft security guard or Microsoft security software for their bank vaults?

Jokes apart, I like the fact that the XG Firewall is free for home users too. But it requires a dedicated PC... and I need both my laptops for home & work (BYOD).

You can try Comodo Firewall if you're advanced enough, if not, you can consult someone here in MT.

 

[blueblackwow65]

Would this work with latest webroot?

 

[Tony Cole]

Sophos wouldn't work on my computer, Chrome kept shutting down, then system would freeze - anyone else had such issues?

 

[Azure]

Does Sophos Home have a website for changelog? Also a lot of people have said the product doesn't have a quarantine, would it be possible to incorporate it?

 

[jmdbox]

Works pretty good here, so far running it for a couple days on windows 10 64-bit.

Edit: As to the above poster with chrome problems, i use chrome and firefox and neither seem to be a problem with Sophos Home here on my system.

 

[Pat MacKnife]

There is an update today to version 1.0.3
No changelog yet.

 

[Windows_Security]

Other AV products have to be removed before you can install Sophos Home, but not HitmanPro. We’ve specifically designed it so they can work together. And if you want to add an Home XG Firewall to the mix, we are definitely not stopping you!

I tried to add Sophos Home XG firewall to the mix on my desktop PC. Now Sophos Home and all my other programs are removed. Windows restore is not working, please advice?

 

[Pat MacKnife]

Hi,
You can always find help on their forum

Sophos Home for Windows - Sophos Home - Sophos Community

Perhaps try to uninstall XG firewall and see what happens ....