Sophos Home: Totally free antivirus for home

Cortex

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Aug 4, 2016
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Is Sophos's performance on those testing sites impressive?

Can't find any latest test on AV-Test and AV-Comparatives

Frankly AV-Test and AV-Comparatives are not the be and end all - There are a few tests on You Tube, but at the end of the day I still think Sophos is worth trying esp. if the licence is free - In 22 + years of using MS Windows I have yet to have a virus at large so I'll take my chances & with multiple images & backups I can take my chances. Personally, Sophos seems pretty good bar for the points I have mentioned, though it is quite new. :)
 
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oldschool

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Mar 29, 2018
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I used the Free version until just when they brought out the Premium version. Great web protection, lightweight and fine for average safe user. I don't doubt they're keeping some of the Premium version quality in the Free one. @mekelek , @Gandalf_The_Grey, and other experienced members speak highly of the full suite. TPSC youtube channel was quite impressed. @Gandalf_The_Grey even got Commodo Firewall to work with it (by default it relies on WF). Other videos are older. It just depends if you want paid or free. Should thread name be changed since there are now two versions.
 

amico81

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but the free version doesn't have advanced real time protection
[Protects against new and developing viruses, malware, potentially unwanted apps (PUAs), and program exploits to prevent infection from the latest threats]

so my question: how important is that feature? Is this a big drawback against zero day malware?
 

Gandalf_The_Grey

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Apr 24, 2016
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I used the Free version until just when they brought out the Premium version. Great web protection, lightweight and fine for average safe user. I don't doubt they're keeping some of the Premium version quality in the Free one. @mekelek , @Gandalf_The_Grey, and other experienced members speak highly of the full suite. TPSC youtube channel was quite impressed. @Gandalf_The_Grey even got Commodo Firewall to work with it (by default it relies on WF). Other videos are older. It just depends if you want paid or free. Should thread name be changed since there are now two versions.
That was @ZeroDay not me. I only (and not very long) tried SHP when it was still in beta...
 

Gandalf_The_Grey

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I stand corrected. Thank you my friend! And I see @ZeroDay beat me to the punch, so you have a great option FREE!
The free version could be a nice alternative to Window Defender both to be combined with CF.
At the moment I still use WD and CF, but WD is a bit heavy on my system.
And the problem with some other free ones like Avast, Bitdefender and Kaspersky is that the use their own certificate to filter HTTPS connections and I absolutely don't want that.
 

vertigo

Level 2
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Mar 18, 2018
75
Well, I briefly tried this, and it was a big waste of time. As others have pointed out, the lack of local management and a quarantine makes this unacceptable as an anti-malware solution. On top of that, the scan it did upon first run didn't find anything, but then when I scanned a test file (not actual malware but a file (SpyShelter's anti-keylogger encryption test tool) that's flagged by many products), it said malware detected and deleted the file. So not only does the system scan not actually scan the system apparently, with no way (that I can see anyway) to change what's scanned, but then when it did detect the file, it simply deleted it with no recourse. Yeah, no thanks. I'll pass on this. And what's just as bad, if not worse, is that people have been stating this as a major issue here for almost three years now, and it hasn't even been addressed by any of the Sophos reps here, much less in the program itself. So while the protection might be great, and the price certainly is if you need to protect multiple computers (not so great for just one or two), it's a non-option for me since they refuse to address the issues despite multiple complaints about them.

In addition to the problems with the software, I also feel it's important to warn people about the sneaky tactics they're using during registration, which is required to download the trial. While you have to opt-out of receiving marketing email similar to most other registrations, unlike most others the way they have it set up is deceptive. Typically, there's a checkbox for agreeing to receive such marketing, which is checked by default, and so you have to uncheck it to opt-out. While annoying and something I've long disagreed with (I prefer opt-in), it's at least pretty standard and so easy to watch out for. Conversely, Sophos has made it work the opposite, where you CHECK the box to opt OUT, so that at first glance it appears, with it unchecked by default, that they have it set up as default opt-out. This is pretty shady, and gave me a bad impression of them from the very start.
 
F

ForgottenSeer 58943

All of your complaints are addressed in the beta. Maybe check that out?

Also, this is precisely why most firms price their enterprise offerings out of consumer hands, so complaints of 'The installed client doesn't have XYZ settings1111!!' don't flood in.. FYI - all corporate/enterprise offerings have virtually no (or no) settings on the local client. This is by design. You don't want end users toying with your deployments.

The last complaint is really a senseless paragraph. So they do it differently.. :unsure:
 

artek

Level 5
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May 23, 2014
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Are they including the features of intercept or hitman pro alert in the new paid suite? They have a very competitive offering if that's the case.

-edit-

I see that they are. I'm wondering what the performance impact is like. I do remember having issues with HMP.A and gaming. That being said, for what you're paying, you get a lot with their suite.
 

vertigo

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Mar 18, 2018
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All of your complaints are addressed in the beta. Maybe check that out?

Also, this is precisely why most firms price their enterprise offerings out of consumer hands, so complaints of 'The installed client doesn't have XYZ settings1111!!' don't flood in.. FYI - all corporate/enterprise offerings have virtually no (or no) settings on the local client. This is by design. You don't want end users toying with your deployments.

The last complaint is really a senseless paragraph. So they do it differently.. :unsure:

Not really interested in a beta security product. If indeed they've finally added quarantine in the beta, then that's great, but it doesn't do anything for right now, and it only took them 3+ years. Your second paragraph makes no sense. I don't know why you're even mentioning the corporate versions. First of all, corporate versions are priced higher largely because they're a totally different product with different support and different customers. Second, pricing a product out of the range of consumer's hands so consumers can't use the products so they can't "complain" (I see it more as if they want me to pay for a product, the product should have what I need/want) makes absolutely no sense. And I realize that "corporate/enterprise offerings" are designed to limit local control, but this isn't a corporate/enterprise product, it's a home product. So I would expect to have the ability to adjust its settings without requiring internet access and having to log in to an online account. I think having that ability is great actually, but it shouldn't be the only way to manage it.

And you may simply see it as them doing it differently, and may think it's senseless, but many people don't appreciate tactics like that. If it doesn't affect you, that's fine; it's not there for you then. I put it there for people who are bothered by that sort of thing, as well as for the Sophos reps in this thread so they might reconsider how they're handling it.
 
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ForgottenSeer 72227

Does anyone know if the Free version has been improved along with the Premium? Any recent testing by members or others that shows improvement? :unsure:
I've been playing around with the premium beta and it seems like they've addressed a lot of the issues. Quarantine, ML, tamper protection, more up to date HMPA and (at least to me) they have improved on the overall performance. As to the free version, I am not to sure. If anything, I would assume that they will add the quarantine and tamper protection at the very minimum, but I would hazard to guess the ML will probably be premium only, I could be wrong though. I did get an email from Sophos and it looks like they are planning to release the new version towards the end of Jan/early Feb, so I think we will find out soon enough.(y)
 

oldschool

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My micro review -

I took Sophos Home Free for a quick spin today and here is my take. The installer is big and takes time (with my 18 mbps service), otherwise it's a trouble-free process. It's fairly lightweight when browsing normally and it has decent network protection. It lacks the machine learning module of the premium version and its full scans are really slow which spike CPU significantly - 30% on my machine. There are no other scan options. It doesn't invade your privacy and it's free. Paired with another software like VoodooShield or OS Armor it makes a good free setup. It's definitely better than the early free version but I just couldn't justify keeping it in place of Windows Defender.
 

imuade

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Jul 29, 2018
566
My micro review -

I took Sophos Home Free for a quick spin today and here is my take. The installer is big and takes time (with my 18 mbps service), otherwise it's a trouble-free process. It's fairly lightweight when browsing normally and it has decent network protection. It lacks the machine learning module of the premium version and its full scans are really slow which spike CPU significantly - 30% on my machine. There are no other scan options. It doesn't invade your privacy and it's free. Paired with another software like VoodooShield or OS Armor it makes a good free setup. It's definitely better than the early free version but I just couldn't justify keeping it in place of Windows Defender.
Nice review (y)
Is the network protection system-wide, like Forticlient's? Is it as effective? Thanks :)
 

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