Sophos Home: Totally free antivirus for home

Moonhorse

Level 37
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May 29, 2018
2,602
Definitely one free AV people have an afterthought of, or overlook. Has come leaps and bounds since I first had an introduction to this software, however I fear for it's future.

~LDogg
I think opposite of their future, for me sophos free seems like top 3 av along with kaspersky + wd even it probably dont score high alone but its perfect software to combo something with, ml as bonus

Their customer support always answers to me ( free user) within hours

They just released intercept x as free mobile antivirus , previously known as sophos av wich has features same as paid ones

I really dont see anyone using freemium version of home premium anywhere, but they profit enough from enterprises and they also have hmp + hmpa to profit from

Cant see it just randomly dying after its only been improved from past, 30-50% sales from paid version being offered all the time ..though anything can happen
 

Pat MacKnife

Level 15
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Jul 14, 2015
725
Update for Sophos Home 2.1.9


 
Last edited:

oldschool

Level 81
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Mar 29, 2018
7,044
Last edited:

woodrowbone

Level 10
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Dec 24, 2011
480
Hi guys, after reading this thread I decided to take the Home version for a spin again.
I did test it when they released it, but back then it was not mature enough in any way as far as I am concerned.

As many of us in here admins friends and family, it is always a good thing having a web console.
Sophos console works, but after I did use the former free business version of Avast I am rather spoiled by that web console.

The app itself (using the paid trial at the moment), I have to crown it world champion in using many processes (20) and consuming memory (around 400MB!)

I am testing the protection right now, and it takes time to remove a malware pack of around 400 files, in fact I had time to write this in the meantime, and I am a slow typer... ;) and there is still more then a hundred left to remove.
Compared to the fastest in removing malware I have tested recently (Immunet!), this is soooo slow.
Immunet did the same pack in under 2 sec! It left 3 files that in the end CFW/CS had to take care of, but still.

10 min later, still 67 files to go, but hang on, we will get there :)
Ehh, wait! It was actually done with realtime scanning, it left 67 files.
I did a manual scan as well, but still 67 pieces left.

Time to execute!
It seems Sophos did something with almost all the files left (cleaned), a couple of them did run normally and CFW took care of them as Sophos did nothing.
I will continue as soon as I get some fresh samples to test, as this felt a bit inconclusive in the end.

Bare in mind that this test is done by a non professional, and does only reflect my personal opinion.

Malware provided by TestMyAV.

/W
 
Last edited:

blackice

Level 38
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Apr 1, 2019
2,731
Hi guys, after reading this thread I decided to take the Home version for a spin again.
I did test it when they released it, but back then it was not mature enough in any way as far as I am concerned.

As many of us in here admins friends and family, it is always a good thing having a web console.
Sophos console works, but after I did use the former free business version of Avast I am rather spoiled by that web console.

The app itself (using the paid trial at the moment), I have to crown it world champion in using many processes (20) and consuming memory (around 400MB!)

I am testing the protection right now, and it takes time to remove a malware pack of around 400 files, in fact I had time to write this in the meantime, and I am a slow typer... ;) and there is still more then a hundred left to remove.
Compared to the fastest in removing malware I have tested recently (Immunet!), this is soooo slow.
Immunet did the same pack in under 2 sec! It left 3 files that in the end CFW/CS had to take care of, but still.

10 min later, still 67 files to go, but hang on, we will get there :)
Ehh, wait! It was actually done with realtime scanning, it left 67 files.
I did a manual scan as well, but still 67 pieces left.

Time to execute!
It seems Sophos did something with almost all the files left (cleaned), a couple of them did run normally and CFW took care of them as Sophos did nothing.
I will continue as soon as I get some fresh samples to test, as this felt a bit inconclusive in the end.

Bare in mind that this test is done by a non professional, and does only reflect my personal opinion.

Malware provided by TestMyAV.

/W

This
Thankfully most people don’t need their AV to scan and remove that many malware files at once. Thanks for sharing your results.
 

oldschool

Level 81
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Mar 29, 2018
7,044
Update for Sophos Home 2.1.9



I tried it again yesterday to check it out and my machine slowed noticeably. I found install time about the same as all earlier versions and its initial scan is faster than I remember. Yes, it has many more processes than the original Sophos Free version. I don't mind the memory usage but surfing was slow and overall performance bogged my laptop. I really want to like Sophos but ...
 

Moonhorse

Level 37
Verified
Top Poster
Content Creator
Well-known
May 29, 2018
2,602
On freemium version i have 18 processes ( memory usage of around 80mb) been working whole day on pc and ran few scans even

I can say that it runs as smooth as kaspersky cloud free on my pc, takes less resources than wd to scan
 

blackice

Level 38
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Apr 1, 2019
2,731
I tried it again yesterday to check it out and my machine slowed noticeably. I found install time about the same as all earlier versions and its initial scan is faster than I remember. Yes, it has many more processes than the original Sophos Free version. I don't mind the memory usage but surfing was slow and overall performance bogged my laptop. I really want to like Sophos but ...
Previously the Home Premium version would run slow initially until it had scanned through everything and checked the cloud, then it would run lightning quick on my machine.
 

oldschool

Level 81
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Mar 29, 2018
7,044
Previously the Home Premium version would run slow initially until it had scanned through everything and checked the cloud, then it would run lightning quick on my machine.

Yes, I remember previous reports of this nature. I am currently running TinyWall Beta and I couldn't whitelist it, as much as I tried. These two issues were just too much for me.
 

LDogg

Level 33
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
May 4, 2018
2,261
I think opposite of their future, for me sophos free seems like top 3 av along with kaspersky + wd even it probably dont score high alone but its perfect software to combo something with, ml as bonus

Their customer support always answers to me ( free user) within hours

They just released intercept x as free mobile antivirus , previously known as sophos av wich has features same as paid ones

I really dont see anyone using freemium version of home premium anywhere, but they profit enough from enterprises and they also have hmp + hmpa to profit from

Cant see it just randomly dying after its only been improved from past, 30-50% sales from paid version being offered all the time ..though anything can happen
What I mean't by this post wa sthe fact that Sophos was being taken over by another firm, as I fear for it's future, when the takeover happens, if this business doesn't get a decent amount of profit they'll sell the company, even before than could do major cost cutting measures.

~LDogg
 

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