Sophos Home: Windows version update 3.3.0

[Zartarra]

Sophos home released a new update.

Improvements and enhancements to the way messages are provided from the Sophos Home user interface

• Added more clear notifications regarding Trial status
• Added new images and wording to toast (popup) messages
• Revamped In product message with a more modern look

Releasenotes at: Windows 3.2.2 - February 8th, 2020.

 

[SumTingWong]

Anyone use this av? Is it light as ESET Nod32?

 

[Kongo]

Anyone use this av? Is it light as ESET Nod32?

Definitely not as light as Eset, but a decent program after all.

 

[ForgottenSeer 89360]

It's a great product if you are willing to pay for the premium version, but the free version is very limited. It only includes antivirus and web blocking in browser. Even the anti-botnet (system-wide web blocking) isn't free. On the good side you have remote management and is quite comprehensive.

If there are any Sophos users, can we have a screenshot of these new notifications?

 

[RoboMan]

I discourage using Sophos Premium if you're looking for lightness. I've tried it in several computers, mid and high-end ones, and the amount of processes and CPU consuming is scary.

 

[ForgottenSeer 89360]

I discourage using Sophos Premium if you're looking for lightness. I've tried it in several computers, mid and high-end ones, and the amount of processes and CPU consuming is scary.

It normally tends to settle down (CPU-activity wise) in few days, but yes. The amount of processes is insane. It's definitely not like others with 4-5 at most.

 

[blackice]

I discourage using Sophos Premium if you're looking for lightness. I've tried it in several computers, mid and high-end ones, and the amount of processes and CPU consuming is scary.

What are the Robot’s alternatives these days for lightness? I tried out Sophos in 2019 and found the system usage died down after a couple days (though I agree about the number of processes). I can’t even remember what the deal breaker was. I’d have to search through the forum, but it wasn’t system usage.

Edit: It looks like it was slowing down Firefox from launching, which wouldn’t really be a dealbreaker anymore. I vaguely remember that. Anything before March 2020 seems like a lifetime ago.

 

[RoboMan]

What are the Robot’s alternatives these days for lightness?

I've tried lots of configurations to achieve best lightness, and so far, I've found these to be the lightest:

1. Kaspersky IS with the following configuration: RoboMan's Light Kaspersky Settings
2. BitDefender IS/TS with "scan only accesed applications" ticked ON

With these configured as mentioned, regular tasks feel like no AV is installed at all. The only difference is browsing is a bit slower, but you can fix that in Kaspersky by disabling "inject a script into the browser", and "do not scan encrypted connections".

 

[Kongo]

It's a great product if you are willing to pay for the premium version, but the free version is very limited. It only includes antivirus and web blocking in browser. Even the anti-botnet (system-wide web blocking) isn't free. On the good side you have remote management and is quite comprehensive.

If there are any Sophos users, can we have a screenshot of these new notifications?

Not sure what they changed about them, don't see any difference...

 

[amico81]

Servus ;-)

i had similar experiences with sophos. little impact on system, but hugh impact on browsing.
and the free version is just signature based....so there are better options.
Premium...i dont think it's worth the money

 

[ForgottenSeer 89360]

Servus ;-)

i had similar experiences with sophos. little impact on system, but hugh impact on browsing.
and the free version is just signature based....so there are better options.
Premium...i dont think it's worth the money

There is cloud and behavioural blocker in the free version, but at a paid level there are better solutions with more extras, offering better protection level. Sophos needs to reduce the price.

 

[Kongo]

There is cloud and behavioural blocker in the free version, but at a paid level there are better solutions with more extras, offering better protection level. Sophos needs to reduce the price.

The price might be a little higher than from other solutions like Bitdefender or Kaspersky, but it's still acceptable in my opinion.

 

[ForgottenSeer 89360]

The price might be a little higher than from other solutions like Bitdefender or Kaspersky, but it's still acceptable in my opinion.

Yes, but it's just they don't have firewall or IPS, password manager, secure browser and many other tools that have become standard now. They can be compared to the free Kaspersky Security Cloud in the paid version.

 

[Kongo]

Yes, but it's just they don't have firewall or IPS, password manager, secure browser and many other tools that have become standard now. They can be compared to the free Kaspersky Security Cloud in the paid version.

Yea no firewall, only Malicious Traffic Detection if you let that count. Too bad that they don't come with a software firewall, their hardware firewalls are really good from what I've heard.

 

[Zartarra]

Hello

Sophos home premium has Safe Online Banking, Exploit Mitigation, Application protection Control, Malicious Traffic Detection, Key encryption for some applications (like browsers). A firewall component would be a nice feature. There XG Home firewall is great.

I don't need a password manager, cleaners, software updates or other similar things in a AV-product .

I don't see much difference in the new screens:

• Threat detecting and removal:

• Web interface:

• Website blocking:

They are using a lot of processes: 19 Sophos processes with around 602.5 MB in RAM en 2 Hitman Pro processes with around 19 MB in RAM. But I never had problems with slowness of programs or webbrowsing.

Protection is not that bad. They weakness is detecting malicious scripts and documents.

Testlab results (2019 - 2020 AV-test-org, avlab, SE labs, MRG, AV comparatives )

Kaspersky 99.20
Symantec 98.50
Bitdefender 98.42
F-Secure 96.33
Sophos Home Premium 95.43 %
Trend Micro 93.82%

Own tests (2019-2020)
Bitdefender 90.90
Kaspersky 85.53
Sophos Home Premium 83.15
Trend Micro 76.48
Symantec 75.67
F-Secure 72.44

All tests
Bitdefender 94.43
Sophos Home Prem 92.01
Trend Micro 90.18
Kaspersky 89.14
F-Secure 88.68
Symantec / Norton 87.70

 

[Kongo]

I have to say that since using Sophos I feel like websites are loading slower and the hardening tools from Andy are starting much slower too. Otherwise no big performance impact on my system.

Key encryption for some applications (like browsers)

I remember it had a frame around the browser to indicate that. Is there a setting to enable it or is it gone completely?

 

[blackice]

I have to say that since using Sophos I feel like websites are loading slower and the hardening tools from Andy are starting much slower too. Otherwise no big performance impact on my system.

Sophos used to quarantine them instantly upon first scan.

 

[Kongo]

Sophos used to quarantine them instantly upon first scan.

Not in my case, but it looks like it's analysing them every time I launch them which is quite annoying tbh. Luckily it's basically a set and forget thing, but I hope I won't have to face this problem with other programs in the future.

 

[SomeRandomCat]

Whats the Application protection Control like?

 

[ForgottenSeer 89360]

@Zartarra

Sophos home premium has Safe Online Banking, Exploit Mitigation, Application protection Control

It does and they work, however it felt to me like it's all just hype and big wording. When I tested it, I managed to trigger these features, but Avast detected the exploit attempts, etc. just with the static scanner and IDP.
So overall I wasn't wowed with the results and I feel people can do better than Sophos.