I was browsing the other day for my brother needs help with his KIS 2012 and I saw this thread at Wilders about Kaspersky. May be a worth read here. May get some ideas from the thread.
KIS 2012 firewall fails GRC
Personally I'd choose Norton 2012 over Kaspersky. My pc at the office (whose the same specs as my new home pc) has Norton and it's quite good actually. But I have not tested it at home.
I really took a performance hit when I tried KAV 2011 and most especially KIS 2009. Made my new system drag. In the end I settled with Avira/Comodo and Avast/Online Armor combination at home(laptop/desktop and old desktop).
My brother (currently using KIS 2012) and I had some tinkering to do with the firewall. I personally don't like it. Maybe that's why the OP of the thread above is having problems. It's not shall I say granular as Comodo or Online Armor. I tried hard to look for a way to block a specific process/program from being used by another program but I got tired and stopped. The brother even posted at the KIS forums and no reply. But I see that the system is not dragging and my bro's pc is older than mine and less ram. Quite zippy but have not fully tinkered with it.
Hum just what sort of tinkering did you have in mind I've been with KIS for a shade over 2 years and never had a problem with it. But I would be interested in what you come up with.
Plus I have never had a security suite yet (testing) that will not "slow" down your system - depends on whether you have an old 1GB RAM 1.6GHz CPU etc etc XP or some flying O/C'ed system surely.
My Sandy Bridge with a lowly i5 2500 and 8GB 1600MHz (yeah I know someones gonna pull me up) RAM and my trusty custom made with an Athlon 240 and 4GB have what I consider quite acceptable start up times.
Plus if you dig down into that thread at Wilders you quoted it goes to the KIS forum and gives you an explanation.
As for Norton I have said all along it may be good - I personally think it's am overrated suite and never had anything but trouble with it.
IMHO - ad nauseum / infinitum - the onus is on the operator as to what they do with their machines - you walk through water without rubber boots on - your feet are going to get wet - simple? I think so!
The "tinkering" I did was for a game that keeps connecting to the internet/calling home often. His kids had a free game but after playing it goes straight to the website. Blocking it by the way of the firewall was not effective as it will trigger the browser to launching. Blocking the URL and the IP address' associated with the game still triggers the browser launch. Actually my brother posted that in the Kaspersky forum.
The thread there at Wilders does not go all the way to Kaspersky forums. It has certain links there but the solution that was found was through a Wilders member. I think that was in page 2 or 3. There is an ongoing discussion now there about open ports by default and blocking it. I have not fully read it because it is quite long and need to be in front of KIS 2012 to see and have a feel what they are talking about.
The pc that I tested KIS 2011 was an AMD Phenom 8550+ (2.1G) x3 3 core AM2+ 4gb DDR3 1333Mhz 1gb nVidia GeForce GT210(now it's 16gb ram). It's was not 8gb then but it "should not" get slowed down. It was the only new app installed. And of course there was no other security application installed as KIS install will not push through. Tried Avast IS, Comodo Internet Security Suite Pro and Eset Smart Security 4 on that same system. Each trial I used a backup system image without any security applications. Always a clean working system image and a clean install.
Even tried that combo(Avast IS, Comodo Internet Security Suite Pro and Eset Smart Security 4) in an old Intel dual core 3gb DDR2 1gb ATI card and it did not slow the system down. Tested Panda AV from facebook with the dual core and I must say way too slow especially on scanning. With Avast / Avira it wasn't so but that's 3gb.
Of course that topic started out as some trouble with Stealthing and a lot have been quoted "if stealthing is good/bad needed/not needed" but hey a lot have been said and posted and discussed about Stealth. By default you get no stealth you'd have to adjust the settings. There's some interesting tests that were done there about port usage and KIS blocking it late.
You are the like the one there who called that topic pointless. Read reply #18/19 there. Maybe you can join that discussion there and let's see your results with using KIS. I am no firewall expert but all that issues there are easily blocked by Comodo D+. Of course Comodo has it's own issues but the firewall is much granular then KIS.
Try blocking a single application from being used by a program in KIS firewall. I think there is no way you can do that in KIS.
You can't in "Settings-> Application controls-> Rights-> Place block in "Starting other process". It will block all. Not a specific program from being launched/triggered. Emsisoft Online Armor and Comodo can do that easily. That's some of the "tinkering" I/we did and mostly because of that thread (and my brother), I had a glimpse of KIS firewall again(2012 version though). I may in fact give it a spin to see how it fairs with my favorite firewall. But I see that the 2012 does not permit "selective" install. You cannot select specific functions. You get the whole suite unlike the previous versions. This is the same as Eset Smart Security 5 and Comodo Internet Security Complete, no custom install of components.
But of course, as you stated,
IMHO - ad nauseum / infinitum - the onus is on the operator as to what they do with their machines - you walk through water without rubber boots on - your feet are going to get wet - simple? I think so!
This thread is about experiences (I shared mine/ours) and not bashing and defending. IMHO.
Maximum PC Review
Kaspersky forum
No response until now.
Of course there are good and bad points for virtually all of the mainstream security systems but I get the feeling that much of the anti towards Norton comes from those who simply haven't used it for years or do not know how to tame it
Hi pincushion,
Yes I believe that also. I think that's what support forums are for
But sadly some forums cannot take the heat when their product has issues that cannot be solved or when an OP is not happy with a developers response. Take the case of the Stealth. Guys at Kaspersky had removed it from KIS2009 and some users are searching for it. Well it's on the user so if he wants Stealth he'll look for it. "If I ask for Johnny Black and you give me a Bud Lite I'll still ask for Johnny Black" thing..
You all have a nice day
