What do you do with a raging virus? Kaspersky it (Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009)

Member Name: Stripery77

Product:	Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009
Date:	20/06/09 (75 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to Install and just gets on with it's job

Disadvantages: None

We moved recently and joined the BT Home Hub generation in our new house. At first we were so pleased and amazed with the speed and brilliance of our internet connection until the problems came.

Our computer and it's former anti-virus and spyware software was out of date, the free downloads we were using from AVG and Bullguard just weren't strong enough to cope with the threats that our computer was receiving and at one point we did a scan and found 179 trojan viruses. It got to the point where we couldn't even turn the PC on before we were instantly shut down.

Our local PC world said - Your best bet is to wipe your PC completely and reboot it - they offered the service for £30 but we opted to do it ourselves. At the same time we bought the Kaspersky Internet Security package which was on special offer as it was bank holiday weekend for £19.95 (it normally retails at £29.95). Previously we have tried Norton Anti Virus, Bullguard and Panda and been relatively happy with all three. We'd never heard of Kaspersky - but we were on a budget and the PC world guys although there to sell, said it was as good as anything else - was this a bargain - well we had to give something a try.

Having to wipe your computer, reboot it and live for over a week without interenet access tends to make you feel a bit twitchy and has unpleasant withdrawal symptoms - my husband and I actually had to converse - etc.

About Kaspersky & contact details
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Anyhow onto the Kaspersky 2009. It comes with a user guide and disk which you load into your computer to install. There is a help guide in the user manual, and you can call 0871 7891635 for free technical support or email sales@kasperskylab.co.uk or go to http://support.kaspersky.com/support/rules to help you with further questions that are not in the guide or rules. Further to this there is a forum that you can use http://forum.kaspersky.com where you can view topics published earlier, leave comments and create new threads.


What's new about Kaspersky
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According to the guide the main feature of the application is to restrict programs from accesing system resources and to prevent unwanted actions from suspicious programs. (The basis of any good anti viral software).

This particular version has a stronger firewall and filtering components and requires less input from the user due to the lists of trusted applications (whitelisting)

It has a higher system security level scanning service to prevent the sneaking of hazardous programs in such as we had been suffering at a terrible level due to our new speedy connection.

It now comes with new wizards which check for further threats on your computer, operating systems and browser settings and ones to help fix damages after malware attacks.

There is the ability to have security of confidential data offered by the new tool of a virtual keyboard - great for added security when entering bank and credit card details.

There is a privacy cleaner which deletes all information about the users actions which can present and interest to intruders.

It has revised parental control to ensure children can be restricted to undesirable areas of the net.

Due to the extended databases of phising sites there has been a greater protection added against internet intruders

Anti spam has been made more efficient due to the use of Recent Terms server technologies

Security of the use of wireless networks is ensure through the scan of Wi-Fi connections.

So as you can see it has all the functions we have come to expect from good Internet Security Software.


Installation
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The general requirement to install this software are

- 75MB of free hard drive space

- CD-ROM for installation of the application

- A mouse

- Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher - for updates

- Microsft Windows Installer 2.0

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (SP2 or above), Microsoft Windows XP Professional (SP2 or above) Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

- Intel Pentium 300 MHz processor or higher

- 256 MB free RAM

Once you have established this the installation is easy - you just install the disk, run the program and accept the terms - it takes you through the set up wizard.


Once Installed
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The first thing we did, and they advise you to do is to run a complete scan to detect all the malware programs.

We then ran the Security Analysis Wizard to see to damage/corruption these viruses had caused to our poor PC and to find vulnerabilities in the software and anomalites in the system settings. Viruses were, detected, found and disposed of quickly.

The Anti-Spam component uses a "self-training" algorithm to detect unwanted messages so you need to start the Anti-Spam training wizard to configure the component to work with your email.

Once you have done all this your computer is ready and in order to evaluate the level of protection needed for the future finish with the Security Management wizard.

The Terms
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We have bought a years licence from Kaspersky and at the end of twelve years we will be sent email and pop up reminders to purchase further licence for continued protection. - It will probably be at the usual price of £29.95

Throughout the next 12 months Kaspersky will regularly update, as many other programs now do.

Should we need any support we can contact their round-the-clock support service.

Conclusion
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After the trauma of being attacked by so many viruses, and the added fear that I may have given out my bank details, so far Kaspersky has offered us complete peace of mind.

Neither my husband or I had ever heard of it, but now we are very happy. We bought it at a good price, it is set to do a complete scan on a weekly basis.

One other thing it doesn't seem to disrupt our computer use like bullguard, norton and panda have done in our experience. My parents have panda and it is so twitchy, it freaks out at the google homepage and has moments where it shuts itself down. Our experience of bullguard and norton is that they regularly cut in with this that and the other and haven't been that user friendly

Kaspersky however is just ticking along in the background doing it's job.

Brilliant

Summary: A no nonsense Internet Security package

Variety of features:
Reliability:
User friendly:
Installation:
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