Since quite some time I had been thinking of discarding my old Kaspersky Internet Security 6 for a new antivirus & firewall suite…

& so I decided to search the Internet for comparatives of the different antiviruses…

http://www.pcmag.com/print_article2/0,1217,a=215703,00.asp
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,140027/article.html
http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/
http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse_2007_11.php

What to choose?
Symantec Norton Internet Security 2008
My experience with Norton (2003 & 2005) has taught me enough for me to decide to stay away from Norton for at least a decade… Maybe Norton 360 & Norton 2008 has loads of new features but as always, it makes you download 50Mb+ of updates when you first install it. & to uninstall Norton, you need to install the uninstaller first!

McAfee Internet Security Suite
McAfee has been adding so many (useful & useless) extras to their security suites that they’ve neglected the antivirus part - that’s why it’s performed averagely in the reviews.

Eset Smart Security 3.0 (NOD32)
NOD32 has already proved itself as highly reliable antivirus, attaining worldwide acclaim in such a short span. So will the Eset’s Smart Security be the same? The answer is no - the Eset Smart Security is still a noob a debutant in the all-in-one security suites. Although it has great eye-candy the firewall is too basic & lacks many standard features. Let’s wait a few years before trying it again…

BitDefender Total Security 2008
By far this is the BEST security suite you’ll find on planet Earth! So secure that it’s a bit hard to….crack...er… install! Almost on every review, BitDefender has been highly rated but it lacks a good user interface & settings are way too far for the common people to customize. & as I mentioned it’s a bit hard to install & it’s not funny when you have to change keys every few days to be able to update your definitions…

Kaspersky Internet Security 7
Unlike what its name suggests, this is only the 2nd edition of KIS. In terms of protection KIS 7 is at par with BitDefender, but in terms of usability, ease of use & configuration, it just destroys the competition.(& it has a key that doesn’t get blacklisted easily!!) You don’t change a winning horse, don’t you? So I decided to stay with KIS & install the new Kaspersky Internet Security 7.

The Review
Installing KIS 7 is a very quick process. The installer being only 22.6 MB in size, there isn’t much to install. All settings from KIS 6 were kept & while the installation was being done, a self-defence mode was activated while KIS was being deactivated.

After the restart, it’s now time for the update. Total files downloaded was only 6.3 MB in size!!!! KIS 7 came with 28/6/2007 databases and it took only 6.3 MB to download 5 months worth of updates! WOW! (Weekly definitions are around 200 to 500 kb)

Activation was easy! Now KIS 7 will now last for at least a year!

For the features, there’s a File Antivirus that scans files as they are accessed, a Web Antivirus that does the same thing but on the web & a Mail Antivirus.

There’s also the Firewall & the Anti-spam(not activated - Gmail already does that). In addition, there’s a Privacy Control to keep all your personal info & online transactions secure.

The Proactive Defense is the heuristics scanner for KIS 7 which analyses application behaviour to root out any new viruses. I strongly recommend turning this off since it’s a huge resource hog!

In all, KIS 7 is faster than KIS 6, uses fewer resources and doesn’t make my hard disk whine that often! KIS 7 is the best security solution out there! Don’t hesitate to try it!