Online Armor +++ VS Kaspersky

[Cherub]

As always, I will preface this by stating that my knowledge of security software is limited. I've learned quite a bit from this forum but still uneasy with knowing enough to go with my decision before asking here.

Here is the question. Right now I am running KIS 2009, paid. I upgraded to KIS 2010 but had problems. The problem I had was the "pulsating" icon, where it seemed to be scanning randomly and slowing down my system. So, I uninstalled and went back to KIS 2009, which works fine.

OK, there wasn't a question there, lol. Here it is. My license is up for KIS in a couple of months and reading on these boards, I have noticed many that like Online Armor ++. The question is, does Online Armor ++ have the same protection that KIS has(in other words, would I be losing/gaining any protection from switching)? And what are some of the advantages/disadvantages of each?

I'm also running Prevx(paid) and SandboxIE.

[andyman35]

IMO Online Armor ++ along with Prevx and Sandboxie will offer you an extremely good level of protection and certainly not lacking in any obvious department.A2 does have quite high memory usage at times,but I've never found it to 'feel' heavy at all despite this.

[Ed_H]

KIS is very good and has the ability to block most malware if all the settings are on high and you run it in manual mode. Its HIPS functionality is somewhat limited in Vista, however. KIS 2010 adds its own sandbox among other things but I also had problems on my wife's laptop with slowdowns and had to remove it. I see now that it is not available for download so they must be working the kinks out of it.

With Online Armor++ you get top notch firewall, HIPS and 2 AV scanning engines that always score highly in tests, although with a fair number of false positives. OA's implementation of the AV engines limits FP's through the use of its own databases and only scans on execution so it is very light on resources.

IMHO you will get better protection with OA++ provided you are knowledgeable enough to answer the pop ups from OA's HIPS module. If you are not comfortable dealing with the pop ups the you would be better off sticking with a suite like Avira, KIS or NIS.

[Cherub]

Thanks. I didn't know that Kaspersky had taken the download off. On their forums(on here too), I had noticed a few people describing the same problem I had so maybe they will fix it.

I think I will try out Online Armor though. Seems a lot of people on here really like it.

How hard are the popups to comprehend. I'm not totally stupid about that stuff but not advanced.

[Ed_H]

The pop ups are pretty easy to understand and there are relatively few of them for a HIPS program. It just depends on the individual. I had OA++ on my wife's laptop for a few days and she said it was running fine. When I asked her about pop ups she said there had been about 10 of them and she clicked on allow for all of them without understanding what she was doing. I removed OA++ and now have DefenseWall running on her laptop and she is happy.

OA++ is terrific. Give it a whirl and see how it goes. Lots of options...just have to pick the best one for you.

[Mongol]

A suggestion for OA++. Once it is installed and does its program scan and updates itself then run all your programs and browser(s). I found this gets most of the program permissions stored in Online Armor and future prompts will be minimized. Once it is running smoothly along you can backup your settings in the interface for future use...;D

[Cherub]

-{ Quote: "The pop ups are pretty easy to understand and there are relatively few of them for a HIPS program. It just depends on the individual. I had OA++ on my wife's laptop for a few days and she said it was running fine. When I asked her about pop ups she said there had been about 10 of them and she clicked on allow for all of them without understanding what she was doing. I removed OA++ and now have DefenseWall running on her laptop and she is happy.

OA++ is terrific. Give it a whirl and see how it goes. Lots of options...just have to pick the best one for you." }-


I think I will. I'm just one of those people that are resistant to change. I've had Kaspersky since 2006 but this latest build really started bugging me. Not to mention, until I found this forum, I was woefully uninformed on all the options there were for security. While I still have a ways to go in learning, I'm much more informed now than I was. Sorta of like a 10 yr old compared to a baby. lol

As always, appreciate the help.

[Peter2150]

Unles you are a paranoid tweaker, and if you are sure your system is clean if you do a trusted install of OA++ and use Sandboxie, you are very well protected.

Pete