Here my review about FortiClient 6.0.9.0277 The latest version is V. 6.2+, but this is no longer free, only V. 6.0+ is free and it can be downloaded from their website https://forticlient.com/downloads Installation: 5/5 You have to download the online installer, which is few hundreds of KB. Once you run it, it will download the installation package. Upon installation, FortiClient will check if you have other AVs installed and if so, it will ask you whether you wanna install it without realtime function or cancel the installation. After this step, it will perform a quick scan on your PC and then it will prompt you to choose which modules you wanna install. Security Fabric Agent is greyed out and can't be changed, Secure Remote Access is worth only if you wanna remotely access your PC. I suggest to check APT, AV and Web Filtering (Single Sign On and Application Firewall works only if you have a Corporate license). The installation process is smooth and easy and it doesn't require a reboot. The last steps are automatic database update and Vulnerability Scan Interface: 4/5 The GUI is nice and well organized. To modify most of the settings you have to click on "Unlock Settings" on the low-left corner. Default settings are already good, you can tune them deeply by using the conf file. To do so, you have to go to Settings-->Backup and save the file somwhere. Then you open it (for example with WordPad) and edit it. After saving, you can import it by Settings-->Restore Here is the official guide https://docs.fortinet.com/document/forticlient/6.0.9/xml-reference-guide/387580/introduction Usability: 5/5 FortiClient quietly sits in the background and doesn't annoy the user with unneeded popups or alerts. Warnings are clear to understand and easy to answer. No ads and no nags Performance: 5/5 FortiClient installation size is around 600MB of which less than 200 are due to signatures. It uses 10 different processes, but total RAM and CPU usage is very low. Only during scans it grows a bit. Downloading updates is unnoticeable and it happens every hour by default Protection: 4/5 FortiClient has Antivirus, AntiExploit, Heuristic and Web Filter. It lacks of a strong Behaviour Blocker or HIPS and of a Firewall, but Web Filter and Signatures are top notch. Sandbox is available only if you have a FortiSandbox connected Summary Real-time file system protection: 4/5 Internet Surf protection: 5/5 Proactive Intrusion protection: 2/5 Network protection: 3/5 Overall: 4/5
Thanks Web filter is one of the best, same level or even better that Kaspersky and ESET. Their signatures are also very good, I'd say similar to Kaspersky's. FortiClient lacks a BB or HIPS but you can add NVT OSArmor, Re:HIPS or even the new SpyShelter Free. Of course, you'll have more alerts (on this regard, I think OSA is the best)
@imuade As I've stated a number of times before, memory usage by an antivirus, generally does not matter. Unless your system is short on RAM, then memory usage will not affect performance, and in some cases antiviruses using more memory perform better than ones keeping their memory usage low, because they are keeping data in RAM rather than regularly writing data back to the hard drive, to free up RAM, which actually hinders performance. If you've got enough RAM installed, it is high CPU and or disk usage will cause performance issues. I never look at RAM usage by security software because it simply does not matter.
I agree, that's why I wrote "RAM and CPU usage is very low" Actually, CPU usage is one of my KPI about AV lightness. For example, when I tried Kaspersky, it had a big CPU spike when updating signatures. And ESET gave my system high CPU usage when browsing. But with FortiClient I haven't noticed any CPU spike in the normal usage, only when performing a system scan
Oh that's great then!! Thanks for the detailed review. For me, performance is the no.1 factor in choosing an AV.
Hmmm..... isn't that just another way of saying, "Mine is bigger than yours" ? My aging laptop had sufficient RAM for its day, but that day has slipped away. Ergo, RAM usage by security software DOES matter in my case.
RAM usage definitely does matter for you and others who don't have an adequate amount of RAM installed. But for those who do (e.g. 8GB or more), it doesn't matter at all. The problem with RAM usage is that many people judge a program's lightness by the amount of RAM is uses. However, slowdowns caused by security software, are due to high CPU and/or disk usage, not RAM usage. In some cases, programs that use more RAM, are lighter, because they keep more data in RAM, rather than having to reload it. In any case, the only real way to judge a program's lightness, is not to look at RAM, CPU, or disk usage, but to install it and see how it performs on your own system.
My bad, I now see that the sandbox is related to the cloud, so it's indeed not a local based BB. https://www.fortinet.com/products/sandbox/fortisandbox.html
