Despite its multitude of features and capabilities — or perhaps in large part due to so many of them — the major drawback of KIS 2006 is its speed, or more to the point, the lack of it. For starters, it took well over two hours – 2:14 to be exact – to perform a full system scan, which included about 368,000 files.
Also, while a scan was in progress, our test system (a 1.2 GHz Pentium M with 640 MB of RAM) became virtually unresponsive, taking upwards of 40-50 seconds to respond to user input (say, calling up a minimized application). Of course, any anti-virus or security program is going to degrade system performance when running a scan, but KIS 2006 takes a much bigger bite than is typical. If you're willing to accept a slight tradeoff in security, KIS 2006 offers an option to shorten scan times by only scanning new files or those that have changed since the last scan.
Another annoying characteristic of the software is that when an alert pops up it remains front and center until you address it. While you can certainly argue that it's prudent to put the brake on connections when a potential threat is found, when the alert references an unfamiliar file or system component, the inability to browse until you say yea or nay precludes you from consulting the Web for the information needed to make an informed choice.
Conclusion
Kapsersky Internet Security 2006 will work with Windows versions from 98 through XP and is available now in public beta release. You can download a 30-day trial version of the 2006 beta edition, and registering the software at the end of the trial at $49.95 will get you the full official release and a one-year license for free program updates and up-to-date definitions. An extra $10 will buy you a two-year license, which isn't a bad deal at all. If you're feeling lucky and only want the Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2006 module, it will set you back $34.95.
All in all, Kaspersky Internet Security 2006 provides a comprehensive set of features that matches those found in better-known security products from the likes of McAfee and Symantec (Norton Internet Security). That would be reason enough to consider it, and with a price that undercuts most competitors (particularly if you ante up for two years), it's well worth a look.
Date of Review: July 20, 2005
Pros: Guards against almost every known category of threat; attractive, easy to use interface; less expensive than many competing tools (especially for the two-year subscription option)
Cons: Slow scanning and system response during scanning; very limited non-Microsoft browser and e-mail application support; anti-spam client doesn't support Mozilla Thunderbird at this time; beta release is still somewhat buggy
