Sophos

[tom]

My subscription for Kaspersky runs out in 2 weeks and I've just found out
that the school district my wife works for offers a free at home copy of the
Sophos AV their system uses. Has anybody had any experience with Sophos and
if so what did they think? I know it's not available to the consumer but
would appreciate any insight or personal experience anyone has on this
product.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "tom" <~@~.com>

| My subscription for Kaspersky runs out in 2 weeks and I've just found out
| that the school district my wife works for offers a free at home copy of the
| Sophos AV their system uses. Has anybody had any experience with Sophos and
| if so what did they think? I know it's not available to the consumer but
| would appreciate any insight or personal experience anyone has on this
| product.


Get Avira AntiVir instead.

 

[VanguardLH]

My subscription for Kaspersky runs out in 2 weeks and I've just found out
that the school district my wife works for offers a free at home copy of the
Sophos AV their system uses. Has anybody had any experience with Sophos and
if so what did they think? I know it's not available to the consumer but
would appreciate any insight or personal experience anyone has on this
product.

In Aug 2009 testing by av-comparatives.org, Sophos only managed to
detect 91% of the pest sample (on par with Microsoft's OneCare which
used the RAV they bought from GeCAD and which had poor coverage and
eventually inched up over time to 90%). Other AV products have much
better coverage (the last 10% requires more effort). Avira, Avast, and
AVG all rank better than Sophos. However, this test is only for
detection using an on-demand scan. Heuristics, interrogating common
infection vectors, and other features of on-access (real-time) scanning
are not measured. Plus you are talking about getting a free AV program.
The on-demand test mentioned uses the full retail version of each
product (i.e., there is no testing of their free versions which have a
crippled feature set). There are features missing in the free versions
of Avira, Avast, and AVG (some are more crippled than others).

If looking at free versions of AV products, make sure they are usable to
you. Some are for personal, non-profit, non-commercial, non-business
use only. Since Sophos doesn't operate their own user forum, where are
you going to go for free support from a community focused on that
particular product? Avira, Avast, and AVG have their own user forums.

You sure the school district can give you a *legal* copy of Sophos?
They likely purchased a volume license which means individual licenses
cannot be sliced out and dispersed outside the organization that
acquired the volume license. Free to staff and students doesn't sound
like it applies to you. You aren't their staff. Doesn't even sound
like you are their student. Plus students probably are offered a
license until they are no longer registered students. You need to speak
with whomever is the software admin at the school to find out if it is
legit to get a copy of Sophos (do NOT go through your wife who might be
school staff or a student because their response to her will be
different than their response to you, an outsider of their organization
that owns the volume license).

 

[tom]

You sure the school district can give you a *legal* copy of Sophos?
They likely purchased a volume license which means individual licenses
cannot be sliced out and dispersed outside the organization that
acquired the volume license. Free to staff and students doesn't sound
like it applies to you. You aren't their staff. Doesn't even sound
like you are their student. Plus students probably are offered a
license until they are no longer registered students. You need to speak
with whomever is the software admin at the school to find out if it is
legit to get a copy of Sophos (do NOT go through your wife who might be
school staff or a student because their response to her will be
different than their response to you, an outsider of their organization
that owns the volume license).

Thanks for the detailed response. I'm sure it's a legal copy. It's available
for DL, when logged in, from the staff website and not for student use. From
a letter circulated to staff:
"Yes, the District licensing allows for our staff to use
Sophos at home on their personal machines at no cost to the staff
member.
Kim xxxx, MCSA, MCSE, CNA, CNE, VCP
Network Analyst - Network Operations Center
District 3xx ITS"

 

[VanguardLH]

VanguardLH wrote ...


It's available for DL, when logged in, from the staff website and not
for student use. From a letter circulated to staff: "Yes, the
District licensing allows for our staff to use Sophos at home on
their personal machines at no cost to the staff member.

But you are NOT staff, are you? "the school district my wife works
for". Well, that's not you. So again, do NOT ask your wife for
details. Instead ask a contact regarding that school-available
download if YOU are allowed to use that license. You are the *spouse*
of a staff member. You aren't a staff member. You need to find out if
that license is usable by the immediate family of the staff member.

Do YOU have a login to the school's download site? Sounds like your
wife does who is a staff member but you do not.

 

[tom]

But you are NOT staff, are you? "the school district my wife works
for". Well, that's not you. So again, do NOT ask your wife for
details. Instead ask a contact regarding that school-available
download if YOU are allowed to use that license. You are the *spouse*
of a staff member. You aren't a staff member. You need to find out if
that license is usable by the immediate family of the staff member.

Do YOU have a login to the school's download site? Sounds like your
wife does who is a staff member but you do not.

Kind' a spitting hairs here......Technically I guess you're right but I can
assure you the school district will not be coming to our home monitoring
who's using the computer. We can say it's my wife's computer and she allows
me to use it if need be. Yes, I log into the schools DL site using my wife's
credentials but nobody knows or cares. What's the point here?

 

[Rube Bumpkin]

tom wrote:

Kind' a spitting hairs here......Technically I guess you're right but I
can assure you the school district will not be coming to our home
monitoring who's using the computer. We can say it's my wife's computer
and she allows me to use it if need be. Yes, I log into the schools DL
site using my wife's credentials but nobody knows or cares. What's the
point here?

There are no hairs to be split. I'll bet that somewhere in the
"Standards of Conduct" (or whatever they call it where your wife works),
there is wording about this. In the case of my employer, spouses are
expressly forbidden from logging into the company's network as the
employee. I could lose my job. It's also included in the yearly training
in "Standards of Business Conduct."

There are specific software packages, provided by the company, that I
can download and use on one of my home systems. I have not taken
advantage of it, since I have purchased enough legal licenses for
everything we have loaded on every system in the house.

As someone else said, your wife should check with someone in IT at work
and find out if this offer is truly for one free copy, to be used on a
system of your wife's choosing.

To get back to the original question, Sophos is not well-respected as an
AV program. For the same price, and without any legal mumbo-jumbo, you
can get Avira or another, truly free, AV package with better detection
and removal.

RB

 

[tom]

To get back to the original question, Sophos is not well-respected as an
AV program. For the same price, and without any legal mumbo-jumbo, you can
get Avira or another, truly free, AV package with better detection and
removal.

RB

Thank you.

 

[VanguardLH]

Kind' a spitting hairs here......Technically I guess you're right but I can
assure you the school district will not be coming to our home monitoring
who's using the computer. We can say it's my wife's computer and she allows
me to use it if need be. Yes, I log into the schools DL site using my wife's
credentials but nobody knows or cares. What's the point here?

And with only a 5% chance of getting caught for committing murder and
only a 40% chance of being convicted after being charged, you can get
away with murder, too. Not really splitting hairs, is it? Stealing is
stealing. You just want to qualify your theft by minimizing it. That's
why all the office supply cabinets at work get empty in the fall when
school starts because of employees that use work as their free shopping
place for school supplies.

Hmm, so your wife works at a car dealer to which she has access to the
keys for the new cars on the lot. So, gee, what's the harm if she gives
you the keys so you can drive their cars while they are closed because,
gee, it's not like anyone can sell those cars while they are closed. Uh
huh. Adaptable morality means no morality. You do whatever you want
based on the risk of being punished, not whether it is right or wrong.
Did I even bother to mention the risk of punishment? Windows has
licensing terms, too, and lots of people pirate copies of it and do so
knowingly but there isn't some micro-Microsoft Police wandering around
to nab those one-off pirates. But they do monitor volume licenses,
especially if abuse gets reputed (ahem, like a disgruntled ex-employee)
to then freeze all assets of the company (which puts them out of
business) while pursuing a 3+ year law case. Ever been in a room where
Microsoft is suing someone? 17 lawyers to your 1. Only 1 is allowed to
be the official rep for the plaintiff but they are allowed to consult
with that barage of visiting lawyers along with networking with their
chums back at the office. Yes, you and your wife won't be targeted by
Sophos but your school might as they are found to violate their
licensing but that will backfire onto your wife and risk her job.

Apparently you don't care about putting your wife's employment at risk.
So is her income actually superfluous or just additional income beyond
what is needed for the two of you (or more if you have kids) with just
your income to continue paying for the house, car, credit cards, food,
gas, utilities, and so on if she loses her job because of perhaps
another black mark on her personnel file? In this job market, there are
plenty of replacements to be found.

So your thread had devolved into "I want to pirate" software. Unless
something has changed recently, this is not a pro-pirating newsgroup.
You have easy free choices that don't violate the Terms of Use or
license for an AV product and yet you focus on stealing a weak product.
Oh yeah, that's intelligent.

 

[Michael Cecil]

And with only a 5% chance of getting caught for committing murder and
only a 40% chance of being convicted after being charged, you can get
away with murder, too. Not really splitting hairs, is it? Stealing is
stealing. You just want to qualify your theft by minimizing it. That's
why all the office supply cabinets at work get empty in the fall when
school starts because of employees that use work as their free shopping
place for school supplies.

Hmm, so your wife works at a car dealer to which she has access to the
keys for the new cars on the lot. So, gee, what's the harm if she gives
you the keys so you can drive their cars while they are closed because,
gee, it's not like anyone can sell those cars while they are closed. Uh
huh. Adaptable morality means no morality. You do whatever you want
based on the risk of being punished, not whether it is right or wrong.
Did I even bother to mention the risk of punishment? Windows has
licensing terms, too, and lots of people pirate copies of it and do so
knowingly but there isn't some micro-Microsoft Police wandering around
to nab those one-off pirates. But they do monitor volume licenses,
especially if abuse gets reputed (ahem, like a disgruntled ex-employee)
to then freeze all assets of the company (which puts them out of
business) while pursuing a 3+ year law case. Ever been in a room where
Microsoft is suing someone? 17 lawyers to your 1. Only 1 is allowed to
be the official rep for the plaintiff but they are allowed to consult
with that barage of visiting lawyers along with networking with their
chums back at the office. Yes, you and your wife won't be targeted by
Sophos but your school might as they are found to violate their
licensing but that will backfire onto your wife and risk her job.

Apparently you don't care about putting your wife's employment at risk.
So is her income actually superfluous or just additional income beyond
what is needed for the two of you (or more if you have kids) with just
your income to continue paying for the house, car, credit cards, food,
gas, utilities, and so on if she loses her job because of perhaps
another black mark on her personnel file? In this job market, there are
plenty of replacements to be found.

So your thread had devolved into "I want to pirate" software. Unless
something has changed recently, this is not a pro-pirating newsgroup.
You have easy free choices that don't violate the Terms of Use or
license for an AV product and yet you focus on stealing a weak product.
Oh yeah, that's intelligent.

Go psycho much?

 

[Char Jackson]

Go psycho much?

Agreed. He's so far over the top, I can't even see the top from here.
I have no idea what would possess a person to rant like that.

 

[VanguardLH]

Agreed. He's so far over the top, I can't even see the top from here.
I have no idea what would possess a person to rant like that.

What do you produce that earns you an income? Would YOU like it if
someone stole your goods? Do you lock your house when you go off to
work? Like it when you get burglarized?

Amazing how so many so-called adults will steal whenever they get a
chance. All it takes is lack of punishment and they go off stealing.

 

[VanguardLH]

I think you are splitting hairs a little bit too close here.
Those "home use" licenses are for a household, not a "name".

Your advice is valid, but "Dude... Chill Out !!"

But *we* (and neither the OP) actually don't know the conditions of the
volume license that the school possesses along with their conditions for
their distributed copies which is offered to their STAFF. It is THEIR
property so they can place whatever conditions regarding use they want
upon it. The OP hasn't bothered to check. He is intent on stealing.
That's what he is going to do unless he realizes there are better and
free offerings.

You can't split hairs when the terms of use aren't even known.

 

[Glen]

What do you produce that earns you an income? Would YOU like it if
someone stole your goods? Do you lock your house when you go off to
work? Like it when you get burglarized?

Amazing how so many so-called adults will steal whenever they get a
chance. All it takes is lack of punishment and they go off stealing.

You should get out a bit more.
Into the real world and meet people in the flesh.

By the way are you a Yankee supporter?

Glen.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "VanguardLH" <[email protected]>


| What do you produce that earns you an income? Would YOU like it if
| someone stole your goods? Do you lock your house when you go off to
| work? Like it when you get burglarized?

| Amazing how so many so-called adults will steal whenever they get a
| chance. All it takes is lack of punishment and they go off stealing.

I think you are overstating the case. This is grey area and not theft as a married couple
can have benefit of a spouse's available software on a shared PC.

 

[Char Jackson]

What do you produce that earns you an income? Would YOU like it if
someone stole your goods? Do you lock your house when you go off to
work? Like it when you get burglarized?

Amazing how so many so-called adults will steal whenever they get a
chance. All it takes is lack of punishment and they go off stealing.

Amazing how some Usenetters will jump to conclusions. You, my friend,
are something else.

 

[Char Jackson]

But *we* (and neither the OP) actually don't know the conditions of the
volume license that the school possesses along with their conditions for
their distributed copies which is offered to their STAFF. It is THEIR
property so they can place whatever conditions regarding use they want
upon it. The OP hasn't bothered to check. He is intent on stealing.
That's what he is going to do unless he realizes there are better and
free offerings.

You can't split hairs when the terms of use aren't even known.

You just admitted you don't know the terms of use. You have no stake
in the game, it isn't even your game. Put down the ball and go home.
Sheesh almighty.

 

[FromTheRafters]

From: "VanguardLH" <[email protected]>



| What do you produce that earns you an income? Would YOU like it if
| someone stole your goods? Do you lock your house when you go off to
| work? Like it when you get burglarized?

| Amazing how so many so-called adults will steal whenever they get a
| chance. All it takes is lack of punishment and they go off
stealing.

I think you are overstating the case. This is grey area and not theft
as a married couple
can have benefit of a spouse's available software on a shared PC.

....and she should be fired for allowing hubby to log onto their server
using her credentials, dammit!!

Okay, so maybe they allow the home computer to be the security principal
and logon is automatic - but allowing another to know your password just
isn't a good idea overall.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "FromTheRafters" <[email protected]>

| ...and she should be fired for allowing hubby to log onto their server
| using her credentials, dammit!!

| Okay, so maybe they allow the home computer to be the security principal
| and logon is automatic - but allowing another to know your password just
| isn't a good idea overall.

That's another point that I will agree with you!

 

[ASCII]

What do you produce that earns you an income?

Install locks and security devices for those sensible and prudent enough
to know life's not a lollipop, and in the spare time I configure killfiles for
use against the plethora (look it up you illiterate nymshits) of ranting fools.