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1. 
   Review - Kaspersky Internet Security

   9.0.0.736 (Dec 28, 2009)

   Kaspersky disables software bought from "non-authorized" vendors
   
   Be forewarned that Kapersky has a rigid distribution system and does not support software that is not purchased from an "authorized" sales outlet such as Kapersky.com or Best Buys. There is no way of telling in advance if a website is "authorized" or not. They have only a handful of "authorized" sellers. Kaspersky will disable your purchase if they don't like who you bought it from.
   
   For example, BuyCheapSoftware.com sells manufacturer software that has been trans-shipped back to the U.S. from overseas distributors -- where software is often sold much cheaper.
   
   This can result in your software being disabled.
   
   A case in point: Kaspersky Antivirus 2010, which I bought in late '09 from BuyCheapSoftware.com.
   
   Kaspersky's internet-based reg code authorization system is capable of detecting trans-shipped software. It will register your software initially, but will disable itself later (Kaspersky apparently runs occasional checks of IP's against the region of the registration code).
   
   When Kaspersky disables your software, they will not tell you why-- it will say that you have "exceeded the number of authorized installations" and disable the program.
   
   Kaspersky claimed I bought "illegal software" and refused to honor my purchase I was confused by their assertion, and did some sleuthing to isolate the source of the problem. I figured out that my software was burned in Malaysia by Kapersky's Singapore distributor (antivirus365.net) for the Asian market. antivirus365.net is an authorized Kaspersky distributor for several Asian countries, and they are apparently trans-shipping software to the U.S. at lower prices.
   
   Legally speaking -- Kaspersky's internal distribution problems do not make my software "illegal", nor does it entitle them to disable software. But that is what Kaspersky does. I raised hell with Kaspersky and escalated to higher management twice before they gave me a new reg code.
   
   Secondly, while Kaspersky is great software, I cannot recommend it because there is no access to human support on their website and you have to do a lot of sleuthing to get to a human being. They have tech support phone numbers published that only send you to sales, who won't do anything. Their customer care email responses are horrendous-- they just send you copies of boilerplate from their website. In my case the response wasn't even related to the version of Antivirus that I reported the problem on.
   
   Caveat emptor!