Online Kano has made me want to stop trying. :-(
No matter how good I think I am getting, online Kano comes out, and shuts me down.
Knife spam, knife spam, ball, X-ray, knife spam.
*sigh*
Excuse me while I drown my sorrows in hookers and blow.
/overdramatization
Fighting kano is all about low risk behavior. With a lot of characters, you can be heavily rewarded by taking the risk of a jump in, or taking the risk by teleporting. Not with kano. His ball TORTURES EVERYTHING. He can ball teleports, he can ball jump ins, wake ups, blocked attacks. It's ridiculous, but you can't get away with nearly anything against kano. KEEP THIS IN MIND.
BLOCK. BLOCK ALL THE DAMN TIME. FRIGGEN ALWAYS.
I'M NOT SCREWING AROUND. If you aren't always blocking, kano WILL start taking advantage of the up ball and what not. He will punish you for absolutely everything, if you don't block as often as possible. Just note that. With kano, spacing is VASTLY important. If you stand too far, his knife spam WILL bust through your defense. Especially online. I think the only characters that can out spam kano are skarlet, stryker, and sindel. Everyone else will just start eating knives, and they are fairly powerful projectiles too.
On the other hand, if you stand too close to kano, his block strings and up/downs are powerful enough to guarantee you eat a good chunk of damage, which will be come a serious issue. Furthermore, when he starts his block strings, if he's smart, he will be waiting for you to jump out in which case you'll eat an upball. No no no, being close is not where you want to be against kano.
You want about 1/3's screen distance from kano at all times. This is for several reasons. First of all, when at 1/3-1/4's screen distance, kano CANNOT safely get away with knife spam, so long as you punish intelligently. If you manage to jump forward before the knife comes out, you get a free jump in. If you end up blocking, you can choose to quickly AND CAREFULLY scoot forward, but do not be too risky on block. At this stage you're trying to bait the ball. It shouldn't be too difficult with most kano players. Make sure you block it when it comes out and punish as hard as your little cheeto dust covered fingers will allow you too. Once you've properly trained the kano player not to just throw out the ball, things get interesting. Kano's next options are to try and mix knives in with the ball, in which case you need to make sure you maintain that important spacing. Once you've taken that option away, it's time for him to move in for the block strings. They are fairly quick, and provide long enough block stun to allow kano to continue the pressure with relative safety. I might suggest low jabbing the block strings if you are able, and if you're feeling ballsy and havent' been abusing the jump, then you can go for a jump in and attempt to surprise him with a change of tactics. DO NOT SPEND MUCH TIME IN THE AIR. I promise they will start reading it and throwing out the ball faster than you will realize.
In short, dash block till you have 1/4ths screen distance, bait and punish the ball, block and push forward on knives, and low jab or cross over his block strings, but most importantly STAY DEFENSIVE, STAY LOW RISK, STAY SMART.
PS: Watch out for the air grab cause it's annoying, and the xray cause its ridiculous. If he has full meter, his xray has great range for an unblockable attack, and will give you the pleasure of recieving 2 broken femurs, and a boot-shaped hole in your face, so please be careful when close to kano when he has his xray. Once you leave the ground you can't be grabbed out of the air by the xray, but crotching will still get your fucked up. If you're able, or you get a good read, you can cross over kano's dumbass unblockable xray and lay it on him as heavy as you want.
THIS IS ALL I GOT FOR KANO RIGHT NOW. 
