Eset NOD32
In this day and age, there are more and more security threats roaming the world wide web. With more and more people connecting all the time, and with the ever increasing connection speeds, the threats to one's computer just start to multiply. On top of this, people are constantly creating malware that is more elusive, dangerous, or both, compared to their predecessors. With all the evils around, how is one to protect their computer? Luckily, there is a solution with Eset's NOD32, and with their latest release, they have extended their protection to users of Microsoft Windows 64-bit operating systems. Haven't heard of Eset or NOD32 before? Well you should have, considering that it has the best virus detection track record out there. It's even more effective at catching viruses than Symantec and McAfee, which many people entrust everything to.
Now to show you what NOD32 is all about. Everything that you'll ever need to do goes through the main window. From here, you can see when the last update occurred, what NOD32 is currently doing, and much more. The display may seem small, but this is just the Control Center, and don't let the size of the interface fool you about the capabilities of the program. If something isn't working properly, the Control Center will change the icon next to the non-functioning module to red to alert you of a problem. If something goes wrong, the system tray icon will also turn red to alert you to check the Control Center.
Protection Modules
To ensure total system protection, Eset has put in a set of protection modules that cover everything to keep your system safe. The first of these is AMON, which is the real-time file scanning agent that will scan all files that are currently being used or accessed by anything on your system. But doesn't all that scanning slow the system down? No, as NOD32's scanning is among the fastest around. Since it only has to do a small check to see if the file may be dangerous, it takes very little effort on any PC. DMON is the document scanning agent. It will check any document that you try to open. If it contains a malicious macro that could harm your system if run, DMON prevents it from running. It will also make sure that the document or file itself doesn't contain hidden code that could harm your system when run. Since many threats can now be sent through email, there is the EMON module. It will watch all emails to verify that the attachments are safe for opening. It can also protect you from html encoded messages that have hidden code which could possibly infect your computer with malware. The next module on the list is IMON, the internet monitor. It watches everything that comes into or goes out of your computer, making sure that no viruses are coming in or going out. This will protect you from the malware that travels in hidden web page code, self-sending viruses that implant themselves on your computer through holes in the operating system, and any of a number of other ways they could travel. This will prevent malicious ads or websites from harming your computer and will keep you safe from the millions of online threats. The final module is the NOD32 On Demand scanner. This is what allows you to run system scans to make sure that nothing on your computer is possibly harmful. It also has a right-click feature that allows you to right-click a file and have NOD32 scan just that file to make sure that it's safe.
NOD32 Detection Features
NOD32 has a rock solid detection engine, but also offers all the flexibility and options that home users and corporate IT managers could want. Not only does NOD32 offer a first class web, email, office document and on demand web scanner, it also offers a huge range of options to maximize scanning performance and efficiency. Multiple scanning profiles can be created with various sets of options selected for various situations.
Like most virus scanners, NOD32 has an option to create a list of specific folders, files, or filename extensions to scan under certain circumstances. Default actions to take are available for fully automatic cleaning, renaming, deletion, or quarantine of an infected file. NOD32 also provides right-click menu integration, where individual or multiple files can be selected to be scanned within Windows Explorer.
Advanced users will also be more than satisfied with the array of choices provided under the Setup tab when running a scan. You may choose to scan the boot sector, system memory, archives, runtime packers, email, and NTFS (ADS) scanning. Many viruses use methods to load themselves into the boot sector of the hard drive, where they can disguise and hide themselves for loading when the system boots. If your system is already infected, NOD32’s system memory scan can remove viruses already running on your system using advanced algorithms. The NOD32 scanning engine is also able to scan inside of .rar or .zip archive files, alerting you to the presence of potentially harmful files even before the archive is extracted, and even when the archive is encrypted and protected. This also includes executable/.exe files which may contain potentially harmful files that may by bundled with other software. The email scanner goes through your entire collection of emails in Outlook and other mail clients, detecting any hidden presence of potentially harmful files that are common in spam. Finally, the recent addition of the ADS/Alternate Data Stream Scanning detects elusive viruses that hide themselves by taking advantage of an advanced Windows feature. Viruses that use ADS are completely invisible to the average user as well as many virus scanners. NOD32 provides industry-leading scanning coverage.
NOD32’s ThreatSense options enable the latest advancement in virus detection. Using breakthrough sophisticated heuristics and algorithms, NOD32’s detection engine with ThreatSense can detect unknown viruses, spyware, and other potentially harmful files, promptly alerting Eset’s team of virus experts for analysis and possibly more effective cleaning solutions. ThreatSense also includes NOD32’s new spyware and adware detection engine, providing unparalleled protection and security.
Enabling NOD32’s complete set of modules provides ironclad detection methods. Along with the cutting edge ThreatSense detection and Eset’s team of virus experts working round-the-clock, providing detection updates almost daily, home as well as corporate customers are virtually guaranteed a virus-free system. You can rest assured knowing that ESET is at the forefront of virus detection.
How Does NOD32 Compare
* Tested on Windows XP SP2 with only the antivirus software installed and latest detection rules
** All scan times are presented in minutes:seconds format
Readers may now be wondering how NOD32 compares to the other antivirus products which are available. Considering the amount of time that it takes to scan the computer*, it's far ahead of the rest. To do a standard hard drive scan with
NOD32, it took a total of 2:25**, and even for the
in-depth scan, it took only 4:25**. Other products didn't come very close.
AntiVir was the second fastest, taking 4:58** to scan. There were three more products which all took significantly longer amounts of time, considering the amount of data scanned and length of time to scan. The other products were
AVG 7 Free taking 5:44**,
Norton Antivirus 2005, which took 5:56**, and
Avast! 4.6, which took the longest at 6:14**.
Obviously, NOD32 is much better at scanning if it can perform an in-depth scan faster than any other product tested is able to perform a normal scan, but this would be meaningless without the ability to detect threats. NOD32 has that covered too. The realtime scanning agent (AMON) can effectively detect any threat to your system. Whether it's an email virus or malicious website, AMON keeps your computer safe by blocking the security threat from causing harm. In fact, NOD32's multiple scanning agents have protected Windows users from all in-the-wild virus threats for more than 5 years running. Part of the reason for this is the fact that the program is constantly retrieving updates. By default, NOD32 will check for updates every hour and download anything new. While it may seem a bit much, these constant updates, which are only a few kilobytes in size, keep your system protected. Most other products don't offer updates daily, or they don't check for updates automatically. With the added speed and security benefits of NOD32, why would anyone use another product?
All this protection also comes at a very low cost to both you and your computer. The program itself takes up very little space on your hard drive, only a few megabytes, although this is something that nearly all antivirus programs share. The real benefit comes in the amount of memory used when NOD32 is running. There isn't really anything else that compares to it without using a corporate or enterprise virus protection solution. When compared to certain products, NOD32 can use only half as much memory while providing more protection. The light stress that this puts on your system will prevent you from even knowing it's there. This is great when doing intensive tasks on your computer, such as gaming or video editing, since more of your computer's power can be put into what you want it to do rather than using everything just to prevent viruses. On top of being easy on your computer, it's also easy on your bank account, costing only $39 USD for the first subscription and $27 USD for a renewal. Educational and family plan discounts are also offered, so if you're a student or you have multiple computers in the household, you can stay protected for less.
Overall, Eset has created one of the most impressive antivirus products around today. To make an antivirus product that consistently catches 'wild' viruses, and does it for less than most other competitors is impressive. The added ability to catch malicious spyware that was just recently added is also a wonderful feature that will protect computers everywhere from threats. If you're a Linux user and you'd like the same protection for a little added security, Eset has you in mind also with Linux versions of their product. They even have an administrator application which makes the deploying of NOD32 to multiple computers, either in a home network or business environment, easier. They've thought of everything when building the best antivirus protection program available.The only thing this product doesn't have going for it right now is name recognition, but a little time can easily change that.
Pros:Low Memory Usage
Low Price
Fast Scanning
Quick Automatic Updates
Advanced ThreatSense Engine
Cons:Advanced Options can be overwhelming
Final Rating: 9/10
Eset NOD32 Homepage
PROnet's Interview With ESET's Andrew Lee
and should be overwhelming 
) and I can't wait for their subscriptions to run out so I can get them switched over to Nod32 and I won't have to deal with trying to fix the problems Norton is giving them again.
