Introduction
With an increasing trend towards computer and internet security awareness, mainstream consumers are left scrambling for ways to protect their system. Traditionally, Symantec has released the most popular security software offering – the Norton AntiVirus series. Sound familiar? You’ve probably also heard of McAfee’s and Trend Micro’s Antivirus offerings too.
ESET is a company you’ve likely never heard of. Founded in 1992, ESET (the Egyptian word for goddess) developed NOD32 – a largely “under the radar” antivirus software. NOD32 is a very effective, light-weight software and is a very versatile guard against today’s intrusive internet.
NOD32 boasts excellent credentials worthy of an effective guard. Microsoft uses NOD32 in their release labs. Canon Japan also exclusively uses NOD32. ESET’s software claimed the Virus Bulletin’s coveted 100% award in every test since May 1998 and the ICSA Labs (Internet Computer Security Association) has given their “nod” to NOD32.
Enough with all the jabbering – let’s look inside NOD32.
First Impressions & Installation
Installation
Locating the file on ESET’s website was a bit of a maze. There were two different installation files – the Demo version and the full version. Why two different versions? The trick is that once your 30-day demo expires, NOD32 requires you to uninstall the demo and install the full version.
When installing the full version, you first must purchase the license key through the Purchase tab. After acquiring a license key, I went to “Download” and located the appropriate version of the software. The site prompted me for a username and password – I inserted the fields accordingly as directed in the email ESET sent. Then, I found the installation file – I started downloading and installing. Once the file is downloaded, I ran the self-extractor. I was prompted with three types of installation: Typical, Advanced, and Expert. Advanced and Expert allows you to customize some settings, such as password-protecting features. But to install, I just used “Typical”, read the EULA, typed in the password/username for updates, and rebooted.
In all, the installation process was straightforward. Once I downloaded the right file and activated it, it was smooth sailing. The entire installation and download process, including the reboot, took roughly eight minutes.
Interface/Usability
Unfortunately for the average home user, NOD32 is a very complex program. While internet security and antivirus bundles from Symantec and McAfee integrates all of its features into one easy-to-read interface, NOD32 has five separate program modules running independently of each other. What’s AMON? IMON? DMON? NOD32′s interface and configuration options will probably confuse a typical home-user. However, the interface doesn’t tell the whole story.
NOD32′s control center lists four programs:
- AMON – A “Scan on access” module. Every time you open a program or a file, NOD32 does a quick scan of it.
- DMON – Microsoft Office Document Scanner. Pretty self-explanatory. DMON is the AMON for Office.
- IMON – Internet Monitor. Scans all HTTP and POP (incoming) activity.
- NOD32 – The on-demand scanner.
I felt that NOD32′s customizability was pretty amazing. You can select when AMON executes – on file opening, on file execution, or on file creation. Because NOD32 is a grain of salt on system resources, you can afford to keep all the option checked. Like a firewall, you can specify a “whitelist” – files that AMON will ignore. And, like many of NOD32′s competitors, you can specify what actions are taken when an infiltration is detected.
NOD32 supports any browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, to name a few) and it supports most email clients (Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, and more). IMON will scan all incoming signals in order to stop unwanted programs and files from running. Note that however, it does not check outgoing messages.
Email from MS Outlook Express
Effectiveness
NOD32′s on-demand scanner module is the program’s bragging point. There are many ‘types’ of scans that you can do: Virus Signature, Heuristics, Advanced Heuristics, Adware/ Spyware/ Riskware, and Potentially dangerous applications. On AV-Comparative, NOD32 earned the Advanced + certification on both the New “Zoo” samples in proactive and retrospective testing and the on-demand scans, recording a staggering 62% and 98% respectively. In a test conducted by CheckVir, NOD32 earned top honors, detecting and cleaning all 420 virus samples, earning ESET’s product the CheckVir Advanced Certification.
Virus Detected! File name hidden
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“Of the total 74.5 GB, 53.8GB is used. 82,178 total files were scanned in 550 seconds (9:10). For a full on-demand scan, that’s not bad.”
I’m wondering why it took 2 hours 11 minutes on the very first scan NOD32 did on my hard drive? Second scan took 1 hour 45 minutes. I do not have nearly as much as 53GB of files. However, the files are spread across multiple partitions on a 60GB HDD. File types include self-extracting executable, zipfiles, html documents (I save webpages), etc. NOD32 scan log reported a total of more than 227,000 files scanned in the 2 hours and 11 minutes. I do have ALL on-demand scan options selected including archives, self-extracting archives, alternate data streams, heuristics, advanced heuristics, etc.
The program has locked up at 30% it has been setting still for over 16 hours and won’t let me click on anything in at bottom of the window. Please helpthe
Hey, Joe,
It’s the end of 2008 now… is it still locked up? If so, I’d consider a hard reboot
No, the problem is gone and the program is great, I have seen NOD32 work sending alerts and I’m glad to have this program running on my computer.
Totally agreed with every bit of the review. ESET’s NOD32 is great and I will be using it for a long time. It’s also an interesting fact to know that MICROSOFT’s release lab and CANON Japan is using NOD32. It makes a affirmed statement about the quality of the product. Bottom line is NOD32 is a great product which I have personally used myself for more than 5 years and it works really well. Fully recommended to anyone with the will to protect their PC from known and unknown virus, malware, spyware, spam and many more.
i have been using Nod32 faithfully for a few years now. I got all kids of warnings and stuff over this period of time I thought I was good to go still.
recently my lap top was used by some kids and they did something online they really jacked me up – Hijacked browsers – malware out the whaaaazooo and so on.
I loaded up a malwarebytes and began cleaning – it detected all kinds of crud and I was getting rid of the bad and thought I was on a roll – left he malwarebytes installed and running for added prtection against future attacks. well – it didnt take long to see that boat loads of IP adresses are trying to connect to my system constantly – i mean from all over the world!
I have a ongoing list now – so many in one day that I was just freaking out. I must have some program allowing this – running in the back ground or something.
I ran Nod32 over and over and occasionally it find something new, 1 or two detects and cleans.
I thought this must just not be working – I uninstalled nod 32 and put lapersky on.
BING! BING! immediatly pulled a combination of autoruns, trojan downloaders, and reg trojans and worms. I am getting sick from this , literally . I cant even sleep knowing one of my computers is on.
no matter what i do malwarebytes is collecting ip addresses and saying it’s blocking them. well the thing thats making me sick is i just cant ignore that they are attacking me! I run them to see where they are but i still have no explaination as to why they are trying to access my systems.
I have never been a paranoid person. But OMG> how the hell can I live like this? I am going crazy.
I decided to run these programs on my supposedly good desktop that I do all my buisness on. Holy crap! same shyt happens – over and over over.
what the heck is going on/ is it just me? is this new? Or have I just been not noticing all this in the past and now that I have i am doomed to this eternal worry?
here is a short list of ip’s attempting to connect –
212.117.175.43
65.45.88.234
58.241.135.165
94.96.195.224
94.96.76.57
219.146.143.218
59.34.29.59
94.96.198.182
58.241.131.138
224.64.22.79
89.28.35.136
174.37.231.4
94.228.289
94.228.209.171
83.128.61.70
The list could go on and on, I am tired of typing – these were all recorded in the last few hours and I didnt even catch them all becuase if you don’t write fast enough the next one will wipe the present one out. all tehse are blocked by malwarbytes but how annoying!!! how do I stop this?
antivirus review
In order to get rid of this particular virus, you need to be able to use a program known as an “anti-malware” tool. These are legitimate programs which are designed to remove the complete workings of malicious software infections, of which Virus Total 2010 is one. The problem many people have with this virus is the way in which it “embeds” itself onto your computer – in that it not only has the fake application, but also a series of hidden codes which accompany it.
It’s good post & I like the features.
Nic blog about the antivirus and threat protection.
http://www.antivirus-review.org/