ESET NOD 32 review
ESET’s NOD32 is is one of the the best solutions if you want to invest your money in a antivirus software. NOD32 has delivered in this version an brilliant software that is highly effective against threats and becomes very easy to use. The characteristic of NOD32 software is its small resources consumer, fast scanning and powerful Technology (named ThreatSense®) that fights against malicious signatures before it has been reported.
NOD32 Features
* Fights effective against viruses (grade of protection 98%)
* Good scanning speed
* Powerful proactive protection
NOD32 Antivirus Setup / Installation
Installation it’s a piece of cake. The kit of installation is just 34M !! This is the smallest antivirus packages we seen in our tests. A problem with installation is that ESET did not automatically remove the existing antivirus software already installed on your computer, and this probably becomes a problem.
NOD 32 has changed their interface with latest version, in this way the software become easier and intuitive to use. In the left column you can see Protection Status, Computer Scan, Update, Setup, Tools and Help. In the right panel you can find the active features in action.
If you want to remove NOD32 from your computer, you can found easy an uninstall option. After uninstalling / rebooting you found almost no evidence of the previous installation of the antivirus on the computer.
NOD32 Antivirus Ease of Use
NOD32 Antivirus is simple to use for a normal user and requires very small or no configuring. The antivirus interface is simple with enable/disable features and a configure option easiest to use. Other antiviruses (Kaspersky / BitDefender) allows you to modify their software configuration in function of level of protection desired, but advanced configuring for NOD32 Antivirus requires more knowledge of configuring your computer. NOD32 works very well in its default configuration and probably you never change anything at this amazing antivirus.
NOD32 Effectiveness
ESET’s NOD 32 is one of the powerful antivirus software existent on the market today. NOD32 removed about 98% of the virus threats it faced, similar results with Kaspersky Antivirus and BitDefender. For this reason, NOD32 Antivirus is certified by the many independent testing antivirus laboratories. It’s spyware protection is not very powerful and can be improved but NOD32 has an advantage above its competitors because its proactive system detection and protection against new threats.
The developers of top antivirus software include automatically in their soft a heuristic engine that attempts to detect a threat before it has been reported. In this way when the antivirus soft finds some code that looks suspicious, it executes the antivirus in the background to determine if it’s a threat to your computer. NOD32 has developed this technique with their ThreatSense® Technology, an excellent step ahead the competitors.
This delivers an excellent detection rate at a very fast scan rate. Kaspersky and BitDefender offer similar high detection rates but the problem in that case is slow scan rates.
NOD32 antivirus – updates and features
ESET’s NOD32 is installed easily and quickly. It doesn’t occupy too many resources, which sounds really good, considering the fact that most antivirus software do occupy a large part of the system memory. It has also the ability to scan fast; the feature ThreatSense Technology is probably the best heuristic programs on the market.
ESET’s NOD32 has two features that substitute the longer update intervals than other antivirus software has. First, ESET is designed to update once a day, unlike other antiviruses software (Kaspersky, BitDefender) and has the ability to update automatically when the computer is the focus of a malicious threat. Secondly, it is also capable of recognizing viruses before the signature is obvious.
NOD32 covers many types of protection like email and email attachment scanning, antivirus, antispyware and adware protection, as well as a rootkit scanner. However, the software doesn’t have something similar to a Parental Control option so that parents would control what sites their children are able to access online.
NOD32 antivirus – Technical Support
ESET’s NOD32 offers FAQs and an extensive documentation under the form of an online manual with detailed explanations. We could say that dialogue is encouraged because the user is linked to a forum where he can get answers to possible questions. However, this is not true in case of phone-based support, that the user has to pay for and it is available only between 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PT, from Monday to Friday.
The help files of the antivirus are similar to Kaspersky help files and offer solutions to topic related issues.