First Look

[Sjoeii]

Just installed.
First look and feel is very good.

Well done

[NAMOR]

I have to agree. I installed it on my laptop, played with some options, and did a full scan. So far no problems. I want to install it on my desktop but, I just formatted it today and don't want any problems to arise from a beta. I'll just wait for the next release before I install it on my desktop.

[Blackcat]

Only been running it for a few hours but I am very impressed so far, particularly as it is a first beta.

I was not very keen on installing it as Aryeh's post suggested a very rough version. IMHO, this is a much more stable program than most of the other beta-software I have tested in the last 6 months.

A very good effort by Eset :thumb:

Looking forward to trying the standalone AV.

[bugsy_pal]

I must agree - this is a very polished effort for a beta of a significant new release. I think Eset have really done their homework on the new interface - it is truly a joy to behold.

It's nice to see a suite that has an interface that is so pleasing on the eye - and it's so much of an improvement on the 2.x interface.

The only issues I have experienced thus far have been some momentary freezes in IE7 when switching between tabs or opening new tabs. Also had a significant delay in starting up my preferred file manager (Directory Opus).

[britchey]

I've been pleased as well. I would love to see some real-time gauges that can sit in the system tray or as a toolbar on the task bar. That is the one thing I miss about injoy - I like to see what's coming in, going out, what sort of connections are going on, without having to drill into the interface.

That is my blue sky feature request :)

[trjam]

It doesnt like K9 web protector. It locks up as long as this program is installed. Hope they can rectify this soon.

[Brian N]

It'll take some time to get used to that's for sure.

[C.S.J]

ok, i installed it.

installation hanged my machine, when it reached "removing backup files"

turned it off, using the power button and its rebooted, it didnt recognise my network and its failing to update, will continue to try and it post a few things before going back to my doctor.

after looking at the screenshots and being excited about its UI, i aint too sure now its installed... everything seems very basic, and nod has lost its charm with this beta.

also where is the right click scanning? this should have made it to the first beta.

edit: boot-up is extremely slow, i wasnt expecting this from a eset product, beta or not.. its still been in the making for over a year.

it does look all pretty, but also ... there are no configuarations really for the firewall.

but on first looks, unless you really need a firewall/spam i would just use nod32 2.7 for now.

currently, 100% failure on spam although it does add 'checked my eset smart security' etc etc at the bottom of the mails.

[mvdu]

I have a Vista system and got constant BSODs. Could it be a conflict with SpySweeper or BOClean?

[Sjoeii]

Eset

I must say I was a little cautious at first. For over a year we had to wait for this suite. For over a year the tension was built. So the expectations where so high it could only dissappoint!

But I have to be honest I'm very surprised.
It's only the first beta. But it is allready more stable than some of the competitors.:thumb:
It is allready better than my expectations.
When all bugs are fixed and some components attached I'm sure it will come very close with KIS.

Congratulations!!!!

You caught me!!

[gRoet]

How do you get the beta?
I don't get a mail from eset, so i do not know how to download.
Sombody a suggestion?

[cupez80]

www.eset.com/beta

[gRoet]

I did that, but i do not get a mail with a download link from eset.
Please help.

[doctor IT]

http://www.eset.eu/download/beta . Here you don't have to fill any form.

[Sjoeii]

Please try this (http://download1.eset.com/special/essbeta/ess_nt32_enu.msi)

It should work

[cupez80]

maybe it got filtered by your isp spam filter.

[gRoet]

Thanks for your help. It works!
Sorry for my bad English.

[JeremyWW]

If this Beta is any indication of the final product, which of course it is...Kaspersky will have major competition on their hands. There are MANY issues with both KAV and KIS (I've tested both), that make them difficult products for 'the average user' to get the hang of. I'm hopeful for ESS - so far it's relatively trouble free and is not stopping me using the web as I wish and using the apps I wish to use - including Azureus. So...so far, well done guys.

[oldo]

mvdu: Don't think it's BoClean.. works fine with it here :)

[lu_chin]

To be fair, KIS and KAV do have PDM while ESS does not have a HIPS component. Also, KIS 7 will have some additional improvements too. I guess the sea is still big enough for all the fish out there.

{QUOTE-> If this Beta is any indication of the final product, which of course it is...Kaspersky will have major competition on their hands. There are MANY issues with both KAV and KIS (I've tested both), that make them difficult products for 'the average user' to get the hang of. I'm hopeful for ESS - so far it's relatively trouble free and is not stopping me using the web as I wish and using the apps I wish to use - including Azureus. So...so far, well done guys. <-QUOTE}

[KaneComputing]

Downloaded and installed today. I took the usual precautions for a full backup, etc. but I needn't have bothered.

Installation was swift and sure and ... no reboot! Just started right up! I like that!

So far stability has been excellent, resource useage very acceptable.

I like the user interface... It'll take some adjustment to find where stuff is compared to 2.7 but that's ok, I can handle change. :-)

Like the active connections monitor for the firewall ....

Would like to see some access of features via right click of system tray icon, but I'm sure that's coming...

Off to a good start.. If the finished product resembles what I'm seeing now, I'll be happy. I can sell this to my clients!

[JeremyWW]

{QUOTE-> To be fair, KIS and KAV do have PDM while ESS does not have a HIPS component. Also, KIS 7 will have some additional improvements too. I guess the sea is still big enough for all the fish out there. <-QUOTE}

I'm sure the sea is big enough. The problem I have with Kaspersky is that they have tightened the product up to the point where it is now causing people real usability problems. Just check out their forums and look at the number of issues people raise. I found the product difficult to use and the interface convoluted, and I've been in the IT industry for 20 years! I find it hard to recommend Kaspersky to my own customers for these reasons, who really want top notch 'set it and forget it' protection. ESS has come closer to that as a first Beta, within 24 hours of me using it. Frankly, I believe KAS have made their products too complex. They need to take care that they don't frighten off the very people they need as customers - it's no good just appealing to the 'techies'...

Jem

[cupez80]

i still like the old green NOD32 logo :D

[Sjoeii]

Offcourse Firewall needs soem polishing and I surely hope it will get some kind of HIPS. But for a first beta it definately looks great

[C.S.J]

ok, beta or not, ive never seen sooo many bugs in a beta before, just look at them all, and thats just people on wilders, woah!

looks like they have spent a over a year doing it without removing any bugs themselfs, very poor beta, i suggest people wait a few more betas.

[rogervernon]

All good so far....................

Installed with no problem using default settings. First full scan only took 22 minutes for about 20GB of "stuff" Seems quicker than NOD32 for this - or is it just me wanting it to be better?

[Sjoeii]

Yep it is very fast.

I'm very curious on what this engine will do in the av-comparatives.

[Siro]

Installed it on my old pc till now seems to be working okay will update more after testing it the whole day today :)

[TJP]

{QUOTE-> ok, beta or not, ive never seen sooo many bugs in a beta before, just look at them all, and thats just people on wilders, woah!

looks like they have spent a over a year doing it without removing any bugs themselfs, very poor beta, i suggest people wait a few more betas. <-QUOTE}

I don't know which posts you've been reading...???

You're not a shill for Dr Web are you :P

As for my own experience with the suite, its as stable as Nod32 V2.7 & scans faster, the firewall passed the all of the GRC "Shields Up" tests.

Seems like a good all-in-one solution to me.

[_deXter_]

Overview:

Firstly, this isn't just a simple bundle of Firewall + Antivirus + Antispam. Its a completely integrated (single) product; a single service "Eset Service" controls and contains the entire app. (You cannot disable this service from the service manager)


Interface:

The interface is a fresh change from the old NOD32 look. It has a slick vista-inspired look. The interface also reminds one of Kaspersky Internet Security. All notification messages are delivered using a sleek popup baloon, that fades in/out.


Performance:

As expected, performance was great! It didn't slow down a PIII PC with 256 MB ram. Although memory usage was higher than what NOD32 users are normally used to (~30 MB), the CPU usage was constantly zero. But considering that you're getting a Firewall, AntiVirus and AntiSpam all in under 30 MB, it does use considerably lesser memory compared to its competitors.


Bugs:

Sometimes the interface gets locked up. As a result, the hotkeys Ctrl+R, Ctrl+M don't work, the Real-time filesystem protection can't be disabled from the main interface, links like "Configure", "Enter antivirus protection advanced setup", etc in the Advanced mode sometimes don't work, clicking on Enable/Disable on the other modules work, but the interface doesn't update. The scheduler isn't working.


Limitations:

Keyboard shortcuts aren't present for the main options. It's not possible to scroll down the window using the Arrow/PgDn keys. It's not possible to quickly disable the entire program, if needed. Firewall doesn't protect against DLL Injection/DDE Attacks/Timed Attacks/PID change-trick/parent-child thread bypass etc. Antivirus still doesn't have a good cleaning engine (its good at detecting and removal, but not cleaning).


--

For detailed Firewall tests, please read this thread http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=171051

[C.S.J]

{QUOTE-> I don't know which posts you've been reading...???

You're not a shill for Dr Web are you :P

As for my own experience with the suite, its as stable as Nod32 V2.7 & scans faster, the firewall passed the all of the GRC "Shields Up" tests.

Seems like a good all-in-one solution to me. <-QUOTE}
no but ive never seen sooo many bugs posted for a beta before.

for a product that is still beta 1, i understand... but if kaspersky ever brought out a beta with sooo many bugs, people wouldn't be sooo understanding, i think people are trying to be 'good' to eset here because its been soooo long in the making, and expectations are high.

[trjam]

Yeah, I agree with Chris, but I do have it working well for me right now. Quick incremental improvements from Eset, will go a long way right now for them.

[IcePanther]

{QUOTE-> no but ive never seen sooo many bugs posted for a beta before.

for a product that is still beta 1, i understand... but if kaspersky ever brought out a beta with sooo many bugs, people wouldn't be sooo understanding, i think people are trying to be 'good' to eset here because its been soooo long in the making, and expectations are high. <-QUOTE}

You seem to have never tested the very first builds that Kaspersky released for the v6. They were slowing down the system to a grinding halt or so, and were damn buggy. It took more than one year in beta to bring it to a correct level (6.0.0.300) and there were still spikes and so on. And it took much time to get to MP1, too.

I think for a first beta, this one's pretty decent, even if there's still much room for improvement (UI bugs, leaktest protection/HIPS, ad blocking).

[JeremyWW]

{QUOTE-> You seem to have never tested the very first builds that Kaspersky released for the v6. They were slowing down the system to a grinding halt or so, and were damn buggy. It took more than one year in beta to bring it to a correct level (6.0.0.300) and there were still spikes and so on. And it took much time to get to MP1, too.

I think for a first beta, this one's pretty decent, even if there's still much room for improvement (UI bugs, leaktest protection/HIPS, ad blocking). <-QUOTE}

I agree wholeheartedly with this. Kaspersky's Betas have been loaded with 'issues' as has the released software. Many of the so-called 'bugs' posted here I would suggest are 'knee-jerks' often resolved by spending more time with the product. My feeling too is that this is pretty clean - running on XP Pro / SP2 with no major issues...just a few 'nit-picks' around functionality that will be added in future Betas and the released product.

P.S I remember the KAS forum not so long ago (I was testing Betas...) and the moderators were having a hard time pacifying people...

[ronjor]

Beta products will have bugs as noted in this post. (http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=170816) Let's stay on topic without extraneous discussion of other programs and forums.

[Baldrick]

{QUOTE-> I'm sure the sea is big enough. The problem I have with Kaspersky is that they have tightened the product up to the point where it is now causing people real usability problems. Just check out their forums and look at the number of issues people raise. I found the product difficult to use and the interface convoluted, and I've been in the IT industry for 20 years! I find it hard to recommend Kaspersky to my own customers for these reasons, who really want top notch 'set it and forget it' protection. ESS has come closer to that as a first Beta, within 24 hours of me using it. Frankly, I believe KAS have made their products too complex. They need to take care that they don't frighten off the very people they need as customers - it's no good just appealing to the 'techies'...

Jem <-QUOTE}
There is a degree of truth in what you say about KIS/KAV IMHO but what is intereting and pertinant to this thread is that from what I have seen so far the planned KIS/KAV 7 GUI does have a passing resemblance to ESS 3. Whilst I am a KIS user I am alwys looking for the best to protect my PC and so applaud the competition that ESET seem to have produced if this first beta is anything to go by. Competition is healthy for all...especially us users who pay the money.;)

[trjam]

{QUOTE-> no but ive never seen sooo many bugs posted for a beta before. <-QUOTE}

May be, but nothing better then the TIC method for beta testing.
So for Eset, throwing it out here to us, in the long term may prove to be the most efficient way to correct things.

T-Test
I-Identify
C-Correct

[trjam]

well I should have know. Tried to open 3 browsers and computer froze. I am just going to have to wait. Aviras beta is much more stable. Who was it, that said Eset always releases stable betas.:thumbd:

[Banshee]

Trjam,

works fine here so far.The firewall works great. much better than avira.I installed avira beta yesterday and removed it after 10 mins. :thumbd:

[BlueZannetti]

{QUOTE-> well I should have know. Tried to open 3 browsers and computer froze.... <-QUOTE}trjam,

Haven't seen anything like this yet. Tried to overload it by launching 3 instances of Firefox (15 tabs each), IE native, and Maxthon. No issues. What browsers/version did you have active?

Blue

[trjam]

{QUOTE-> Trjam,

works fine here so far.The firewall works great. much better than avira.I installed avira beta yesterday and removed it after 10 mins. :thumbd: <-QUOTE}
well I respect your thoughts. It is hard though to tell something in just 10 minutes, but you do have to do what you feel is best for you. :) Nothing wrong with that. Personally after the last few days, it is apparent to me, that Avira is moving forward in the security field, why Eset is going in the opposite direction. Just my 2 cents. And I have been wrong before.

[Marcos]

{QUOTE-> Personally after the last few days, it is apparent to me, that Avira is moving forward in the security field, why Eset is going in the opposite direction. <-QUOTE}

Please refrain from such attacks especially if you don't provide any objective arguments. ESET is moving further quite fast and I can tell that for sure as I work for ESET, know all ins and outs and have experience with some other AVs as well. Bashing and trolling will never be accepted here.

[trjam]

I was doing neither. If you read back through some of my posts I have been testing the suite since it came out and there are both positive and negative feedback. I was just stating my own thoughts and by no means trying to influence anyone. Geez man, lighten up. I am a paid customer. But I will keep from posting in this section and honor your wishes. Sorry.

[Siro]

I personally believe with the help of the input of the beta testers Eset will improve the product to a state where many people are seeing Kaspersky today all we need is to give them some time instead of criticising them and hopefully everything will be good in a few months time after extensive testing :)

[BlueZannetti]

{QUOTE-> I personally believe with the help of the input of the beta testers Eset will improve the product to a state where many people are seeing Kaspersky today all we need is to give them some time instead of criticising them and hopefully everything will be good in a few months time after extensive testing :) <-QUOTE}Just a personal perspective here....,

all customer-based criticism (and I do mean all) is extremely important and should always be received with an open ear since all too many customers silently move on and you really never know why.

Eset needs to hear and closely listen to the criticism offered here from all quarters. It's the only venue in which that is going to happen. Like anyone else, myself included, there are areas in which they can improve on. For example - if I cannot quickly ascertain the expiration date of my subscription in V3, I very well may move on - and yes, that is a very real criticism offered by me, a current customer with a pair of licenses with over 1 year remaining, and I am speaking with complete candor - it is height of ridiculousness that I cannot do that in the current version.

When I look at the current version, it's a little ambiguous whether I will be able to do that in ESS V3. I am serious - I don't need that irritation. The best way to identify those areas that are pain points for people is to listen to the existing paying customers.

Again just my personal opinion, but it's offered as a paying active customer.

Blue

[Sjoeii]

I don't think this part of the forum is a section for a security set up war.

ESET has been doing some great things. I as a Kaspersky fan must say this new ESS is really great. Offcourse it needs some improvements but for the first beta it looks and feels great

[fredra]

{QUOTE-> Just a personal perspective here....,

all customer-based criticism (and I do mean all) is extremely important and should always be received with an open ear since all too many customers silently move on and you really never know why.

Eset needs to hear and closely listen to the criticism offered here from all quarters. It's the only venue in which that is going to happen. Like anyone else, myself included, there are areas in which they can improve on. For example - if I cannot quickly ascertain the expiration date of my subscription in V3, I very well may move on - and yes, that is a very real criticism offered by me, a current customer with a pair of licenses with over 1 year remaining, and I am speaking with complete candor - it is height of ridiculousness that I cannot do that in the current version.

When I look at the current version, it's a little ambiguous whether I will be able to do that in ESS V3. I am serious - I don't need that irritation. The best way to identify those areas that are pain points for people is to listen to the existing paying customers.

Again just my personal opinion, but it's offered as a paying active customer.

Blue <-QUOTE}
Hi Blue
While I am in agreement with you points, I will respectively add to your "all customer-based criticism" and change it to "constructive criticism/feedback", as you have done in pointing out that irritation.
IMHO if someone says "I don't like X", but provide no proof or reason to dislike "X", then it is meaningless.
I am NOT "jumping" on the NOD bandwagon here, just saying that although "bugs" will be in "betas", it is helpful to bring them to the company;s attention with 'substantive and "objective" proof, by testing and providing "constructive" feedback".
The last time I checked (I could be wrong), a "beta" is issued, so that the public can "kick the tires" and point out the flaws. However, nothing can be fixed if the feedback is not "objective" and provided with meaningful input.
I will be flamed for expressing my opinion, but that is to be expected.
That is my .00000002 cents :)
Listen to the NOD song, and smile :) :) :)
http://www.eset.com/company/funstuff/nigel/NOD32songs/The%20NOD%20Song.mp3
Cheers :) :)

[BlueZannetti]

{QUOTE-> While I am in agreement with you points, I will respectively add to your "all customer-based criticism" and change it to "constructive criticism/feedback", as you have done in pointing out that irritation.
IMHO if someone says "I don't like X", but provide no proof or reason to dislike "X", then it is meaningless. <-QUOTE}freda,

Some aspects may need proof, others don't. Regardless, no active customer comment is meaningless, ever. I'm not saying the customer is always right, they're not. I am saying that customer feedback should always be heard. The vendor may ultimately choose another to ignore it. However, what a vendor shouldn't do is dismiss it out of hand without drilling down, if needed, to obtain an explicit statement in the customer's own words of precisely what the customer feels is amiss or where their pain resides. The drill down aspect of this exercise is critical and requires both sides to actively engage.

For the specific issue I point out, parts of it are obvious. If I purchase an Eset license, the clock starts ticking on the day of purchase. I realize that notifications are issued and so on. I also realize I can follow-up with Eset directly if I purchase a license renewal a few days early and they may set things right. Guess what - I take care of a number of home machines and travel a bit as well. I always can't coordinate either my schedule or attention to the installed AV's expiration date on all the home machines. I've already been through a license that was out of date for a few weeks because I couldn't quickly assess it and the main user missed the notifications. Actually, I should be able to queue up a new username/password and have it take over when the old one expires. This facility is offered by some competitors in some products. Eset can listen to this specific criticism or not; I can choose to purchase their product or not if this point is sufficiently important to me.
{QUOTE-> I am NOT "jumping" on the NOD bandwagon here, just saying that although "bugs" will be in "betas", it is helpful to bring them to the company;s attention with 'substantive and "objective" proof, by testing and providing "constructive" feedback". <-QUOTE}If you've been in product development for a while, don't expect customer criticism to be fully developed at the initial offering all the time. If a user/tester is offering comment, the vendor should take that opportunity to drill down to make sure they really understand the issues afoot with that customer. For every customer willing to voice an opinion, scores will simply silently walk into the night. My personal experience is that many times people on the vendor side (I'm speaking as a vendor here - it just happens to be a different industry) don't really understand the underlying critical issues since they come at the situation from divergent perspectives with somewhat dissimilar end goals.
{QUOTE-> The last time I checked (I could be wrong), a "beta" is issued, so that the public can "kick the tires" and point out the flaws. However, nothing can be fixed if the feedback is not "objective" and provided with meaningful input.
I will be flamed for expressing my opinion, but that is to be expected.
That is my .00000002 cents :) <-QUOTE}That exchange is a two way street and how it is managed by the vendor plays a large role in the quality of data ultimately obtained.

IMHO,

Blue

[MNKid]

{QUOTE-> Hi Blue
Listen to the NOD song, and smile :) :) :)
http://www.eset.com/company/funstuff/nigel/NOD32songs/The%20NOD%20Song.mp3
Cheers :) :) <-QUOTE}

Not bad. Thanks!

[Baldrick]

Installed last night. Seemed to go well except that you need to make sure that you have no other security app preventing the installation of services, etc., otherwise the install will abort and rollback automatically (nice touch from ESET).

Seemed relatively stable for a 1st beta. Tried setting up some of my own firewall rules (need to switch to advanced mode and then switch from Automatic Filtering mode to Interactive...after which you will get prompts for both inbound & outbound connection attempts by unknown programs. Does not yet appear to be a large white list of safe programs...but I suspect that this will come with the fullness of time.

Only negative was that Interactive mode seemed to slow down connection attempts. The pages requested eventually appeared but progress in loading them was painfully slow (when compared with the same pages loading under KIS 6).

Anyway, not a bad first attempt. I will review agian once the next beta comes out but does look promising and I think that when ready it will give KIS 6 a run for its money...perhaps until KIS 7 is out.;)

[MNKid]

{QUOTE-> Anyway, not a bad first attempt. I will review agian once the next beta comes out but does look promising and I think that when ready it will give KIS 6 a run for its money...perhaps until KIS 7 is out.;) <-QUOTE}

Isn't competition a beautiful thing! It spurs innovation. I've yet to ever try KIS, though I hear the AV is quite good.

Anyway, keep up the great work, ESET! You have a real winner here.

MNKid

[Legendkiller]

i will have to admit that i had no issue with this beta......however i will make a few observations:

1.I found that sites loaded slowly with this beta as compared to avast or nod32 ....

2.I found the option menu quite confusing.....i had to spend atleast 5-10 mins before i could,even,find the option to disable "splash-screen" to show at start-up...

I hope eset makes the option-menu(advanced) more simple like v2.7

[rogervernon]

I'm currently testing KIS, having tried ESS for a few days and KIV seems to slow the PC more than ESS particularly in M.S. Outlook.
Back to ESS later, I think - it seems much quicker.

[Baldrick]

{QUOTE-> I'm currently testing KIS, having tried ESS for a few days and KIV seems to slow the PC more than ESS particularly in M.S. Outlook.
Back to ESS later, I think - it seems much quicker. <-QUOTE}

That is really strange as that is exactly the opposite to my experiences...with ESS taking some 2 minutes to load a web page in IE whilst with KIS it is almost instantaneous. Having said that it is what I would expect as KIS has been out and stable for a goodly long time whilst this is the 1st beta of ESS...which I am sure will improve as time goes by.8)

[L Bainbridge]

Maybe I've been lucky but ESS installed like a dream on my XP system.
Works happily with Prevx1 and BO Clean. Overall memory usage around 30K but no CPU usage apart from when scanning. I love the new interface. Passed Shields Up.
Seems pretty polished for a 1st Beta to me - certainly compared to Online Armor - a fairly advanced Beta which still gives me blue screens/ random freezes etc.
Now I'm gonna play with FD-ISR and see if I can break it...!

[roaringhere]

{QUOTE-> I've been pleased as well. I would love to see some real-time gauges that can sit in the system tray or as a toolbar on the task bar. That is the one thing I miss about injoy - I like to see what's coming in, going out, what sort of connections are going on, without having to drill into the interface.

That is my blue sky feature request :) <-QUOTE}

I second that, like the one in Jetico Firewall, you can see an animation of an arrow, one is going up and one is going down. Also, I don't think it is scanning my incoming mail from G-mail using Forte Agent 3.0 E-mail program, which is in port 995.