Evaluating the Competition: NOD32 User Wants to Look Further Afield

Hi!

At the moment my main PC is protected using NOD32 and a hardware firewall. I realise that a software firewall would add an extra degree of security however I have had no problem with this setup for many years. I remain happily virus free and I check using the KAV online scanner but never find anything. The only time anything is interrupted is the occasional previously unvisited site (often linked to from Boing Boing or similar) which NOD32 blocks trojan downloaders at.

Anyway after two years with NOD32 my licence is coming to an end. I am going to take the opportunity to trial some of ESETs competitors although there is a strong chance I will end up renewing NOD32 as it is very light impact, effective, and gives me few problems (I've had to exclude one program from the IDS and that's it). In fact I should add that NOD32 is fantastically light in operation and produces no noticable "drag" and doesn't interfere with my gaming. In other words I have no real reason to move.

So what would you recommend? Does bitdefender do background scaning etc like NOD32 or is it on demand only?

Also does anyone know if it's possible to trial both KAV and KIS or does the trial for one negate your ability to trial the other? Do I need KIS? It looks to me as if KAV gives all the protection that I need. I filter my spam in Thunderbird and as mentioned I have happily ran with hardware firewall only for many years.

Can you give me some recommendations and help with the KAV/KIS question?

Thanks,
Fairy.

PS- if interested I use Firefox for browsing.
PPS- I've posted this on another site too where users tend to favour KAV to see what response I get there. Hope you don't mind.

 

Nod and Kav are both excelleny products, but the only way to find out if Kav is for you is to give it a try and see if it is compatable with you and your computer. Which ever you choose between these two will give you good protection.

bigc

 

on http://www.av-comparatives.org/ nod32 and kaspersky get about the same rating but nod32 uses less resourse. at mo i use f-secure but uses up way to much resourse. Antivir seems good thou. bitdefender 10 is out soon

nod32 3.0 is out soon.

i am thinking off getting eiether kav, nod32, biutdefender or avira next time

 

I now use Nod32 on my desktop and KAV 5 on my laptop. Both are at the top of the product range and have their own pros and cons.

You probably wont ever be 100% 'safe' no matter which one you choose; trojans seem to be one of the biggest problems at the minute, for example if you look at nod32 support forum (on the Trojan Zlob thread) you will see screenshots where sometimes KAV picks up new variants and nod misses, and other times nod32 picks up variants that KAV misses - no antivirus will catch everything, but whichever you choose, nod and kav are the ones that are likely to catch the most.

 

Anyone know if I trialing KAV will prevent me from running a trial of KIS after?

Am I taking chances if I don't run a software firewall (I don't run it as I don't want a performance hit) or is the fact that I have had no problems just running a hardware firewall mean that I am safe enough as long as I do nothing stupid?

Fairy

 

It depends on the hardware firewall, i personally would feel comfortable doing this (& have done so), it's probably the best way to run Kav 6.0 btw.

 

I posted this question on the Kaspersky forum, but Don will probably answer it soon.
http://forum.kaspersky.com/index.php?showtopic=17556

Best,
Jerry

 

Thanks. Do you know the answer to the question about whether I can run a KAV and then a KIS trial to get a feel for the lite and full fat versions? If I can't I'll just try KAV as I don't reckon I need the other stuff.

Fairy

 

No, you can't. I would just use Kav, if you feel confident about your hardware FW.

 

That's what I'll do thanks. Is there any word on the rumoured new Heuristic abilities for KAV?

Thanks,
Fairy

 

The new heuristics engine should be incorporated into KAV and KAV-based products at around November 2006.

 

As firecat says, around nov/dec, but the proactive defense in 6.0 is more powerfull than heuristics, so you won't exactly be unprotected untill then.

 

Your protection is fine now . Hardware firewall , an anti-threat system , antispam by Thunderbird . Nothing to worry about .

Yes , you can try Kaspersky Antivirus and Kaspersky Internet Security . You choose which one, no problems . If you trial them , you'll see the differences and you'll be able to make the best choice and you'll be 100% sure it is the right one. I am sure you'll make the best choice and don't forget to inform us about it

During your trialing , post any questions about Kaspersky in their Official forum where Don is Global Moderator . I'm sure he would love to help you.

And again , my personal recommendation is to leave with NOD32 - small footprint ,excellent detection of all kind of malware, brilliant heuristics for unknown threats .

 

If you have never tried KAV antivirus, I would give it a try, I trialed KAV5.0.527 prior to the release of KAV6/KIS6, Don Pelotas over in the Kaspersky forums is a font of knowledge when it comes to Kaspersky security products. I then trialed NOD32 v.2.51.26. I decided the right choice for me was NOD32. In my opinion, I think you have outstanding anti-threat protection now.

Marc

 

Your right I do and I am happy with NOD32. However the geek in me wants to experience KAV so that I know what people are talking about when it's discussed. One of the key items will be to see if it's as frictionless as NOD32 which does a fantastic job of being fast and unobtrusive.

I suspect that AntiVir Personal would be enough protection for me (which I use on my server) but better safe than sorry so I'm going to stick to the top tier AVs. Also by the time I've finished trialing alternatives NOD 3.0 may be available as at least a beta.

Fairy

 

I am in the same boat as you so to speak. I have used NOD32 for 3 or 4 years now. I have no complaints, just want to try something new.
I tried Bitdefender wich seems to be a decent AV, but it slowed down program starts for me and it did not play well with Firstdefense. I guess it was the realtime scanning that slowed down things for me.

So I downloaded DrWeb. Drweb has been around for ages but I have never tried it before. I have had it installed for a couple of days and so far it seems to be really good. As NOD32 it does not slow down anything. The full scan takes a bit longer than NOD32, but that is not a problem for me. It updates the definitions often enough. It seems to take same amount of memory as NOD32. But most of all I like the fact that Drweb has no plans of making it a security suite, just plain AV (read about it in an interview with the owner). I understand that NOD32 will be extended to spyware and stuff in their upcoming version
Plus DRWeb do have an offer of discount if I switch AV. I will try it for the 20 day trial period and if it behaves well under all circumstanses I propably take the offer.

 

ESET are keeping the antivirus onky NOD32 3.0 as well as introducing a security sweet so I don't think you should fear their development plans.

Fairy

 

NOD32 can detect spyware as of NOD32 v2 and this option is enabled in all modules by default. Re. the suite, nobody has said that the new version will be available only as a suite, duno where you got this info from.

 

Ah..that is good to hear.. I must then have misunderstood. Anyway it is good that it is settled that NOD32 will remain antivirus only as a option for those of us who dont need antispyware or firewalls incorporated into an AV.

 

Um....With the release of version 3.0, there will be two products offered:

1)NOD32 Anti-Threat system, which offers protection from viruses/trojans/exploits/worms/other malware/adware/spyware/rootkits

2)Eset Security Suite, which offers all features of NOD32 AntiVirus + Firewall and AntiSpam and more.

So, you will not get an Anti-Virus only product, the least you can get is Antivirus+Antispyware+Anti-Rootkit. However, you have the ability to choose whether you want NOD32 to detect adware/spyware/rootkits or not.

 

sukarof- Remember that if you buy NOD32 you'd be buying version 3, not version 2.5. No one can or will give you any information regarding version 3, well because they like being tight-lipped or they're just pricks. Essentially, you'd be buying a licence that Eset says will be better that what is currently out there. But there is no proof of that. All given screenshots say that the GUI is horrible.

My advices is stick with a product you know. Dr Web will be releasing version 5 in December, from what I understand, which will offer improvements without unneeded drastic changes. You can download the betas every step of the way though.