Eset's NOD32 has long been our favorite anti-virus program at NeoSmart Technologies. It's light, fast, powerful, and pretty damn good at doing what's its designed to do: keeping our systems clean and virus-free.
In recent years (mainly from last year though), NOD32 has fallen a bit behind in the detection rankings, but for the most part had remained a close contender and a decent choice. Virus.gr has the latest testing results (Link currently not working) as summed up in this post at CyberNet News. In the latest round of tests (and the one before that, and the one before that) Kaspersky is yet again at the top, with a 99.23% detection rate for the newly-released version 7 and a 99.13% for version 6.
Our biggest gripe with Kaspersky 6 was the terrible user interface (which relied on the uber-slow MMC with horrid integration) - plus, we were quite happy with NOD32's excellent service for all these past years and admittedly a bit reluctant to see its shortcomings.
But all that changed with the release of Kaspersky 7. In a test run, we found 3 different trojans on our machines (for a total of 6 infected files) that NOD32 hadn't detected (even with heuristics enabled and set to the highest level) which Kaspersky picked up immediately.
The real kicker wasn't the fact that NOD32 missed a trojan, it was the fact that 2 of these trojans have been listed in the Kaspersky virus signature database since mid-2006, and that when reporting such missed trojans the NOD32 team replies in a mostly arrogant manner.
Looking at this thread where a NOD32 user reported to their tech support that several common trojans ((One of which was found in our test run here at NeoSmart Technologies)) weren't picked up by NOD32 but were by Kasperksy, the replies by NOD32 moderators are quite shocking. They start off by claiming that the original poster's title is misleading purposely accusatory (which it isn't, objectively speaking) and this later escalates (when a new poster claims to have a list of 21 trojans NOD32 failed to detect) into accusations of virus-harvesting and purposely looking for NOD32's weaknesses.
What should have been a simple "thank you for your observations and our apologies for the inconvenience" became a highly-ridiculous "NOD32 can do no wrong" thread. We've been recommending NOD32 since the start, but to us it is clear that this is where we part paths. If a company makes a mistake an oversight of a single trojan, that we can live with. But when moderators on their forum insist on turning it into a personal attack against anyone that has any issues with NOD32, it's sign that something very wrong is underfoot.
So, goodbye NOD32, you've served us well throughout the years (as previous threads and articles will testify). But it's time for a new AV that continues to improve and without taking offense to simple mistakes. Unfortunately, pride and failure often to lead to one and the same thing - and if there's a better alternative, we'd be fools not to take it.
Hat-Tip: Thanks, Spencer, for the virus.gr overview!
So, so. Thanx for an article. Now I have made my choice... Kaspersky is the best solution.
thanks for the info but still can't leave nod32
Mind sharing what it is about NOD32 that keeps you hanging on to it?
thanks for letting us all know and do let us know if you let go of Kaspersky and find a better one.
I adopted NOD32 over Kaspersky after a pro recommended it and because I found the Kaspersky interface too complicated. NOD32 has failed to find Trojans twice. The first time was back in June, and the exact Trojan that hit me, I found out, had been listed by McAfee and several other AV sites since the previous November. I never got a response from E-set that indicated that anyone was even listening. This time I didn't even bother to try to contact them. (Admittedly the Trojan seems to have been a very recent variant - but AVG Anti-Spyware detected it with no problem.)
NOD32 doesn't seem to understand that TRUST is what it's all about. They should bend over backwards when someone reports an undetected virus. In my experience, the people who handled my e-mails could barely speak English, simply sending stock messages that didn't apply to the situation. Yet where marketing is concerned, E-set has it all together - very slick. It doesn't add up. As a result, my trust has been destroyed.
See the thread below.
http://forums.maddoktor2.com/index.php?showtopic=10095&view=getlastpost
You should check out Kaspersky 7, they've totally overhauled the user interface - which has been one of the reasons we were so hesitant to recommend it before v7 came out.
Thanks for the tip. I'm currently running a personal firewall, NOD 32, and AVG, so I dream of a single program that can do it all. I'm willing to give Kaspersky another shot. How good is the spam filtering?
I'm only using Kaspersky AV, but I hear the Kaspersky Internet Security Suite is pretty good.
you can buy hir the latest and original kaspersky w/ 3 yrs license key...www.payloadz.com...i bet you its very genuine...coz i bought it hir...the man selling hir is from kaspersky lab..
very cheap compared from the product at kaspersky lab…its very great..i luv it much…updates is every hour…
Editor's note: Payloadz seems to be on the up and up. Local legal restrictions may apply regarding the reselling of computer licenses, but it's not an illegal downloads/warez/scam site or anything of that sort as far as we can tell.
I have been using nod32 for many years (version 2.7). And a few months ago I decided to upgrade to the latest version, nice interface and all but a month later I noticed my computer was not performing as well. Uninstalled nod32 and installed kaspersky 7 antivirus and it detected about 6 viruses. I have been using nod32 for many many years but it just seems that this time that kaspersky is currently the way to go until nod32 get back on their game.