Eset—NOD32
We had intended to perform a full evaluation of NOD32 and, given its reputation as the top AV package in terms of Check Point certification, we were quite eager to include the package. Unfortunately, as the package currently stands, remote deployment is script-based—hardly user friendly—and, as the new Remote Administrator is due out in an October or November timeframe it’s pointless to evaluate this feature. However, we did take a quick look at the standalone AV scan engine and its local management tools.
The interface is simple and navigation is logical. The detection engine scans incoming files and memory utilising a resident process named AMON, a second process called IMON scans e-mails.
Most configuration options can be accessed by one of two methods: from NOD32’s interface directly, or by launching NOD32 Control Centre (the latter providing additional config options in most cases; indeed it is the only way to configure IMON, for example).
The scan engine actions upon detecting are virus can be configured by the user and if clean is selected for example the user can decide what action is taken if the virus cannot be cleaned. Diagnosing methods are configurable right down to the point where the Heuristic sensitivity can be set to Deep, Standard, or Safe modes, file extensions can be selected or simply all files scanned.
Alerts are a tad simplistic but this may be improved in the new remote administrator.
Scan Schedules and product updates are configured in Control Centre whose simple tree structure is quite easy to navigate. The AMON configuration options from Control Centre also allow the user to exclude certain files and/or directories from being scanned.
