Antivirus Software Reviews, Ratings, Comparisons

Nod32 from ESET is a great antivirus package made by an extremely innovative Slovakian company. There are multiple versions that are available for Microsoft Windows, even including windows 64 bit versions. There are also ESET Nod32 packages available for Linux, FreeBSD, and other more rare platforms.

Eset Nod32 Enterprise Edition is also a security suite that is available, it consists of Nod32 AntiVirus and the very usefull Nod32 Remote Administrator. The Nod32 Remote Administrator program allows an application savy network administrator to monitor anti-virus functions, push installations and upgrades from a remote office location unprotected PCs on the network, and update configuration files from a central location.

History

Nod32 was born in the early 1990s when computer viruses were becoming increasingly prevalent.

Initially the program gained popularity with IT workers in Eastern European countries, as Eset was based in Slovakia. Though the program's abbreviation was originally pronounced as individual letters, recent worldwide use of the program has led to the more common single-word pronunciation, sounding like the English word "nod".

Technical information

Nod32 consists of an on-demand scanner and four different real-time monitors. The on-demand scanner (somewhat confusingly referred to as Nod32) can be invoked by the scheduler or by the user. Each real-time monitor covers a different virus entry point:

Nod32 Business Edition

• AMON (Antivirus MONitor) - scans files as they are accessed by the system, preventing a virus from executing on the system.
• DMON (Document MONitor) - scans Microsoft Office documents and files for macro viruses as they are opened and saved by Office applications.
• IMON (Internet MONitor) - intercepts traffic on common protocols such as POP3 and HTTP to detect and intercept viruses before they are saved to discs.
• EMON (E-mail MONitor) - An auxiliary module for scanning incoming/outgoing e-mails via the MAPI interface, such as Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Client.
• XMON (MS eXchange MONitor) - scans incoming and outgoing mail when Nod32 is running and licensed for Microsoft Exchange Server - ie, running on a server environment. This module is not present on workstations at all.

 

Nod32 AMON Virus Detection Alert

Nod32 is written largely in assembly code, which contributes to its low use of system resources and high scanning speed. Nod32 can process more than 23MB per second while scanning on a P4 based PC and, on average, uses less than 20MB of memory in total. The physical RAM used is often just a third of that.

According to a 2005 Virus Bulletin test, Nod32 performs scans two to five times faster than other antivirus competitors.

In a networked environment Nod32 clients can update from a central "mirror server" on the network, reducing bandwidth usage since new definitions need only be downloaded once by the mirror server as opposed to once for each client.

In addition to signature files, Nod32's scan engine uses heuristic detection (called "ThreatSense" by Eset) to provide better protection against newly released viruses.