ESET Smart Security

[Lashiec]

It's out.

So, will it be the first truly good security suite, or will it fail like any other before? Oh, and NOD32 3.0 was also released as well.

The list of features in the new firewall module:

ESET Smart Security's Personal firewall provides bidirectional, stateful firewall protection with intrusion detection features. The three operational modes are:

• Normal mode: Provides unobtrusive protection for everyday use without requiring an understanding of firewall technology or complex configuration.
• Advanced mode: Provides power users with an interface for firewall customization.
• Policy-based: Allows the administrator to set and deliver a customized policy configuration for the firewall (Only available in the Business Edition).

All modes provide protocol filtering and intrusion detection.

A powerful feature of ESET Smart Security's Personal firewall is the ability to mark specific programs as being network-aware, in addition to web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

Using this feature, it is possible to identify and mark an application which can be used over a network (such as Microsoft Word) for far more rigorous heuristic checking of any network connections used by the application.

And in the spam filter:

The Antispam feature provides a highly reliable defense against annoying spam, as well as protection against email-borne threats that share many traits with normal spam.

Antispam utilizes both client- and server-based rules to provide up-to-the-minute spam prevention not attainable by other solutions requiring a continuous stream of downloads for detection.

The antivirus continues to be the same as before, but with "Enhanced proactive scanning technology" and "Improved ‘in memory’ cleaning of threats". Ya know, the usual tweaks to the engine, as 2.7 was the one who brought a real breakthrough in the scanning engine, with the addition of ThreatSense heuristics algorithms.

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via CyberNet News

[KenR]

So how can I get a copy to try it and

what, if any, is the upgrade policy?

Ken

[Carol Haynes]

Free trials are on the download page at http://www.eset.com/download/index.php

I read their site and upgrading from NOD32 is probably possible - but I wish they would learn to speak English on their website instead of pure Geek!

I presume this is the (UK) page but it isn't totally clear to me ...

https://secure.eset.co.uk/order/migratelicence.asp

Personally I am sticking with NOD32

[Curt]

I have high hopes for the Eset Smart Security, and if my expectations are met within a year, I will most likely adopt the "smart" suite October 2008 when both my NOD32 and my Outpost Pro license expires - such giving Eset time to further improve the suite.  I think the price-jump from NOD32 is fair, acceptable, ~ from $40 to $60.

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Edit: Maybe in a year also the Scandinavian reseller will have discovered Smart Security, and will actually offer it!! Not even the very name, Smart Security, is to be found at the Danish site!! - which is a problem as long as potential buyers are being auto-redirected to their national reseller.

[KenR]

Free trials are on the download page at http://www.eset.com/download/index.php...

Unless I am really missing something, all you can download on that page is their antivirus, not their smart suite. I agree with you completely though on their horrific web site.

Ken

[Carol Haynes]

Try this page then - https://secure.eset.co.uk/forms/trial.asp

It doesn't seem to be on the main site. I only found this after a tortuous bunch of links via the UK shop and the UK version of the website.

[Curt]

Edit: another address is http://www.eset.com/download/index.php trial, you must register

http://www.eset.com/download/registered_software.php if purchased.

[KenR]

Thanks for all your effort. I am currently downloading the software.
Ken

[Lashiec]

First thoughts of Scot Finnie:

But I've made a decision in the opposite direction about Eset Smart Security suite. Take a pass on this one. The firewall seems very pedestrian; it's able to handle only three of the leaktests on my list of 17. And what's with the antispam module? That doesn't belong in a package like this. The best thing about Eset Smart Security is Nod32 3.0 and the fact that you can turn the other two modules off.

I suppose that means the firewall is secure enough. I don't like that he now focuses in leak testing before usability. Oh well, I think Ken knows better about this, after all his past fights with Comodo

[iphigenie]

That's often a problem with all suites - one or two good modules and the rest added "because you need it to compete"

It used to be a firewall was a packet filter, and you had other tools to watch for trojans, leaks, registry changes. Now a firewall is supposed to block all these.

It used to be a virus scanner was about protecting from viruses but now they need a spyware and spam module too...

[KenR]

First thoughts of Scot Finnie:

But I've made a decision in the opposite direction about Eset Smart Security suite. Take a pass on this one. The firewall seems very pedestrian; it's able to handle only three of the leaktests on my list of 17. And what's with the antispam module? That doesn't belong in a package like this. The best thing about Eset Smart Security is Nod32 3.0 and the fact that you can turn the other two modules off.

I suppose that means the firewall is secure enough. I don't like that he now focuses in leak testing before usability. Oh well, I think Ken knows better about this, after all his past fights with Comodo

Not that I did any tests with it, but I was afraid that's what might happen. I have been looking at the Outpost suite the last few days. I like it so far and have not seen any performance drop or cpu spiking from the program. Of course, neither have I seen any formal testing of the antivirus aspect of this suite. If it's adequate though, I would really like to go with an integrated suite. Agnitum has moved the product in the direction of not having to rely on signatures and I think the developers responded well to the leak test problems that were previously found on formal testing (though retesting has not been done to the best of my knowledge). The outpost suite is also extremely reasonably priced. So, I guess I'll .......

Ken

[Curt]

Regarding the leak tests, then it is important to remember that Eset several times has declared that they are taking another point of view than the "traditional". The new Eset firewall is handling the leaks in a different way, which will make it seem as if they are not handled at all, but they are. I don't quite understand the procedure, but you can read about it at Wilders Security Forum. Scott Finnie is not a guru of mine.

[KenR]

Actually, although I have tremendous respect for Eset and NOD32 and thought I would use their combination product, I think I am more interested in performance tests of Outpost and its antivirus component. Who knows though, maybe I'll just keep using both products as I have been.

Ken

[Willtech Online]

For those DC members preferring not to have to register for a trial, here's a set of hotlinks to the current (at the time of posting) English trial versions with embedded username and password sets.

ESET Smart Security
ESET Smart Security (Microsoft ® Windows® Vista/XP/2000 - 32bit) v3.0.563
http://download1.eset.com/eval/win/ess/ess_nt32_enu.msi

ESET Smart Security (Microsoft ® Windows® Vista/XP/2000 - 64bit) v3.0.563
http://download1.eset.com/eval/win/ess/ess_nt64_enu.msi

ESET NOD32 Antivirus
ESET NOD32 Antivirus 3.0 (Microsoft ® Windows® Vista/XP/2000 - 32bit) v3.0.563
http://download1.eset.com/eval/win/eav/eav_nt32_enu.msi

ESET NOD32 Antivirus 3.0 (Microsoft ® Windows® Vista/XP/2000 - 64bit) v3.0.563
http://download1.eset.com/eval/win/eav/eav_nt64_enu.msi

As a reseller I can tell you that the Australian distributor has decided to offer free upgrade to ESS for all current Australian NOD32 licence holders and currently licenced Australian users of any competing suite. http://digg.com/security/Upgrade_to_NOD32_v3_and_ESET_Smart_Security

Cheers

[tymrwt33]

Have used Eset Smart Security since mid June this year on Windows XP laptop and Vista Desktop. Now have fully licensed suites on both computers. Small footprint, non intrusive software that does indeed learn fast from user experience. No popups!. Now that's a change from Zone Alarm, Outpost, Kerio, Kaspersky and Comodo, all of which I have used and discarded, mainly for the reason of excessive popups and poor learning skills.

[stylecrime]

I'm a registered user of NOD32 v2.7 - upgrade to 3.0 is free.  They've also offered any registered user a free upgrade to the Suite for the remainder of any current registration - you have to pay the full Suite license fee when your license runs out, though, assuming that you want to stay with it.

I've no need for the full suite, and upgrading to 3.0 made my computer unstable, so I'm sitting on 2.7 for the moment.  Apart from that problem, NOD32's been great.  Very low impact on performance, unlike some other products.

[tranglos]

No popups!. Now that's a change from Zone Alarm, Outpost, Kerio, Kaspersky and Comodo, all of which I have used and discarded, mainly for the reason of excessive popups and poor learning skills.

Well, there are no popups if you stick to the firewall's default operating mode, in which it will allow everything out and let nothing in. This is okay if you never want to stop any apps from connecting out, and if you don't use p2p. For something like BitTorrent, for example, you need to switch to interactive mode, get the prompt from the firewall and tell it to let torrent traffic in, otherwise it's no go.

When you're sure all the rules have been set up properly, you can enable the "Policy" mode, where the firewall uses the rules and denies all other traffic, so you're free from popups again.

Personally, I choose to live with popups, they're very nicely designed

.marek, a pretty happy ESS user

Edit: I want to qualify the "pretty happy" part. It's been working almost flawlessly for me, which is fantastic for a completely new product, and it certainly works much better than recent versions of Outpost (to which I was quite attached for a long while) and Comodo (which killed my LAN and wouldn't be persuaded otherwise).

However, the ESS firewall does have a persistent bug, much discussed on Wilders Security Forum. No matter what the firewall config, you cannot browse other machines on the LAN. The LAN still works, shares work normally, network drives that have drive letters assigned likewise work. The only issue is that you cannot see or navigate the list of computers. Some people only see the local machine listed, others see nothing at all. Uninstall ESS and all is as it should be. This is a bit of a bummer, but since "cd \\machine\share" works fine, it's not a showstopper.