Author Topic: Scott Finnie unimpressed by NOD32 ... (Read 33831 times)

Carol Haynes · « **on:** June 07, 2006, 04:20 PM »

Interesting read why ... he (like the rest of us) is looking for the best AV solution. I thought NOD32 was good (having now used it uneventfully for a couple of years) by Scott asks some interesting questions.

Article here: AVIII, Previous AV articles here: AV II, Off Symantec

mouser · « **Reply #1 on:** June 07, 2006, 04:36 PM »

nice thoughtfull article.. though i have to say he seems to be very interested in silent operation which is not an issue to most of us.

JavaJones · « **Reply #2 on:** June 08, 2006, 02:19 AM »

Hmm, interesting indeed. I should watch his research closely as this is something I've really wanted to look into for a long time as well. I really feel the majority of antivirus "tests" out there are pretty poorly conducted and the criteria are often stupid. Aside from the focus on "silent" operation - which I agree with mouser on, it's not vital - Scot seems to have similar needs/priorities to my own.

- Oshyan

Cloq · « **Reply #3 on:** June 10, 2006, 12:22 AM »

I am not sure what Scott Finnie's issue is with the "silent" operation.. my nod32 is set to silent operation and only pops up with a notification when it detects a virus.

From a fresh install it takes less than 5 minutes to configure.

In the real world, NOD32 has come to the rescue when all else has failed. Norton is a system slug in both performance and protection. What takes *hours* to scan and assuming it can even find the virus/trojan whatnot with Norton/Mcafee/Kaspersky, Nod32 can and has finished scanning and cleaning in roughly 15 mins.

Ever wonder why antivirus programs are 50+ MB in size? Or when you go to uninstall it, there files and registery settings still on your system (some probably still loading at startup)? Or why the majority of antivirus programs make your latest and greatest machine act like a 286?

Bah.. Guess I am just disgusted over certain corporate decisions.... and I am tired.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #4 on:** June 10, 2006, 06:40 AM »

I have to confess I was a bit nonplussed by his osession with silent operation. Personally I let NOD32 set itself up when it installs (just default settings) and then make a couple of tweaks which take about 30 seconds. After that the only time I ever see NOD is a brief popup when it updates itself (which can be switched off) and when it spots a virus.

I have to confess that I did think it checked outgoing mail and was surprised to read it didn't.

Plus I do think the interface (when you do want to make any tweaks) is very porly designed. The multiple obscurely named modules with duplicated sets of configuration options is esp. bad - but then how often do you actually go in there to change anything?

Hopefully the update to version 3 will solve all of these issues.

Zip37 · « **Reply #5 on:** June 11, 2006, 01:31 PM »

I have seen that article, and I think that NOD 32 GUI is bad designed, too bad that he didn't review AntiVir, it has a faster scanning engine, it has resident guard, detects more viruses than freeware alternatives and protects me from additional threats ( it detected a keylogger), to bad that AntiVir doesn't have e-mail protection.

f0dder · « **Reply #6 on:** June 11, 2006, 03:14 PM »

Hm, that guy seems like quite a n00b, sorry

Silent operation? Geez, I hate that. I want to KNOW when something bad happens, because that can clue you in that youre visiting a bad internet site or whatever. Silent operation is *bad*. Another reason for me to dislike it is that I deal with computer security in an amount of ways, and sometimes some of my own dealings with PE compression/encryption gives false positives.

Email scanning, ho humm. Never cared much for that, inbound scanning is nifty enough, but if your antivirus package is strong enough, it isn't really necessary anyway. Outbound scanning, if your corporation really needs it, should be done at your internet perimeter anyway - that way, even a rogue laptop accessing your WLAN can't do harm that way.

I'm a LOT more interested in solid detection and a stable filesystem filter driver engine than I am in features like mail scanning, script blocking, etc. Because at the end of the day, if detection and driver isn't done properly, the rest of the features mean zilch.

Innuendo · « **Reply #7 on:** June 11, 2006, 05:27 PM »

First of all I have never heard of this Scott Finnie character before & having read his articles I think he's a bit of a flake. I'm going to take the opposite side of the table when it comes to silent operation of my AV. I want dialogs. I want notifications. If a virus is detected, a file is deleted, or a file is moved to quarantined or renamed, I *WANT* to know. I don't want my AV doing things behind my back. I want to be kept in the loop.

RE: The NOD32 interface. If you think v2.x is bad you should have seen v1. All the modules were separate and you had an icon in your system tray for each one.

RE: Checking outgoing mail. Unnecessary, IMHO. Anything that is going to be outgoing has to make it past the resident file system monitor. If it checked outgoing attachments, too, with the email module that'd be double the work for no benefit at all.

Lashiec · « **Reply #8 on:** June 13, 2006, 06:34 AM »

RE: The NOD32 interface. If you think v2.x is bad you should have seen v1. All the modules were separate and you had an icon in your system tray for each one.
-Innuendo (June 11, 2006, 05:27 PM)

Now that's a truly BAD design decision...

Curt · « **Reply #9 on:** November 05, 2007, 02:08 PM »

I have to confess that I did think it checked outgoing mail and was surprised to read it didn't.
-Carol Haynes (June 10, 2006, 06:40 AM)

Quite a lot of people are using Outlook, and NOD32 is checking outgoing mail in Outlook.

... I do think the interface (when you do want to make any tweaks) is very porly designed.
-Carol Haynes (June 10, 2006, 06:40 AM)

Hopefully the update to version 3 will solve all of these issues.
-Carol Haynes (June 10, 2006, 06:40 AM)

NOD32 Version 3.0 is being launched now.

The design is of course better - nothing else would even be posible! - and a lot easier to use. And today NOD32 is so much more than merely an antivirus. I think NOD32 is The Best program I have purchased, and now it is also nice to look at!

The image is the 3.0.551.0 BETA version from last week:
(click for full size):

Scott Finnie unimpressed by NOD32 ...

The design of the GUI is now traditional, and easy to understand:

Scott Finnie unimpressed by NOD32 ...

Compare "old" antivirus versions, (if you trust this kind of praise)

Scott Finnie unimpressed by NOD32 ...

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #10 on:** November 05, 2007, 04:16 PM »

Thanks, I'll check out the new version

mouser · « **Reply #11 on:** November 05, 2007, 04:21 PM »

As a long time Nod32 user i am very curious to see what v3 has in store.. and im interested in checking out their new suite with firewall, since i've soured on Agnitum Outpost.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #12 on:** November 05, 2007, 04:51 PM »

First impressions after installing NOD32 v. 3 (just the AV) using default settings as an in place upgrade to v. 2.7 is that my system feels a bit less responsive.

The interface is certainly clearer and I like the fact it feels like it was written for Windows rather than some mythical OS but there is still a feeling of feature splatter - it could still do with some decluttering and rationisation (IMHO) and not just an idiots version which doesn't show you much (which is the default setting).

iphigenie · « **Reply #13 on:** November 06, 2007, 04:32 AM »

The interesting thing is that Scott Finnie whose article in 2006 started this thread, is currently calling NOD the best AV in 2007 (although only the AV, not the suite)

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #14 on:** November 06, 2007, 05:12 AM »

Interesting - I thought he had moved exclusively to the Mac these days? That's why I unsubscribed from his newsletters!

mrainey · « **Reply #15 on:** November 06, 2007, 07:01 AM »

I unsubscribed for the same reason (plus, he ridiculed my favorite backup program, BootIt NG - he was much more concerned with how it looked than how it worked).

Curt · « **Reply #16 on:** November 06, 2007, 08:37 AM »

The version on the pictures in my previous post is version 3.0.551.0 which is a BETA version that was downloaded from Major Geeks before the weekend, but the final version you can download today from Eset's homepage is version 3.0.551
~ Looking at the version numbers I find it pretty hard to tell the difference!

Lashiec · « **Reply #17 on:** November 06, 2007, 08:50 AM »

Don't worry, Scot Finnie uses more computers and operating systems at a time than Messenger windows a teenager to chat with his/her friends

(although I'm guilty of doing the same

). And I see Scot finally converted the newsletter in a blog.

BTW, I opened another thread about ESET Smart Security </shameless plug>

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #18 on:** November 06, 2007, 09:56 AM »

I'm just surprised to hear him commenting about Windows software - he quite explicitly said at one point that he was dropping Windows altogether.

Lashiec · « **Reply #19 on:** November 06, 2007, 11:48 AM »

I missed most of his newsletter over this year, but a quick review of them shows various sections where he states the newsletter is going Mac zealot anytime soon, though he is using a Mac as his main machine. The only casualty is Linux, as the editor of that section (his wife) can't oversee it anymore. Besides, he was promoted to Editor in Chief of Computerworld, shunning Windows would be stupid.

Actually, I appreciate he talks about Mac, as he gave a good list of software for it (this would prove useful for future reference), and if he can treat the system as a mere machine, there should be no problem there.

But he bought an iPhone

J-Mac · « **Reply #20 on:** November 13, 2007, 11:46 PM »

I'm just surprised to hear him commenting about Windows software - he quite explicitly said at one point that he was dropping Windows altogether.
-Carol Haynes (November 06, 2007, 09:56 AM)

Where did he say that? I've known Scot for years and as far as I know he has steadfastly insisted that he would still run Vista and XP and continue to report on them. Just his main "daily use" machine is now a Mac. I don't think you'll see Scot stop wrting about Windows anytime soon - too much juicy stuff for a writer to pass up!

Jim

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #21 on:** November 14, 2007, 04:48 AM »

It was quite a while ago now - the last email I received before I unsubscribed. I couldn't see the point in subscribing to a newsletter that had a main focu on Mac - which is what he said it would be in the future.

mrainey · « **Reply #22 on:** November 14, 2007, 06:23 AM »

From his February 2007 newsletter - http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/88.htm

"Bye-bye Windows! My three-month Macintosh trial may have ended, but my new permanent gig with the Mac is just getting started. Apple's computer and OS X are now my PC and operating system of choice. If you give the Mac three months, as I did, you won't go back either. The hardest part is paying for it — everything after that gets easier and easier. Perhaps fittingly, it took me the three months of the trial period to pay off my expensive MacBook Pro. But the darn thing is worth every penny.

In early November I began a total-immersion trial of the Macintosh as part of my research in gauging whether Vista is most people's best operating system choice. I started by making a brand new MacBook Pro 17 my primary computer. For a month before the trial officially started in November, and the two weeks that followed, I worked on selecting products, converting data, and setting up corporate software systems for my company, Computerworld, as well as finding solutions for personal use. Prior to my adoption of the Mac, I had one Windows computer for both business and home, so the Mac had to handle both sets of tasks too.

After hundreds of hours testing Vista and living with the Mac for three months, the choice was, well, crystal clear. I've struggled to sort out my gut feeling about Windows Vista, but the value and advantage of the Mac and OS X are difficult to miss. Microsoft's marketing materials for a past version of Windows used the phrase, "It just works." But the only computer that tagline honestly describes is the Macintosh. Don't translate that in your mind as, "Yeah, so what, the Mac is easy to use." Any new computing environment takes some getting used to. The easy-to-use aspect is nice, but not all that significant. When Mac users say, "It just works," what they mean is that you spend more time on your work, and a lot less time working on your computer."

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #23 on:** November 14, 2007, 06:32 AM »

Thanks - that was the one that I unsubscribed from. Seems pretty unambiguous to me.

Does that mean he has had a rethink since then (presumably as a result of cash offers to edit ....)?

nosh · « **Reply #24 on:** November 14, 2007, 07:16 AM »

NOD32 let me down once when it failed to detect a trojan, tarnishing its spotless image (and to some extent my peace of mind). It was the startup monitor + firewall combo that came to the rescue instead. Startup Monitor has saved me more times than any AV over the years. I'm not going to be daft and claim it's a solution but it is a very effective supplement.