NOD32 version 3 released

[mhl]

See http://www.eset.co.uk/products/products.php.

Also released is ESET's new Smart Security suite of NOD32 antivirus, firewall, anti-spyware and anti-spam. I haven't been a user of all-in-one suites in the past, but this might be worth a look.

Free 30-day trial available for those who are not already NOD32 users. For those who already use NOD32 AV, upgrade to version 3 is free of charge. There's also a limited-term offer for existing users of NOD32 AV to migrate to the full Smart Security suite for UK £20 (half normal full price).

[SuperSparks]

I'm not able to find the free upgrade anywhere, or even any mention of it :confused:

[mhl]

Nick

If you are already a registered NOD32 user you should have received an e-mail with details (plus a quote from a glowing review of the new version - but I won't bore you with this).

From the e-mail that I received from ESET -

"Existing NOD32 users can upgrade to ESET NOD32 Antivirus Version 3.0 free of charge using your current Username and Password. The installer is available from http://www.eset.co.uk/download/registered_software.php. If you require a copy of your licence details these can be found at http://www.eset.co.uk/lost.

ESET Smart Security prevents, detects and removes malware such as adware, bots, rootkits, spyware, trojans, viruses, worms and other Internet threats you face on the job, at home and everywhere your computer goes. We'd highly recommend migrating to ESET Smart Security and for a limited time existing users can migrate at reduced cost by visiting https://secure.eset.co.uk/order/migratelicence.asp

More details on the complete range of ESET Products can be found here http://www.eset.co.uk/smartsecurity/ENA-ESSV3.pdf"

[SuperSparks]

Hmmm, I never got the email. I'll try those links and see how far I get, otherwise I'll email them. Thanks mhl :)

[mhl]

Glad to be of service, Nick - hope you get your free upgrade :)

[SuperSparks]

Got it, that link you posted worked fine one I'd dug out my username and password :)

[HAN]

I'm a BIG NOD32 fan ( I have over 30 PCs running it) but I would advise not being in a hurry to install version 3. At least not for a little while. IMO, it needs to cook a bit longer.

Since it's release on Nov 5, they have already made 4 builds available for download. For whatever reason, Eset made several changes between the Release Candidate (which seemed to be well received by most users) and the first final version (which had lots of problems.) They seem very committed to getting it right but it's taking time...

[SuperSparks]

Too late :( But I'm very happy with version 3 so far. And the UI is a huge improvement :)

[usil]

The UI could not be any simpler! Looks like they really understood the need of the customer. The nice thing about it is that it is fully configurable through the Advanced mode.

[Tuttle]

I dunno, personally I found the upgrade a step backwards.

My first attempt at turning off the email and Internet scanning (getting to the Advanced setup screen, then unchecking Antivirus And Spyware | Email Protection | Enable Email Protection and Antivirus And Spyware | Web Access Protection | Enable Web Access Protection) killed my web browsing completely. I also had to drill down to Antivirus And Spyware | Protocol Filtering and change that from "Ports and applications..." to "Applications...".

Now I have my Internet back, but NOD32 can't work out whether the email and web access protection is "disabled" or "malfunctioning" (the attached screenshots were taken a couple of seconds apart on different screens) and the tray icon might be green or might be orange on any given boot.

I'm leaving all my other machines on 2.x for now.

[usil]

Did you do a clean install or an upgrade?

[Tuttle]

It was an upgrade. The upgrade helpfully re-enabled the Internet filtering I'd turned off in 2.7 by disabling IMON. :)

[HAN]

IMO, if you are ready to try NOD32 V 3, it should be a clean install. I have read of several users having issues when not doing so.

The way traffic (HTTP and POP3) is filtered in V 3 is very different from V 2. V 2 used the Winsock for the filtering. V 3 nows uses a local proxy (this is NOT the Configure proxy server option.)

I was not happy to learn this (because local proxies can bypass some software firewalls) but Eset says it was done because POP3 filtering was dicey using the Winsock and caused issues when used on servers.

Tuttle: As you figured out, the way the local proxy interacts with the setup is based on 3 areas of the setup. The HTTP and POP3 filtering areas are the first two. The Protocol Filtering is the other. (The Integration with Outlook, Outlook Express and Windows Mail options may also affect POP3, but I don't know what all they do at this stage.)

There are a couple of threads over at Wilders (at the official NOD32 support forum) about the local proxy. IMO, many do not understand how fundamentally different a local proxy filter is from the Winsock method we were all used to.

FWIW... You also mentioned the color of the tray icon when parts of NOD32 are turned off by the user. IMO, there needs to be a way for the user to control this. Why should you live with a "warning" type icon if you purposely turned off a component?

[HAN]

Tuttle: You might find this interesting. A method to disable filtering for Email and HTTP for V 3. I have not tested/verified it...
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=193235

[Tuttle]

I think that's pretty much what I ended up with.

Unfortunately, that just confirms my thoughts that they stepped backwards in this respect with v3 -- if they want to push something as mostly pointless as email filtering for marketing reasons then okay, but let me turn it off quickly and completely. You can still scan my attachments when they hit the hard drive as files before I open them; there's no need to intercept my traffic and create yet another subtle point of failure.

[HAN]

Tuttle: You feelings mirror many over at Wilders (including me to an extent.) I do not believe the proxy was the way to go for the client/workstation version. And based on how little response Eset is giving to the biggest proxy thread, I don't hold much hope for them to listen to us. They "know" better...

[HAN]

New build available 3.0.621. Many enhancements and bug fixes. (I haven't had the chance to update yet...)
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=195309

[x71s8zTN]

Have version 3 since it appeared. Clean installed, as HAN advises. Find it best to do with programs that are deeply embedded in the OS.

No problems at at all so far. Left all settings at default. To me this is a major advantage of this suite. I don't want to forever make rules, approve some obscure .dlls when I have no clue what they are, etc. Maybe the suite is aimed at consumers who just do not want to keep fiddling with their computers but just use them. I agree that configuration of ESS seems more difficult and less flexible than other suites I tried. But then, it is less intrusive.

[SuperSparks]

I've been running 3.0.621 for a few days, and there are no problems to report :)

[HAN]

Yeah, 621 is several steps forward. I'm getting closer to deploying it to the PCs at work... :)

[mhl]

I have been unable to install 3.0.621 - I get an error message that -

"Another application has exclusive access to the file ...\NOD32\...|\cache.ndb - please shut down all other applications, then click Retry".

But it is impossible achieve this. Any suggestions?

Edit: Also, if I try to uninstall 3.0.560, I get the same error message.

[SuperSparks]

I decided to do an uninstall and then a clean install of this one, because of what was said about upgrading. Did you try doing it that way?

[mhl]

Nick - that's precisely the problem I have described in my edit: when I try to uninstall 3.0.560 first, I get the same error message about cache.ndb

[mhl]

Problem fixed - it was necessary to stop the Eset service and HTTP Server in the Admin control panel before uninstalling the old version and installing 3.0.621

[HAN]

FWIW... I installed version 3 build 621 on both of my home PCs this past weekend. As recommended above, I did a "clean" installation (I uninstalled 2.7, rebooted and then deleted the C:\Program Files\ESET folder.)

So far so good! Version 3 seems to run just as smooth as it's predecessor. (I did make several setting changes from the default installation setup. I tweaked things like the Real-time scanning settings, on-demand scanning settings and default scanning targets.)

Don't forget that as a time saver, your individual tweaked settings can be exported as an XML file and saved. I used my export file from one PC to setup the 2nd one. Saved a bunch of time!

Finally, I was quite concerned that Eset made a bad decision when they implimented a local proxy into version 3. Some software firewalls do not handle local proxies well at all. But I am glad to say that ZoneAlarm seems to handle the proxy just fine. Which is coooooollllllll! :D