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).
Today is the tomorrow that you worried about yesterday
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).
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
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...
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.
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.
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?
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.