ESET is apparently giving away for free NOD 32 antivirus via their ESET India website. The ESET website claims no registration or activation is required. However, the trick is that one needs to be physically located in India to get the free activation and if activated anywhere else it appears to be a 30 day trial. Therefore, install a free VPN software that routes through India for the initial installation. There are several available and one simply needs to do a Google search to find it. Also, make sure that all ports are routed through India during of the installation and first launch of the program. ESET also offers free technical support 5 days a week for Indian users.
ESET NOD 32 installation is unique compared to other antivirus. The download was a small 46 megabytes in size. The installer prompts to setup a password to prevent users from accessing the antivirus (interesting that it was included in the setup), the option to enable threat sense protection, customize the installation directory and more.
ESET NOD 32 offers better protection than the most free antivirus. The engine is VB100 certified. The trick is that Virus Bulletin releases certifications every month. If you look at the VB logo on a lot of websites it states the month that it was won (often several months behind, check out Microsoft security essentials. For Example, it says Dec 2006 or something). Most antivirus only win the VB award maybe a handful of times every year. ESET, on the other hand, has won this every month since 1998. NOD 32 also has been certified by AV-Comparatives as having excellent antivirus protection. Put all of these factors together and NOD 32 has great virus detection.
There are two different scanning options, the smart scan and the full system scan. The smart scan is very fast and scans all critical areas common files, programs files, windows folder and more at approximately 8 megabytes per second. ESET NOD 32 detected openvps.exe as a potential threat but, this is a safe component of a VPN. The smart scan finished in about 22 minutes on a 130+ gigabyte hard drive at 7200 rpm.
From previous reviews, I have noted a that ESET has a ton of features. I can now saw for sure that NOD 32 has the most customizable settings of any antivirus. A few things that I like is that NOD 32 monitors actual ports in addition to the file system for virus activity. So, in theory NOD32 can catch a virus before the entire thing is downloaded onto a system via a pattern signature. One can also completely block removable media or assign it to only certain ports. I am also a fan of the new interface as it presents everything that's useful with the option to switch on advanced options.
Resource usage with NOD32 is excellent. The program uses about 46 megabytes while idle and about 80 megabytes when scanning. It seems that the program actively limits scanning based upon computer activity. It also was one of the first times I didn’t actually detect any slow down as a result of a scan or the automatic protection.
One issue with NOD32 is how it presents the status of the scan. It seems that it moves through 60% within a minute but gets stuck. It would be nice to space out and more properly indicate the scanning status. The settings could also be presented in an easier to understand manner.
Panda Security has released Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.5 as an upgrade to 1.4. The software includes a lot of notable fixes, including faster scanning speeds, even lower resource usage, more advanced configuration options and more. We will be comparing these updated claims to our test’s from the 1.4 versions. Also, Panda Cloud antivirus remains our antivirus of choice due to its light weight and detection effectiveness, on all of our non test systems. If you have the previous version installed, it will automatically update to 1.5. We received the upgrade today.
The installation of Cloud Antivirus 1.5 has been completely revamped. Rather than an older formatted window uncompressing all the files, there is a new sleek interface. In the advanced options there is the option to installer the panda security toolbar and customize the installation location. The installation finished in about 1 minute and offers to install the free or pro version. Continuing, with the light weight theme, the download is small at 694 KB which is an increase of 301 KB from the previous version.
New on the main screen is a graph depicting the scanned files per minute. This is a handy to indicate the antivirus’s status. The main icons have also been redesigned. The scan options remain the same, optimized, scan my computer, and custom locations. Scanning speed has increased from 3 megabytes per second to about 5 megabytes per second. The scanning time has improved from 20 minutes to about 15 minutes (even considering the increased amount of files on the test system). The optimized scan didn’t detect any malware during the scan. However, the most frequently detected items are cookies (double click) type on the other systems running the antivirus. A quick security test to attempt to shutdown the process via task manager resulted in an access denied message. This means that viruses will have difficultly shutting down the process.
Heading over to the advanced menu shows several improvements that panda security has added. New are the detection of potentially unwanted programs, the option to scan compressed files in on demand scans, and a background scanning after cache synchronization (not exactly clear what this feature actually does). There is also now the option to generate advanced logs. In the exclusion area one can exclude files and also whole folders from being scanned.
As far as resource usage goes. Panda Cloud Antivirus went from using one megabyte to now only 328 to 401 kilobytes when idle. This is extremely small and complements to Panda Security for achieving this. Scanning sees memory usage remain about the same as previous versions.
Finally, it appears that the changes from 1.4 to 1.5 are relatively minor but appreciated. Cloud antivirus remains one of the lightest if not the lightest antivirus available online. Not to mention, that the antivirus is completely free. There is now a built-in like system for Facebook and Twitter. I would encourage spreading the word about cloud antivirus, as it is truly a great antivirus program.
Comodo is giving away their Internet Security Program for free for 1 year. If you go over to the regular Comodo website, you can see that this costs 49.99. But, I have a special download link to get the version completely for free. The antivirus has excellent detection and has been awarded ICSA Labs, Matousec.com, WestCoast, VB 100, and a Cnet 5 star rating. There are also numerous features including auto sandbox technology, firewall, and even free live help via the program interface. This Comodo antivirus doesn't require activation (auto activates) is completely free and is legally sponsored by the publisher.
The installation of Comodo Internet Security Pro was easy. The program comes in a special 1 year setup file. Double clicking the 59 megabyte file will start the setup automatically. The setup runs to completion and auto launches Comodo when finished. One problem is that the setup does not allow one to change the setup’s location. However, there are no next buttons to click everything is handled automatically. When the setup completed (in about 1 minute) the program launched the update process. The update is larger than average at 122 megabytes in size and the program required a restart once it was finished.
Comodo Internet Security Pro offers a “Run a Scan” option. In this sub menu there are the “critical areas”, “spyware scan”, and “my computer”. The critical areas scanner scans at approximately 5 megabytes per second (on the slower side) and scans the windows, program files, common files, and more for viruses. The scan started out slow but then boosted to about 53,000 files scanned within 2 minutes. The scanner appears to via a memory scan so that scans are faster as they are done more often. The scanner didn't detect any malware on the test system. However, given the certifications, including matousec.com, one can be assured that virus detection is above average.
In addition, to excellent scanning, Comodo Internet Security Pro offers a fully functional firewall. The feature that stood out was the stealth port wizard. One can setup the stealth ports for everything but not trusted networks, alert one to access on any of the stealth ports, or just make it stealth for every type of traffic. This level of customizability is the norm from Comodo programs. If you want to see more about it you can read our other Comodo reviews that go in depth on the settings. However, one other great feature is the option to speak to a “licensed technician”. Wherever you are within the program this allows one to get help on anything one is confused with. For example, on the update information there is a chat with a technician option.
Symantec has just released Norton Antivirus 2012 Beta. The newest features are improved Sonar 4.0 which utilizes hundreds of heuristic analysis against a process to determine if it’s malicious, a brand new interface, Insight protection upgrades which include whether a file is reliable in addition to whether it is safe or not, performance improvements and more. From first glance, it appears that Norton has out done itself and remains one of the best antivirus around.
The installation of Norton Antivirus 2012 was easy. The downloader was only 779 kilobytes in size and the setup file immediately launched. The only problem that I encountered was that the file needed to be run with administrator privileges. Usually executables include a small shield on them to automatically prompt a user, however this setup file did not. The fix is to right click the executable and then “run as an administrator”.
There are now several new scanning options. There is the computer and reputation scan which include a quick scan, full system scan, and custom scan. The newest feature is the “scan the Facebook wall option” which requires one to give additional privileges to Norton via their Facebook account. I first quickly played around with a couple of the scanning options by starting and stopping them. This routine unfortunately crashed the program, but given that it is beta this is expected. The program recovered after a restart. The quick scan option scanned files at approximately 10 to 12 megabytes per second. The scan checked over 10,000 files within five minutes. The scan utilizes trace based protection in which it scans predefined locations of known malware such as Backdoor.Rustock.B etc.
 
What’s interesting is that even though this “Norton Antivirus 2012” it also includes network protections. They include intrusion prevention, browser protection, and download intelligence. It appears as if the standalone antivirus has morphed into a more internet security like program. This is presumably to compete with the more free antivirus like programs. The settings area is now easier to use with each of the major protection areas on the left and subsets of them. However, the most surprising feature is mobile protection. This is also still in beta and it’s unclear whether one will have to buy Norton to get this features. The taskbar icon has also been updated and it’s easy to simply just disable the auto protect whereas before one would have to jump through several menus. Also new is a bandwidth metering option in which one can restrict the amount of bandwidth is used on mobile broadband to save users money on their capped cell phone bills.
 
During scanning Norton Antivirus 2012 used approximately 50 megabytes of RAM and about 12 percent CPU power. When the program was completely minimized and in its idle state, the program used approximately 30 megabytes of RAM. Given all of the protections and even a side bar widget loaded, these performance figures are excellent.
VirusKeeper 2011 is an extension of the Multi Virus Cleaner program but, with real time protection. The software boasts an impressive virus database and antispyware scanning capabilities, in addition to regular virus detection. The real time shield scans numerous areas including registry and system file modifications, messenger protection, I/O port monitoring and more. The shield also has predefined settings for game, netbook, and normal mode to conserve power and resources. Finally, the program is used by over 10 million users worldwide ensuring broad publisher support.
The installation went well. The download size was 24.4 megabytes and was updated as recently as March 30th. The only problem is that the installation file is located within a zip file (not quite sure why because it only saves one megabyte). However, once the setup file started the program installed quickly. While the tray icon and the real time shield started, I was unable to run an initial scan. A quick reboot solved this problem and the program worked fine afterwards.
VirusKeeper 2011 is kind of unique in that it has three different scanning types. There is the instant analysis, antivirus file, and the antispyware scan. The instant analysis runs a quick scan utilizing the heuristic and behavioral engine. The analysis checks active processes, web browser integrity, new files, and active processes. This scan completes in about 30 seconds and scans at about 2.6 megabytes per second. The next scanning option is the antivirus scanner which has four scanning options the deep, quick, full, and custom. The quick scanner runs at an impressive 10 to 13 megabytes per second and finished in approximately 10 minutes. Another plus is the scanners responsiveness in that it can be stopped and started almost instantly versus a huge lag time with most free antivirus. Next, is the antispyware scanner which extensively checks the registry for toolbars and other spyware programs. This finished in about 7 minutes and scanned 100,000’s of registry keys. An additional option is the cookie area in which VirusKeeper detects all system cookies, not just internet explorer but with all browsers. A user has the option to delete any offending cookie.
There are also several tools available to diagnosis problems with one’s computer. The ProcessWatch displays running process, loaded drivers, and services etc. The only problem is that the trusted database is pretty limited and labeled notepad.exe as unknown. The services and loaded drivers functions also didn’t work on the test system. I like the NetWatch which shows which programs are actively connected to a network and by what specific ports. The “more details” tab shows a lot of information about a process including loaded modules and their location, what windows the program is actively using (extremely handy for malware detection i.e. shows the keyscrambler protection inside of Firefox which could have easily been a keylogger), security privileges , cpu time and virtual memory usage, and more. This is by far the best feature of VirusKeeper 2011. Next, there is the Program Report which lists all startup programs (could be more in-depth). Finally, there are scheduling options and a password protection option.
Resource usage is kind of mixed. I say this because it depends on how many windows are open at a given moment. With the program completely idle and just the tray icon, it uses approximately 20 megabytes of RAM which is better than most free antivirus. When scanning, VirusKeeper 2011 can use upwards of 200 megabytes of RAM and approximately 15 percent CPU power. However, I am really pleased that the real time shield barely affected system operation and boot times.
Some things to improve in future versions, could be one scan that integrates all three scanning options for simplicity. Fewer menus and wait times when launching scanners would also be helpful. The inclusion of cloud integration and a more effective trusted database. Finally, a resizable window could help users with smaller screens.
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