ESET Smart Security

For a number of years now I have been using individual applications for my personal firewall and Anti-Malware security which has until now consisted of a combination of Zonealarm Pro and the ESET NOD32 Antivirus System. My Zonealarm Pro subscription finally finished a couple of days ago and I have began investigating my other options for protecting my PC from Internet nasties.
I have now decided to replace both packages with Eset Smart Security and have combined both firewall and anti-malaware needs into one tightly integrated suite. With Zone Alarm Pro uninstalled and Eset Smart Security on my system I noticed an immediate increase in the swiftness and general responsiveness of my computer. Zonealarm Pro and NOD32 were collectively sucking up my computing resources for some time now.

Additionally, just last week I noticed on the Eset website that there is a version 3.0 of the NOD32 Antivirus System. I had been using version 2.7 until recently.

My current NOD32 installation is configured to notify me about component updates. I guess component updates does not include a notification about a new product release! In between the suite upgradedid use the 3.0 version for a a few days. Under my existing license I am entitled to download and operate it. It has a much more user friendly interface then 2.7 ever did, and this is brought through into the security suite as well.

It's early days so far but I am missing the visual traffic indicators that Zonealarm provided in the system tray/notification area. If I believe it warrants it I will write-up a full review on my tech blog.


Additional Information: A computer virus is a program (a block of executable code), which attaches itself to, overwrites or otherwise replaces another program in order to reproduce itself without the knowledge of the computer user.

The week continues

I know I have been rather slack recently with my posts. Unfortunately, nothing of great significance has happened recently. Today, I will cover the weekend up until today. Lets call it a roll-up update, like the kind you get from Microsoft after you install a new OS.

Going back to Saturday, Anisha and I did a big house cleanup. We have been house sitting mum and dads house for three weeks now. Later that night we went to pick up mum and dad from the Airport. Mum got me some shirts from Ozzy.

I have been tinkering around with Microsoft SBS Server 2003 and ISA server over the weekend too. I finally put the evaluation copies of said applications to use. The installation is complete, but I think I should get a book on complete administration.

Today I received my first issue of M2, The complete lifestyle magazine for the New Zealand Man. This was courtesy of Auntie Carol. I sent her a text message to let her know it arrived and thank her.

Anisha let me know today that on Wednesday it is Talk like a Pirate Day. She told me how she was cutting out eye patches and parrots at work.

Finally, my NOD32 Antivirus subscription expired on the 10th of September, and ive been a lazy bum and have not renewed it yet. I briefly looked at Norton 360, but decided against it in the end. If you believe the Virus Bulletin antivirus reviews, then Eset NOD32 is the cream of the crop. Since owning my first PC, I have only ever had one serious virus incident that I managed to contain effectively.

Useless Information: The children's nursery rhyme, "Sing a Song of Sixpence," was used by members of a pirate ship as a coded message.