It is still my strong opinion that NOD32 is the finest anti-virus product available, and this remains the opinion of many independent testing labs.
Whilst this position is a moving target, it has been the case for at least the last five years.

An internet security suite like ESS combines anti-virus, anti-malware and firewall products. Popular consumer products like Nortons Internet Security do so at a horrible cost in system performance and networking problems, and are in my opinion, better avoided.

It's a shame that ESET chose to follow the market trend and produce a security suite. I think their efforts would have been better spent improving the malware detection capabilities of NOD32.

My recommendation is a combination of products rather than an inefficient security suite. NOD32 version 2 remains my pick for anti-virus. Normal users are well catered for with the Windows XP or Vista firewall, which achieves the most important objective of blocking any unauthorised incoming access. Users with children and teenagers operating their computers, or those who visit web sites whose intentions may not be good ("free" music and games sites are an example) should also use an anti-malware product. I recommend Spybot S&D, available at no cost from www.safer-networking.org . Mac and Linux users still require no anti-virus or malware products, and should simply ensure that their computers firewall is active or that they are behind a router.

Please feel free to contact any of our staff to discuss this or other IT matters.

kind regards,
Peter.
December 16th, 2007

Peter Machell
Systems Administrator
mobilecomputing.net.au