Hello,
My views on good Software based Anti-Virus and Firewall software (2011)
I have to say that over my many years of fixing systems and installing various versions of Windows OS's and testing different combinations of AV/FW packages separately or in combination that I have to say I have always found ESET products great to use intuitive GUI and also an higher than average heuristics detection on malicious code, lack of false positives, etc.
Furthermore, the Firewall Leek tests that I have performed over the past iterations of ESET Smart Security x3, x4 and now x5 have been steadily getting better by each pass.
By better I mean the way that they have developed their core-AV-engine has evolved to keep pace with current trends in the security field and now adding the Host Intrusion Prevention System (HIPS) brings with it a much welcomed addition to making this an higher-end business or SME product.
Now, If I am to go as far as to say ESET/NOD32 is the bee's knees at AV Detection and firewall protection I would be lying..
I will say this however, as nicely as possible, There are other products on the market which out perform ESET and offers much better "Additional" features that ESET just doesn't provide.
AVG, PANDA and more notable Bit-Defender comes to mind...
Things such as, preventing ID Theft / "Secure" Backup to the cloud / and also products which Score better on Firewall probing & leek test results, yes, Kaspersky is one such product which is ahead of the curve and is also considered "|337" in certain circles.
Call me paranoid but ever since the Son (Or whom ever it was) of the kaspersky Antivirus developer got kidnapped and ransomed off; I have kept a healthy distance from any kaspersky products due to the fact that I have a sneaky feeling that perhaps the reason behind this act was to gain insider knowledge of the inner workings of the well known Antivirus Developer algorithms so as to enable the select few who know this information to be better able to exploit it in the wild. and make kaspersky firewall bypass kits or something to that effect.
I don't know maybe I am just a bit too paranoid but I never really liked the Firewall features of kaspersky anyway..
So, the only other thing to really consider when trying to pick a decent Antivirus or Antivirus and Firewall combo bit of kit is to test its operating footprint performance wise. How much RAM doe it occupy how well are the algorithms coded, What is the time it takes for them to roll out a Fix for a 0day exploit..? well, in answer to some of the above its simple; Unless you are running your own businesses or a mission critical application that needs enterprise level security AND performance you should be looking else where than besides the desktop products marketplace. ESET Smart Security 4 and the latest v5 Beta works fine on all versions of the Microsoft platforms albeit a tiny bit sluggish on Windows XP 32-bit with under 1GB RAM. If you can cope with that or have a spec that is beyond this then look no further.. ESET Smart Security 5 is good enough and a joy to use providing you have setup your Zones and Firewall rules correctly, oh yeah and set up the PS3 media server settings correctly its all good baby..
If you want to try something else go and see what ZoneAlarm are up to these days, I keep hearing good things from those guys alternatively if you got the bucks go check out what Cisco / Netgear /Mcafee Ent. products are available.. You can always build your own Hardware based Firewall by grabbing the latest Distro of
Devil-linux and using up that old PC that you are using as a Telephone stand in the corner of your room.
