Re: NOD32 on Linux
On 01/23/2011 05:57 AM, kellyremo wrote:
Anyone using it?
http://beta.eset.com/linux
What are the experiences? Does it slows down the pc? Do we need it?
Disclaimer: My experience with NOD32 is all on the Windows side, and it
ended around two years ago. The sad story below is only my own story,
but I can honestly testify that it wasn't an unusual one among corporate
NOD32 users at one point in time. I very much hope that ESET has put
that part of its history well behind it by now.
I can tell you that version 2.7 (2.732, if memory serves) was a light,
effective anti-malware solution for Windows. It was the only such
software that I ever found that I could run on the heavily laden Windows
application and file servers at work without causing severe performance
issues. (Symantec AV and others I tested even caused spontaneous
rebooting of some types of servers which were, admittedly, running
horrendously bad software.)
Then ESET "improved" NOD32 -- first with version 3, and then with
version 4. Both versions (I imagine much earlier builds than the one you
are considering) were a gigantic step backward, as far as my servers and
I were concerned. These versions were beset with ridiculous bugs and
caused huge performance penalties (not as bad as SAV or McAfee, but
still...). I felt that ESET were essentially marketing software in its
alpha (no, not even beta) stage of development.
I stuck with version 2.7xx for a couple of years, but come budget time
one day we decided to ditch it, since ESET would NOT guarantee continued
support for the old version for any specified length of time.
Versions 3 and 4 of NOD32 were total rewrites of the software from 2.732
and constituted a complete change in the way the software examined
processes in memory. And by the time I finished configuring all of the
"special" file system locations their support people told me to exempt
from scanning, I might as well not have been running the software at
all. Even after extreme special configuration effort versions 3 and 4
were still causing performance bottlenecks due to myriad file handles
issues on the servers. Workstations running version 4 were okay, but not
as "happy" as they had been with the 2.7xx version.
Furthermore, the way the user interface was implemented on these later
versions showed either ignorance of, or a disregard for, the way
security works (such as it is) for Windows user accounts (XP, Vista).
NOD32 used to be light and iron-stove reliable. The last I saw of it --
which I admit was quite a while ago -- the new versions were anything but.
And their user support model was ludicrous -- a user forum, with
moderators from their support group -- was about all that was available
from the central part of the company. Unfortunately, the VAR I used
wasn't any better, and was harder to reach.
What started out for me as a few years (3, I think) of extraordinarily
good experiences with ESET, turned into one of the bigger
disappointments I've had with a software company in almost 40 years of
computing experience.
I hope, for their and their customers' sakes, I was just seeing them in
the throes of corporate expansion difficulties. But it really wasn't
looking good. They were one of the more important of several major
reasons (besides Windows itself) why I finally threw up my hands in
horror and walked away from Windows.
Whether or not you need something like NOD32 -- or any anti-virus /
anti-malware at all -- under GNU/Linux would depend largely upon the use
of the system, particularly with respect to whether or not it has to
handle a lot of mail / files / network traffic for Windows systems. I
couldn't be much help in assessing that since I'm not troubling myself
with Windows very much these days. I limit myself to not allowing my few
Windows users to transfer executables or image files onto Windows
systems from anywhere other than a vetted source, and totally
prohibiting Internet contact of any kind for Windows production systems,
with the exception of plain text e-mail. That's not a practical approach
for many companies, but it happens to work beautifully for this place.
Anti-virus probably isn't usually very high as a priority for most
GNU/Linux systems, except in certain cases, though there are certainly
other precautions that a prudent user of such a system should use.
Good luck!
Regards,
Gilbert
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