What makes NOD32 one of the best antivirus

Posted on February 23, 2008.

What is NOD32 ?

• NOD32 is an antivirus package made by the Slovak company Eset.
• Versions are available for Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and other platforms.
• A NOD32 Enterprise Edition is available that consists of NOD32 AntiVirus and NOD32 Remote Administrator.
• The NOD32 Remote Administrator program allows a network administrator to monitor anti-virus functions, push installations and upgrades to unprotected PCs on the network, and update configuration files from a central location.

NOD32 was born in the early 1990s when computer viruses were becoming increasingly prevalent.

What does it provide ?

• AMON (Antivirus MONitor) - scans files as they are accessed by the system, preventing a virus from executing on the system.
• DMON (Document MONitor) - scans Microsoft Office documents and files for macro viruses as they are opened and saved by Office applications.
• IMON (Internet MONitor) - intercepts traffic on common protocols such as POP3 and HTTP to detect and intercept viruses before they are saved to discs.
• EMON (E-mail MONitor) - An auxiliary module for scanning incoming/outgoing e-mails via the MAPI interface, such as Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Client.
• XMON (MS eXchange MONitor) - scans incoming and outgoing mail when NOD32 is running and licensed for Microsoft Exchange Server - ie, running on a server environment. This module is not present on workstations at all.

What makes it the best ?

• NOD32 is written largely in assembly code, which contributes to its low use of system resources and high scanning speed.
• NOD32 can process more than 23MB per second while scanning on a Pentium 4 based PC.
  It uses less than 20MB of memory in total.The physical RAM used is often just a third of that.
• According to a 2005 Virus Bulletin test, NOD32 performs scans two to five times faster than other antivirus competitors.
• In a networked environment NOD32 clients can update from a central “mirror server” on the network, reducing bandwidth usage since new definitions need only be downloaded once by the mirror server as opposed to once for each client.
• In addition to signature files, NOD32’s scan engine uses heuristic detection (called “ThreatSense” by Eset) to provide better protection against newly released viruses.

Also Visit: ESET website