Sonoran Desert

Just wanted to say thank you to ESET also for making the Smart Security software compatible with Windows 10 upgrade. I upgraded both of my PC's from 8.1 to 10 Home edition with out a glitch in the process. Very much appreciate not having any problems with ESS. This is why the ESET solution and this forum are the best in the business.

It's crazy Camelia (and others too, probably) is still using such an old version of ESS (5.2.15.0) and she even tried upgrading to version 6.0.316.0 previously but didn't have good results, got frustrated and stayed with her working (though outdated) version of ESS. I don't understand why ESET would even allow users to keep using such old versions and not force them to upgrade (without any cost, of course). It's vital to get/use the latest version of ESET to stay protected in today's world. Maybe ESET can consider adding wizards/automated hand holding to help newbs/non power users to convert over to the newest version of ESET and import any settings/customization's so the frustration is taken out of the upgrade process. If anyone could design a flawless wizard to automate the upgrade process (and import previous version settings) it would be the brainiacs at ESET.

This is an excellent post with really well thought out approach/solution to keeping ESET users advised of new versions or major updates with a notification. Would be good for novices, people who don't live/care about PC security or want to dig into the inner workings of ESET. It would be nice to see ESET incorporate this option/function in the next version of ESET. I myself would not be interested in any beta news/versions but absolutely want to be automatically notified of any version upgrades or major updates. Also like the idea this would be the default setting to just simply be notified something new is available. Great job on this post, rugk, I appreciate the work you put into the mockups.

Description: Make the email tag message shorter and editable. Details: Have it so email tag messages are shorter with less cryptic database and virus definition info and just have a short message (with the link to ESET) with something like "scanned with ESET Smart Security, a better way to fight malware" or something similar. Possibly make the tag message editable for a custom message with the link to ESET. Veteran ESET power users might chortle and guffaw at this simple request but in my wife's business she talks with and emails many people who don't know anything about computers and malware, it's all mysterious to them. Many of them have "computer problems" stemming from getting malware installed on their systems. They run Norton or McAfee (or other inferior AV's) simply because it was pre-installed on their computer/device and just keep using it, not knowing any better. At times, in the course of conversation, chit-chat, some of my wife's clients complain of "yet another virus" and ask my wife what she uses and she tells them ESS (and recommends Malwarebytes Pro along with ESS for an unbeatable combination). Of course, they've never heard of ESET and their computer "fixers" never recommend ESET either. They just keep bringing their infected computers back to the shop, or have the shop log in and remove the malware, not getting advice to try a better malware solution. This suggestion is presented as just a simple way to "grass roots, word-of-mouth" advertise ESET. In my opinion, people who don't know anything about computers or just don't want to fuss with their malware solution should only be running ESET anyway. ESET is simple to install and works perfectly at all default settings with no tweaking required, perfect for a novice. Everyone emails and having the simple ESET tagline link might make people who don't pay attention to computer security aware of ESET and hopefully try out ESET.

I have to ask, what does ESET do with/about these results? It just seems like Webroot basks in the glory of getting passing marks from MRG Effitas and ESET sucks, relegated to the netherworlds of antimalware also-rans? Is this (again) selective testing procedures, payola, or does ESET need to go back to the drawing board and get it right (just joking)?

If you had to use another malware solution other than ESET which one would it be and why? I think I would use Webroot as it is light, unobtrusive and fairly reliable and would be my likely choice. After using or dabbling with Avast, Norton, Bit Defender and Webroot the reasons I have come back to ESET recently and now will always stay with ESET are: 1. My older PC's just choked on Bit Defender, very noticeable slowdown, especially when using Outlook and other Office programs. On my ten year old PC Outlook would not even open with BD installed. 2. With Norton, it would block Outlook email sending and receiving randomly and would generate a lot of FP's with email attachments and documents. Couldn't open or view them even though I knew they were clean/safe. 3. Avast updates would break the mouse drivers and sometimes the keyboard drivers. Usually, would just have to unplug/re-plug the mouse or keyboard to get them working again, not a big problem but a nuisance. The anti-spam module which started stamping every single email my wife sent and received in Outlook with the "SPAM" warning in the subject field. Avast tech support offered no fix for this. There was no simple way to just quit using the anti-spam module without there being a big red X in the Avast taskbar icon saying I was not fully protected. 4. Webroot web filtering extensions, when browsing the internet, the green, yellow, red traffic light safety indicators of their Bright Cloud reporting system keep breaking so instead of seeing a colored dot indicator, would get endless spinning circles. Would have to uninstall/re-install Webroot to fix this and just got to the point where I just disabled the filtering extensions in the browsers. I'm not comfortable with Webroot not scanning emails and attachments either. Although Webroot takes a whole different approach to malware protection than every other solution it seems like too much could go wrong with not scanning emails. With ESET there are none of these problems. It is just rock solid reliable, causing no problems, don't even know it's there and working. The highest endorsement I can give ESET is that even my wife (who doesn't care to know the how's and why's, nuts and bolts of malware protection) told me "don't use anything other than ESET on my computer anymore" because of the aforementioned Outlook problems Norton, Avast and BD created. Also, in my wife's business she receives a good number of email attachments and ESET routinely intercepts all of the numerous Crytplocker variants and other cooties. Significant reason: Another point that I very much appreciate about ESET is that I use a reciprocal link creation/management software for my wife's website business. When I use this software to check/verify the reciprocal links are still good/active ESET is checking them too. This morning ESET flagged three of the links (there are over 300 links) and after checking further, sure enough the sites were now compromised/unsafe, ESET was blocking them. ESET is the only malware solution that has ever checked these links when I ran the check/verify process. That ESET is doing this when the others don't even think of it gives one a warm and fuzzy feeling and under no circumstances do I want a viewer of my wife's website to follow one of these reciprocal links to an infected website. My apologies for the long winded monologue but these are my reasons/my story for choosing ESET. I find it interesting though if not ESET what else would you go with?

Planet: Thank you for the clarification on the update process. I thought once the news/posting of the the update was announced that the in-product upgrade would be immediate. I just installed the upgrade over the older version and it worked perfectly, only asking for a reboot to complete the upgrade.

Under Advanced/Update setup in ESS 8 it is checked/setup to "Regularly check for latest product version" and also "Always update program components". Last night while browsing the forum I noticed that version 8.0.312.0 (the newest version) was available but both of my PC's had version 8.0.304.0 installed and ESS 8 was saying the version installed was up to date. I was under the impression that that ESS would upgrade to the newest version automatically. I didn't even see any kind of notice that a newer version was available, like a pop-up window or such. If an ESET user did not see the post in the forum how would they know about the upgrade or newer version? So, why is there no auto upgrade to the newest version or at least a notice (that does not go away until you respond to or clear it) of some kind that an upgrade is available?

Thank you for the prompt reply and info. I did contact the webmaster of this site to inform them. It's interesting Webroot did not detect this and of course Windows Defender could not be expected to. The dead on accuracy and outstanding support is why I use and stay with ESET.

Marcos, thanks for the reply, clarification/information. In my wife's' business it was required for her to go to this site and view some photos. It was an inconvenience to not be able to view the site with ESET blocking it. As I mentioned earlier, we used a computer with Windows Defender which allowed access to the site. After viewing the site on the non ESET computer I did a scan with ESET online scanner and nothing was detected. How serious is the JS/Agent.NOQ trojan and would I (should I) be able to add an exclusion in ESET to be able to visit this site in the future? I'm thinking too the owners of this website probably don't know it's being flagged by ESET. Any further info/opinion would be most appreciated.

ESS8 is blocking access to the website hxxp://www.puebloarts(111).orgbut if I use another computer running Webroot or Windows Defender I can access this site. Virustotal.com does state there is one detection for this site by 'ADMINUSLabs" but also shows in the list that ESET says it is a clean site. If virustotal.com is showing that ESET says it is a clean site why is ESET not allowing access to this site by saying it detects JS/Agent.NOQ trojan? If this is an FP, how do I tell ESS8 to stop blocking it?

Thanks for the reply rugk. I wouldn't have known about the DNS Poisoning not being enabled by default until I was reading your post about "small bugs" in ESET. As I said, it just seems this is important and should be enabled by default but then again I am not a knowledgeable power user but more of a novice. I understand having this set by default may cause problems on some systems. I went back in and enabled DNS Poisoning but still wonder if this wasn't enabled would ESET protection be weakened?

I've also had this exact problem too just tonight not only in Chrome, but Opera and Waterfox also. Would get the " Error Code: ERR_ CONTENT_DECODING_FAILED" page when searching Google images (IE 11 browser didn't give this error, worked just fine). A Google troubleshooting page said to try disabling any HTTPS scanning that might be going on. ESS 8 was running all defaults (except that I did have DNS Poisoning attack detection checked/activated) but I reset ESET to all defaults again anyway and the problem cleared up. I had an Opera browser page open trying to connect to Google images (was searching for artist paintbrush clipart) that came up with the images within seconds of the reset to defaults. Also, Chrome and Waterfox worked OK after the reset to defaults too. No problem connecting to Google images.

For what it's worth: I recently came back to ESET (ESS) after using Norton and Avast for quite a few years and dabbling with Webroot and Bit Defender. (The "unbiased" magazine/online reviews swayed me). ESET just exudes quality, excellence and superb craftsmanship in all facets with layers of protection, rock steady reliability and no drain on computer resources. Everything in ESET is just so well thought out and executed. I also appreciate the minimalist (some say outdated) interface. My older computers don't even know ESET is installed (unlike BD, which they choked on). The knowledge base is hands down the best in the business as is the forum. There's a good number of brainiacs who post on the forum, more so than others forums I've looked at. It's pretty impressive when someone complains of a bug in ESET that one of the mods (like Marcos) says, "Nope, it's not ESET, it's a bug in so and so's software, we verified it and told them how to fix it". ESET doing other software vendors research and then telling them how to fix their software. None of those annoying, troublesome green dot/traffic light browser plugins that didn't work or broke the browser so you'd have to disable them anyway. I don't use the the antispam in ESS 8, it's nice that I can disable it and not have the taskbar icon turn red and tell me I don't have maximum protection. The firewall in ESS 8 works flawlessly, not causing any problems whatsoever (unlike Avast and especially Norton not letting Outlook retrieve/send email). I went away from NOD32/ESET after version 3 and now coming back to the excellence of ESS 8 I'm kicking myself for ever leaving. Well that's my story, ESET and I are going to make beautiful music for 2015 and beyond. I can hear my wife telling me "I wish you would fuss over me like you do with ESET".

Isn't having DNS Poisoning detection turned off by default a serious drawback/weakness? Why even use ESET firewall if something this important is not turned on by default? Or is this just another instance that with ESET having so many layers of protection the DNS Poisoning would have been caught by some other detection mechanism? I believe ESET doesn't turn on Document Protection by default because there is on ongoing bug in the Office applications (that Microsoft knows about but won't fix). Even with document protection turned off ESET would detect something going on by other means/layers of protection.