How to download ESET Internet Security International Version from non-US website?

[MrZork 3]

I'd like to download the full International Version trial, but when I go to the international version URL and follow the download links, it ultimately attempts to download from download.eset.com, which is the US site.  Is there any non-US site I can download this version from?

[itman 1,659]

Go here: https://www.eset.com/int/download-home/ .

Also, Eset doesn't have a global version that can be used anywhere. All Eset licenses are country specific and have geographic regional use restrictions.

If you desire to install Eset using a language other than English, refer to this: https://support.eset.com/en/kb3552-change-the-language-of-your-eset-windows-home-product .

Edited December 13, 2022 by itman

[MrZork 3]

51 minutes ago, itman said:

Go here: https://www.eset.com/int/download-home/ .

No, that's what I tried before.  If I navigate from there to advanced/manual trial download, I'll end up at the uRL:

https://download.eset.com/com/eset/apps/home/eis/windows/latest/eis_nt64.exe

That hostname resolves to a US IP address.  So, again, is there a way to download from a non-US site?

51 minutes ago, itman said:

Also, Eset doesn't have a global version that can be used anywhere. All Eset licenses are country specific and have geographic regional use restrictions.

If you desire to install Eset using a language other than English, refer to this: https://support.eset.com/en/kb3552-change-the-language-of-your-eset-windows-home-product .

So what do I do if I'm going to travel to several different countries with a laptop and want to use ESET?  What will happen to an ESET registered in the UK if I travel to the US?  It will stop working?  Block all internet access?  Or are you just saying that updates won't work unless I connect from the country where it was originally registered?

[itman 1,659]

Go here: https://www.eset.com/us/# . Click on Support option on the top of the web page. Open a chat session and ask your questions there.

It has been posted in the forum that some Eset regional distributors offer international licenses. However, they may only be available for purchase and not in a trial version.

Also, Eset regional restrictions are specifically noted in regards to product activation;e.g. product purchased in the U.S. must be activated from a U.S. location. I suspect once an Eset product is activated, it can be used on the same source device anywhere.

[Peter Randziak 1,130]

Hello @MrZork,

ESET has download servers located in datacenters in USA and EU. The download requests are being served based on GEO IP and load-balancing rules. So if the servers in USA are not overloaded, download requests from Americas and close regions should head there. The files served from USA and EU servers are the same.

1 hour ago, MrZork said:

So what do I do if I'm going to travel to several different countries with a laptop and want to use ESET?  What will happen to an ESET registered in the UK if I travel to the US?  It will stop working?  Block all internet access?  Or are you just saying that updates won't work unless I connect from the country where it was originally registered?

You ESET copy will work word-wide.
Restrictions might be in place for the product activation based on the origin of the license batch.

Peter

[MrZork 3]

On 12/13/2022 at 5:47 PM, itman said:

Go here: https://www.eset.com/us/# . Click on Support option on the top of the web page. Open a chat session and ask your questions there.

This will not work.  The US chat support reps will tell you they cannot help you if you ask them any questions about non-US versions of ESET, and they will quickly disconnect after that.

Edited January 11, 2023 by MrZork

[MrZork 3]

On 12/13/2022 at 6:59 PM, Peter Randziak said:

Hello @MrZork,

ESET has download servers located in datacenters in USA and EU. The download requests are being served based on GEO IP and load-balancing rules.

After trying to download from various locations (using a VPN to get an IP in those locations), so far I've been unable to ever find any download link other than download.eset.com, which resolves to a US IP address.  Can you provide the URL(s) for any other download centers?  So far, I can't evaluate the claim that all copies of ESET are the same because they always are downloaded from the US site.

Edited January 11, 2023 by MrZork

[itman 1,659]

As I posted above, when I use this link: https://www.eset.com/int/download-home/ , below is a screen shot when I connect to this link:

When I close the "Visit My Local Website" window, I can perform an Eset download from the International web site.

It appears something with your VPN connection or network setup must be causing the behavior you describe. You might try temporarily disabling your VPN connection. Also try to connect using Firefox.

[MrZork 3]

Yes, I can reach the "international website" too (or the one for France, if I set my vpn to Paris).  The problem is that if I then navigate through the various menus to download, it always downloads from the US website.

For example, from the "international page" you show

• Click on the "download" button for "Advanced Security."  You will go to https://www.eset.com/int/home/internet-security/download/
• Click on the "manually download or try ESET free for 30 days"  This will scroll the page down.
• Click on Download options "advanced download."  This will expose a picker menu showing by default windows 11, ...
• Click on the download button below it.  This will download from https://download.eset.com/com/eset/apps/home/eis/windows/latest/eis_nt64.exe
• Do a web-based nslookup of download.eset.com.  This resolves to IP 38.90.226.111, in San Diego.

When you say you're downloading from a non-US site through the international page, what is the download link?  You can find the URL in Firefox by going to the downloads window and clicking on "copy download link."

[Peter Randziak 1,130]

Hello,

the installation binaries are the same in US, EU and word-wide.

The downloads are being load-balanced, if someone wants to download from a specific server, advanced download tools like cURL needs to be used.

11 hours ago, MrZork said:

The US chat support reps will tell you they cannot help you if you ask them any questions about non-US versions of ESET, and they will quickly disconnect after that.

I assume that they speak of a version activated by a license issued by ESET US as support is being provided by an ESET partner, which sold you the product i.e. issued the license for you...

Peter

[itman 1,659]

13 hours ago, MrZork said:

Click on the download button below it.  This will download from https://download.eset.com/com/eset/apps/home/eis/windows/latest/eis_nt64.exe

@Peter Randziak there is something strange going on with the Eset international web site downloads. Any download initiated there is triggering Eset VirusLab submission whether the file is downloaded or not:

Time;Component;Event;User
1/12/2023 9:44:24 AM;ESET Kernel;File 'iBvrjmAv.exe.part' was sent to ESET Virus Lab for analysis.;SYSTEM
1/12/2023 9:45:46 AM;ESET Kernel;File 'Vqh46bjL.exe.part' was sent to ESET Virus Lab for analysis.;SYSTEM
1/12/2023 9:49:16 AM;ESET Kernel;File 'sYJ70dVS.exe.part' was sent to ESET Virus Lab for analysis.;SYSTEM

 

[itman 1,659]

18 hours ago, MrZork said:

Do a web-based nslookup of download.eset.com.  This resolves to IP 38.90.226.111, in San Diego.

Go here: https://www.robtex.com/dns-lookup/download.eset.com .

Note the following:

Quote

ANALYSIS
This section shows a quick analyis of the given host name or ip number.

IP number

The IP number is 38.90.226.110. The PTR of the IP number is dlm6.eset.com. The IP number is in United States. It is hosted by Cogent.

Cognent is an Internet backbone DNS relay server provider. Depending upon where you connect worldwide to download.eset.com, a different DNS relay server might be utilized. 

If you're still not satisfied, open a command prompt window and enter;

tracert download.eset.com

This will trace all IP addresses connected to along the route to the final IP address destination for download.eset.com. When I ran a tracert on my device, it terminated at a Cogent server:

As @Peter Randziakexplained above:

Quote

The downloads are being load-balanced,

This means Eset is using select DNS relay servers distributed world-wide to serve up its product downloads. Why? Because it speeds up the downloading of large files. The best explanation for your download originating from a U.S. based DNS relay server is due to your VPN obscuring your actual physical location in France.

Edited January 12, 2023 by itman

[Peter Randziak 1,130]

21 hours ago, itman said:

@Peter Randziak there is something strange going on with the Eset international web site downloads. Any download initiated there is triggering Eset VirusLab submission whether the file is downloaded or not:

Time;Component;Event;User
1/12/2023 9:44:24 AM;ESET Kernel;File 'iBvrjmAv.exe.part' was sent to ESET Virus Lab for analysis.;SYSTEM
1/12/2023 9:45:46 AM;ESET Kernel;File 'Vqh46bjL.exe.part' was sent to ESET Virus Lab for analysis.;SYSTEM
1/12/2023 9:49:16 AM;ESET Kernel;File 'sYJ70dVS.exe.part' was sent to ESET Virus Lab for analysis.;SYSTEM

 

hmm the part files shouldn't be send as far as I know.
The ESET web does not matter, it is not handled anyhow specially.
Can you please share the full log entries from the Sent files log, including the hashes? (you may send them privately to me).

[itman 1,659]

2 hours ago, Peter Randziak said:

hmm the part files shouldn't be send as far as I know.

The way Firefox handles downloads is it starts the download process prior to the file actual being saved on your device. It creates a .part file in the signed on user temp directory as noted below. If the file is actually downloded, the .part file is renamed to the actual file name. Otherwise, it is auto deleted.

2 hours ago, Peter Randziak said:

Can you please share the full log entries from the Sent files log, including the hashes?

Time;Hash;File;Size;Category;Reason;Sent to;User
1/12/2023 9:44:24 AM;505E656505A7FBFC174543B4CBB9D31208EA4FE8;C:\Users\xxxxx\Downloads\iBvrjmAv.exe.part;3178460;Executable;Automatic;ESET LiveGuard;xxxxxxxx
1/12/2023 9:45:46 AM;294F090B462DD0782B586B709DC417E8858467F8;C:\Users\xxxxx\Downloads\Vqh46bjL.exe.part;5390318;Executable;Automatic;ESET LiveGuard;xxxxxxxx
1/12/2023 9:49:16 AM;B9ED7D267AC8509A824A0ABC0030AE8C01578BFA;C:\Users\xxxxx\Downloads\sYJ70dVS.exe.part;3981294;Executable;Automatic;ESET LiveGuard;xxxxxxxx

[Peter Randziak 1,130]

Hello @itman,

I checked it internally, it is O.K. that those files are being submitted. So was assumption was not correct. 😞 
Once the download is completed, the files is still has the part in the file name, it is being renamed afterwards...

Peter

[MrZork 3]

On 1/12/2023 at 10:53 AM, itman said:

As @Peter Randziakexplained above:

This means Eset is using select DNS relay servers distributed world-wide to serve up its product downloads. Why? Because it speeds up the downloading of large files. The best explanation for your download originating from a U.S. based DNS relay server is due to your VPN obscuring your actual physical location in France.

Not sure I follow.  I wasn't actually in France.  I used my VPN to connect to a server in France so I'd have a French IP address, and then I tried to download the international (and also the French) version of ESET.  I can pick a server in many different countries and my IP will then appear as from that country.

In every case, it still trace routes download.eset.com to the IP 38.90.226.110 in the US.  Does the site use DNS load balancing or HTTP load balancing?  The latter is harder to detect and all traffic will originate from the same IP.  The issue in that case is that then all traffic is flowing through that US website, for all downloads.

Can you provide a sample trace route that doesn't hit that same IP?  There are free VPNs you can use to connect from several different countries.

Edited January 20, 2023 by MrZork

[Peter Randziak 1,130]

Hello,

7 minutes ago, MrZork said:

Not sure I follow. 

as I mentioned earlier, the installers are binary identical on the US servers and EU ones so use the one offered by the Download site.
The Technical support and other services are being provided based on your license, so just activate the installed product with an license obtained from the ESET US.

Peter

[MrZork 3]

Just now, Peter Randziak said:

Hello,

as I mentioned earlier, the installers are binary identical on the US servers and EU ones so use the one offered by the Download site.
The Technical support and other services are being provided based on your license, so just activate the installed product with an license obtained from the ESET US.

Peter

I was trying to avoid US downloads, so I wouldn't want to activate a US license.

The problematic part of your explanation for me was the discussion of load balancing and tracert as it related to download.eset.com because I can never get it to resolve to any other IP address, no matter the origin IP.

[Peter Randziak 1,130]

7 minutes ago, MrZork said:

I was trying to avoid US downloads, so I wouldn't want to activate a US license.

Sorry about that, my memory does not serve me well 😞 
Installer for which ESET product do you need?

[MrZork 3]

ESET Internet Security, home edition (international).  Need Firewall + HIPS.

[Peter Randziak 1,130]

Hello,

here you are https://ftp.nod.sk/~randziak/EIS/ both downloaded from 91.228.167.190

Peter

[itman 1,659]

6 hours ago, Peter Randziak said:

as I mentioned earlier, the installers are binary identical on the US servers and EU ones so use the one offered by the Download site.
The Technical support and other services are being provided based on your license, so just activate the installed product with an license obtained from the ESET US.

More clarification. Regardless of where an Eset product is downloaded from, the product is the same.

6 hours ago, MrZork said:

I was trying to avoid US downloads, so I wouldn't want to activate a US license.

It is the purchased license key that ties an Eset product to a specific geographic region. This is done during product license activation processing. Assumed is Eset during license activation processing is performing additional device physical location fingerprinting to verify that for example, a U.S. purchased license is being activated from a device located in the U.S.. Also assumed is Eset activation processing is well aware of VPN location hiding activities and can circumvent those in regards to license activation processing.

There were postings a while back from people in Iran who wanted to purchase Eset. Eset is not sold in Iran due to U.S. export list country restrictions which Eset adheres to. The bottom line here is they actually had to take their laptop to Jordan. They then purchased a license in Jordon and activated the license while the device was physically located in Jordon.

Finally, if you run a tracert with your VPN set to another origin country, you will observe that all Internet network traffic still flows through your ISP assigned servers.

Edited January 20, 2023 by itman