Gnomie Josh Araya writes:

Recently, I was tasked to test SoHo (Small Office/Home Office) security software. In this test, I have tested many of the major anti-virus and anti-spyware suites, and I must tell you, NOD32 Antivirus System by Eset is the clear winner.

Eset’s anti-virus product uses advanced detection methods to protect your computer in a superior way. NOD32 has an all-inclusive protection engine that protects from spyware, Internet threats, and viruses. During a three-month period of testing, I audited my test systems with other third-party security tools daily and have yet to find a single piece of malware not caught by NOD32. This protection works so well that, after two months of testing NOD32, I have ditched my separate anti-spyware and Internet protection software altogether in favor of NOD32s all-inclusive suite.

Possibly the most compelling reason for my switch to NOD32 is the small footprint. I, like many of you, hate to give up my system resources to ANYTHING, especially an anti-virus package. I hate when I install an anti-virus package and my CPU usage jumps and my free memory drops megabyte after megabyte. Then, after I take this performance hit, I am not done yet, because I still need to install an anti-spyware suite! In the end, my computer is running so slowly that I feel as if I have a virus. Don’t I install this software to protect me from malware that causes loss of performance? Unlike these performance-robbing security packages, NOD32 uses less than 20MB of memory while running and I have yet to see it use more than 6% of a system’s CPU.

The final reason I believe that NOD32 is the best anti-virus software package is a problem that everyone hates to deal with. Scan times. Most anti-virus software takes nearly an hour to scan a PC, after which I need to tack on another 20 minutes to scan for spyware. That’s close to an hour and a half taken out of my day, something I am not willing to waste. In my tests, I have found that NOD32 takes less than 30 minutes to scan a PC for all types of malware. That is more like it! I can start my malware scan, make a sandwich, and my PC is ready for my use again!

I have yet to see any anti-virus/antispyware software that can rival NOD32 in any of the major categories to look for: speed, accuracy, and resource usage. Until I can find a better product, I must say, I am hooked on NOD.