Unlike some of the other software vendors in this review, Eset only sent in software to run on one workstation, so that although it does provide centralized administration software facilities, we were unable to evaluate them.
However, the single user software has all the expected facilities, contained in logical modules, and has a smaller memory footprint than some of its rivals, which may be a consideration in some cases.
It was also unobtrusive in operation, which is not always the case – other antivirus products can suddenly and unpredictably generate frantic bursts of disk activity and consume processor cycles at an alarming rate.
As with some other vendors, Eset has an automatic link to its site to provide both early warning notifications of new virus threats and an automatic upload of any possible new threats the software might detect on your systems.
The workstation installation offers a number of settings, named "typical", "advanced" and "expert", although most users will probably be content with the recommended "typical" setting. Most of these, concerning such things as server settings and the activation of email and internet scanning modules, can be altered afterwards.
It is worth noting that the internet module (IMON) scans internet connections including email clients, while the email module (EMON) is intended to operate with MAPI-compliant clients such as Microsoft Outlook, which do not necessarily have internet connections.
The software allows virus detection alert messages to be sent to designated administration computers either through email or over the LAN using Windows Messaging.
Once installed, the software integrates seamlessly into the user interface and remains demurely unobtrusive until it detects a virus, when it will display a warning message that is very hard to ignore.
Eset software includes an optional link to its "ThreatSense Net Early Warning System," which can submit suspicious files to the company's own threat evaluation laboratory. It is possible to configure this facility so that it will never submit files with specific extensions, which could go some way to calming fears of inadvertently leaking confidential information.
