Review: ESET Smart Security

Written by: Lee Clemmer • Edited by: Bill Bunter
Updated Oct 25, 2010 • Related Guides: Firewall

I've reviewed ESET Smart Security 4 and liked it for its features as well as its price. Considering the sophistication and quality of this product, the pricing is excellent. I would recommend it to any individual or small business user looking for an integrated host security package.

About ESET Smart Security

According to ESET, "ESET Smart Security adds a firewall and antispam technology to ESET NOD32 Antivirus, protecting your family from Internet threats while blocking annoying junk email.

ESET Smart Security 4 sports an easier to use firewall and delivers smarter antispam for Outlook, Outook Express, Thunderbird and other popular mail clients." I agree with their claim of an easier to use firewall, and am impressed by the small footprint of the product and it's performance. ESET NOD32 Antivirus is a top rated AV solution, and exhibits none of the performance overhead found in similar products I've tested.

Firewall Features
Rating

Interestingly, the firewall can operate in five different modes, depending on the needs of the user and the situation:

Automatic mode - Protection for users without requiring an in-depth understanding of firewall technology
Automatic mode with exceptions - (user-defined rules)
Interactive mode - A configurable interface for more technical users
Policy based mode - Administrator can set and deliver a customized policy configuration for the firewall
Learning mode - Automatically creates rules allowing applications and connections

Integration

Scanning at the Data Link Layer, IPv6 support, and replacement of the Windows firewall & integration with Windows Security center are all welcome and notable features. Anti-Spam integration is available with Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail, and Mozilla Thunderbird.

Other Features

ThreatSense.net is a configurable bidirectional early warning system that keeps the protected computer informed of new threats, and submits information to ESET for analysis. I liked this customizable feature.

The Network Protection mode can be either configured for Strict protection or Allow sharing. This is a convenient "toggle switch" setting for mobile computers, for example, when on a public wireless network.

SysRescue creates bootable media to scan and clean the system without needing to boot the host operating system, to remove infections difficult or impossible to remove while the OS is running.

Anti-Virus Performance
Rating

The anti-virus performance of the AV component, ESET NOD32, is excellent, rated as "Advanced+" according to AV-Comparatives (http://www.av-comparatives.org).

The footprint of the product and impact on system performance is small. One of the biggest complaints I have with other vendors is that their solutions often slow an otherwise high-performance system to a crawl for no discernible reason. No such problems here.

Price
Rating

A 1 User, 1 year license is $49.99, with a 3 year license available for $69.99. There is a 30 day free trial if you would like to evaluate ESET Smart Security for yourself before buying. Considering the feature set, sophistication, and quality of this product, the pricing is excellent.

Business and enterprise licensing is available, for those versions of the product, which have additional management features.

Conclusion

I liked every aspect of ESET Smart Security; it's simply an excellent product. I would recommend Smart Security to any individual or small business user looking for an integrated host security package. If you don't choose ESET Smart Security, be sure you choose some security suite or firewall and antivirus solution. Running without one is a risk you can't afford to take!

Interested in ESET's line of business security products? See our review of ESET Smart Security Business Edition.

More Reviews!

Would you like to read more reviews? Look around Bright Hub and you’ll find reviews of numerous other anti-virus and security solutions including Norman Antivirus and Antispyware, Norton Internet Security , Kaspersky Internet Security, McAfee Total Protection, Blink Professional and ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite.

Dan May 5, 2011 11:02 AM

slowing down my PC

Hi,

I use ESET for quite some time now. But with the latest update, my PC has problems with starting up. Normaly it starts up quit fast, but now it takes for a minute or 2 before i can start using my PC. What's the problem?

frankie Feb 26, 2011 2:14 AM

update problems

I purchased eset smart securty 4 and i am having problems getting my daily updates. It keeps blocking my username and password when i try to sign in. They are the right pw and un. I am not a fan of the eset securty system.

Irritated Jan 19, 2011 1:36 AM

Not so good

I just got infected with a web virus and had to wipe XP and reinstall. Had my ESET key so re-downloaded and installed.

Instantly my wireless connection breaks. Same thing as last time, never could fix it properly so I probably caught the recent virus due to having to open everything up.

This time disabling the firewall completely didn't help, only pulling ESET worked.

Wrote them via their web form, phone # is required but I put in 9s and asked for theirs... Been googling for an hour on my phone and unprotected PC.... your security program isn't good if default result is no internet connection.

Mark Jan 11, 2011 9:27 PM

Eset Smart Security 4

Hello i have been using this system for 2 years and have had no problem what so ever.....I do have to renew now but i think i want to try something else..I have herd a lot of PC tools and will do some research on that product...Any comments on PC Tools please email me and let me know

Kris Apr 27, 2010 3:20 AM

netsh winsock reset doesn't do it

Oh my, considering the dates on some of the comments it is evident that ESET is not doing much to resolve this.

I used to use ESET and I remember getting down to the bottom of the issue with winscok but for the love of me I can't remember how I got it to work.

I removed the 3. something version and didn't use it for a while (six months or more) and yesterday I decided to go with ESET again. The v 4.2.40 is worse with the problem then I remember.

The funny part is, in my case, that I can't get specific things related to winsock to work. While my internet connection works fine for firefox,, eset is blocking IE and some code I have written that uses winsock functions...

netsh winsock reset ... does not do anything for the problem..

joemama Dec 20, 2009 4:18 PM

connection issues

you need to reset your winsock...type this in the run command in Windows:

netsh winsock reset

This should your connect issues.

ali Oct 20, 2009 6:18 AM

ESET Smart Security Is Perfect

I used ESET SS 4 for the first time and it was the best security suite ever. Max defense and minimum resource usage. I have used Bitdefender Internet Security 2009 and in spite of Top Ten Reviews giving it a great rating it failed me.

Lee Clemmer Aug 19, 2009 4:07 PM

RE: eset smart security 4

Kathleen,

We could use some more clarification about what you mean when you say that "Eset has also disappeared", but you can "see the eset folders and list the files". I assume it is still running since you can't delete them, the file(s) are likely locked.
You probably have solved the problem by now: if not, you may want to check and see what services are started relating to eset, and then if you can't run the program but find that the services are running, eset support should have some advice.

Kathleen Jul 19, 2009 9:08 PM

eset smart security 4

I have had to remove PC Security 2009 malware. Eset has also disappeared except that I am unable to access the internet. I can see the eset folders and list the files, but access is denied of I try and remove them I cannot remove the access denied so I cannot remove the program and then reinstall it. It has obviously been damaged by PC Security.
Any ideas?

BobColc Jun 26, 2009 2:22 PM

ESET Firewall has problems

Hi,

I'm a great fan of ESET generally but recently the firewall has let me down badly and crippled Internet access.

Problems arise with both Version 3 and version 4.

There are more details at:

http://tekblogs.com/tb/2009/06/26/internet-access-blocked-by-eset-firewall-solution/

Review: ESET Smart Security

About ESET Smart Security

Firewall FeaturesRating