NOD32 How I hate thee

[ICT_GUY]

I have wasted the best part of a week trying to get this god damned horrible piece of software to work.

 

Remote admin is a nightmare. It will fall over for no reason, it will refuse to update a client if it has an earlier version. Clients won't connect even though they have ALL the right settings. Then sometimes they will. Push installations will fall over on a random basis.

 

All I want it to be able to download a package, farm it out over a network and then keep tabs on what's going on. Is this too much to ask?

 

ARGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH:getmecoat:

[plexer]

Oh dear I've just bought this

 

Ben

[EduTech]

Hi Mate,

 

What version of the Remote Manager are you using? If you have used the old Remote Management Software and are now using the new one you will find some changes in regards to where you find things but it does work very well from when I have used it. Do you get any errors when you are deploying the packages?

 

I've not had any problems deploying this round a school as of yet, most probably just something silly as it does work and if you have found a specific problem I'll speak to the NOD Developers whom I have contact with and try and help out as best as I can.

 

Don't loose the will to live straight away, drop me a PM or something and we can have a chat and get you sorted It's pretty quiet here today so I should be able to help you out.

 

James.

[SYNACK]

I feel your pain don't let NOD near a Windows 7 x64 network. Sure it all looks good for a couple of months till you try to do something complicated like install a MSP patch or uninstall a program. Its at this point that you find NOD helpfully locks certain files and breaks a bunch of basic windows installer actions unless you switch it off. Of course if you did not switch it off before you tried it will have hosed the installer database anyway so its reinstall time.

 

This environment may be more tricky than most - being developers - but I would not recommend it, Forefront works fine though.

[EduTech]

I feel your pain don't let NOD near a Windows 7 x64 network. Sure it all looks good for a couple of months till you try to do something complicated like install a MSP patch or uninstall a program. Its at this point that you find NOD helpfully locks certain files and breaks a bunch of basic windows installer actions unless you switch it off. Of course if you did not switch it off before you tried it will have hosed the installer database anyway so its reinstall time.

 

This environment may be more tricky than most - being developers - but I would not recommend it, Forefront works fine though.

 

I have it running in a totally Windows 7 x64 Environment and don't have any of those problems you have experienced mate. I know it sounds like I am being defensive but trust me I aint just saying what I have done/seen myself. I never used ESET before until about 6 months ago.

 

We have one set of people that have those workstations that install/un-install software daily, and I have not seen NOD cause any problems.

 

J

[SYNACK]

I have it running in a totally Windows 7 x64 Environment and don't have any of those problems you have experienced mate. I know it sounds like I am being defensive but trust me I aint just saying what I have done/seen myself. I never used ESET before until about 6 months ago.

 

We have one set of people that have those workstations that install/un-install software daily, and I have not seen NOD cause any problems.

 

J

 

Perhaps their automatic update is not working propperly and we have an older version or something. There again these are the same people who made an Exchange DB scanner that completely trashed our exchange DB - twice on two seporate occassions. Both times the fault was acknolaged and fixed in time for it not to affect their major markets but it still meant two exchange database rebuilds for me and some very unhappy people. I have just had so many stupid and destructive issues with their software that I do not trust it as far as I could throw it (or send it by email as the case may be). Even if they do have a working version I simply don't trust it not to turn around and block all SMB and http network communication (had it happen) or eat the files on the hard drive because it was having a bad day.

 

I don't doubt that many people have had good experiences with it and I do agree that when it is working it does seem to do its job well but the problems it can cause just aren't worth the risk for us anymore.

Edited September 29, 2010 by SYNACK

[EduTech]

Perhaps their automatic update is not working propperly and we have an older version or something. There again these are the same people who made an Exchange DB scanner that completely trashed our exchange DB - twice on two seporate occassions. Both times the fault was acknolaged and fixed in time for it not to affect their major markets but it still meant two exchange database rebuilds for me and some very unhappy people. I have just had so many stupid and destructive issues with their software that I do not trust it as far as I could throw it (or send it by email as the case may be). Even if they do have a working version I simply don't trust it not to turn around and block all SMB and http network communication (had it happen) or eat the files on the hard drive because it was having a bad day.

 

I don't doubt that many people have had good experiences with it and I do agree that when it is working it does seem to do its job well but the problems it can cause just aren't worth the risk for us anymore.

 

Eeek! That is pretty shocking so I can see why your upset by it... I would probably be too if it was me, as I say I do recommend it now but only from limited experience as I have only been using it for 6ish months and I haven't had to do much configuration (10 minutes) to get it working and deployed. (deployed install obviously took a bit longer).

 

also remember to add exclusions in to the Management Console for the Exchange Directory's!

 

James.

[SYNACK]

also remember to add exclusions in to the Management Console for the Exchange Directory's!

 

It wasn't the primary scanner but the specific pay for extention designed to scan and moniter Exchange that caused the problem in our case. They didn't have trashing exchange on the feature list so it must have been added later

[ICT_GUY]

In my case I just cannot get it to work reliably, it falls over all the time for what should be a REALLY simple installation. All I want it to do is farm out one version of the AV to the network and set it to update.

 

I am reinstalling the software and I am going to go through it step by step.

[tom_newton]

For SmoothWall customers, I believe you can obtain GFI (nee Sunbelt) VIPRE at a very keen cost if you call your account manager. The ease of use of the admin console is my favourite bit of VIPRE tbh. It's not perfect, but its the nicest AV I have used so far.

[bio]

I must say i only had one issue with nod32 in the past (the corrupt update a few weeks ago). Nonetheless i got it (RAC v3.1.15) running on a windows 2008 R2 box with no issues at all. No experiences with the latest RAC 4.x version though.

 

bio..

[EduTech]

I must say i only had one issue with nod32 in the past (the corrupt update a few weeks ago). Nonetheless i got it (RAC v3.1.15) running on a windows 2008 R2 box with no issues at all. No experiences with the latest RAC 4.x version though.

 

bio..

 

I have Installed V4 in a couple of places and it appears to stable and does work, some of the simple tasks have moved but once you re-find them it is fine.

 

@ICT_GUY once you have re-installed it, give me a shout

 

James.

[chazzy2501]

What NOD says and what NOD do, don't match. I've had a problem with scheduling in NOD since I installed it 3 years ago and technical support was and still is rubbish. Basically I have double updates for the AV that then clash and throw an error. I can send out a new config with a new schedule it says yes but when I check the client it's unchanged! arrrrrrrrrrrrrrg.

 

also it's impossibly difficult to make an MSI for it!

[EduTech]

What NOD says and what NOD do, don't match. I've had a problem with scheduling in NOD since I installed it 3 years ago and technical support was and still is rubbish. Basically I have double updates for the AV that then clash and throw an error. I can send out a new config with a new schedule it says yes but when I check the client it's unchanged! arrrrrrrrrrrrrrg.

 

also it's impossibly difficult to make an MSI for it!

 

When you download the Installer from NOD it comes down as an MSI? So then all the changes would be done via the Central Administration.

 

If you are speaking to NOD Technical Support, and getting a bad service if you have the Ticket ID's PM them to me! I'll cause a scene at one of the next partner meetings!

 

James.

[leco]

For what it's worth I have been using NOD for over 4 years. Firstly on a Windows 2003 server with XP clients and now with Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 clients. I also have an Exchange server that is protected by NOD for Exchange. Apart from the initial learning curve, I have not had any problems or issues. Deploying packages to clients, getting them to update from a mirror on my server, monitoring installs, and updates, checking for versions or virus. I do understand your frustrations ICT_Guy and can only sympathise with your situation. I hope you can get it sorted soon.

[witch]

For what it's worth I have been using NOD for over 4 years. Firstly on a Windows 2003 server with XP clients and now with Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 clients.

 

This is exactly the setup I have in both schools and I have few problems. I set it all up with help from their support guys and I have to say that they are some of the most helpful support people I have ever met.

[Simcfc73]

I moved from Sophos to Nod and managed to get it running after a struggle and now its pretty good.

 

heres what I found works for me

 

* the update web server needs to be moved onto its own IIS, the in built one is useless for a bigger network

* I never install via the console.. since I upgraded the console the new layout is awful so all I do is go to the computer and run a batch file tha runs the MSI silently. All new computers automatically get a default profile which updates it.

 

I almost changed back to Sophos but the cleaning and protection seems alot nicer in NOD so I am sticking with it... I really miss the simple console of Sophos.

[jsnetman]

Also here after initial setup problems works like dream on x64 and x32, only problem I see is that sometimes it won't update until you reboot. Oh and you must turn off scan network drives on the client or it will try scanning massive areas, well thats if you have say a mapped drive to a public documents folder that is very big. I can also say that since we got it two years ago we have not had a serious virus attack, it finds plenty and deals with them. Edited September 29, 2010 by jsnetman

[chazzy2501]

Yes it does come as an MSI, but I'm unable to fathom how I configure nod to look for my central admin server. if you deploy the MSI as is, it has no licence, no schedule, and isn't setup to look for central control. I couldn't find away of setting up an MST to send off with it. As for the technical support it was about 2 years ago with ping ponging my problems and being told that what I was experiencing wasn't possible, I decided that mostly working was better for my sanity than exploring a fix.

[EduTech]

Yes it does come as an MSI, but I'm unable to fathom how I configure nod to look for my central admin server. if you deploy the MSI as is, it has no licence, no schedule, and isn't setup to look for central control. I couldn't find away of setting up an MST to send off with it. As for the technical support it was about 2 years ago with ping ponging my problems and being told that what I was experiencing wasn't possible, I decided that mostly working was better for my sanity than exploring a fix.

 

Yeah It would have to be pushed out via the console for this to work as you know, Is this not working for you? otherwise you have to point it to the server manually during the install (not via GPO)

 

James.

[morganw]

You put the config file in the same directory as the MSI and then it installs with the settings you want, finds your server, and then takes additional settings / config changes from it. I've never had to push anything and i've had no problems although I've only been using this since the summer. Whenever I've spoken to support they are usually pretty switched on and talked me through most things.

[plexer]

This is exactly the setup I have in both schools and I have few problems. I set it all up with help from their support guys and I have to say that they are some of the most helpful support people I have ever met.

 

Glad to hear that as I am currently "at queue position 2 in the queue" on their support line

 

Ben

[plexer]

You are at queue position 1 in the queue

 

Ben

[plexer]

Sorted lovely support man gave me instructions on how to download my licence file from their webserver as live@edu had stripped the attachment out.

 

Why they can't include that with the email originally in case that happens I do not know.

 

Ta.

 

Ben

[dhicks]

For SmoothWall customers, I believe you can obtain GFI (nee Sunbelt) VIPRE at a very keen cost if you call your account manager.

 

Does that offer still hold for recent, just-moved-schools customers?

 

For those struggling with NOD32, this thread from a few months ago turned in to a general NOD32 trouble-shooting discussion.

 

--

David Hicks