14 DAY TRIAL // ESET Smart Security's advanced mode offers much more flexibility in configuring the protection for your machine. Each of the menus presented in standard mode are option-enriched for the application to best suit your needs. The three modules incorporated (antivirus and anti-spyware, firewall and anti-spam) can be set up for protection around the clock of your system.
Advanced mode comes with expandable menus allowing for quick access to Smart Security's options and settings. Thus Protection Status window provides much more details about the number of files scanned and infected objects detected giving the user a complete rundown of the situation.
Personal Firewall screen is generous enough to provide users with a list of connected applications together with the remote address they connect to, the ports used for the operation and amount of data sent and received in the process.
Anti-spam overview consists in listing the total number of messages parsed by Smart Security's engine and the amount of spam messages. Lower in the window it is all broken down into scanned messages, amount of spam, number of blacklisted/whitelisted emails, messages reclassified by users as spam and reclassified by users as not being spam.
Scanning the system using the advanced mode of ESET's latest product does not differ from standard mode. The same Standard Scan and Custom Scan options await the user and there is absolutely no additional input. But you can access Scan Setup part of Options menu and configure the on-demand scanner for obtaining the best results.
As ESET Smart Security can be used for performing multiple scans at a time users can set it up to run background scans with low priority (this way you do not put too much stress on computer resources). More configuration in this area involves setting up ThreatSense engine of the program by defining what objects should be taken into account (operating memory, boot sectors, files, email files, archives, self-extracting archives and runtime packers), what methods should be used (based on malware signatures, heuristics, potentially unwanted/unsafe applications) and adding the extensions you want to be skipped during the scan process.
ThreatSense can be configured for each protection unit included in antivirus and anti-spyware module: real-tim file system protection, system startup file check, email protection, web access protection and on-demand computer scan. For each of these you will have fairly different options.
Unlike Computer Scan menu, Setup brings full configuration for all three protection modules of the application. It offers full customization of antivirus and antispyware, of the personal firewall and the way anti-spam serves you. You can also configure a proxy server in case you're using one or import and export settings to a safe location.
Setting up antivirus and anti-spyware module may seem a walk in the park at a first glance but a look under the hood tends to contradict and bring a smile of content on any advanced user's face. The three types of protection included in this section (real time protection, email protection and web access protection) can be customized in the sense that one can change the way ThreatSense acts with each of them.
RealTime file protection is the richest in options providing quite a few settings besides those pertaining to ThreatSense. You can choose the media to be scanned and when the files should be checked for malware (computer shutdown, file execution, file creation, file opening).
Email protection has at its core ThreatSense technology for detecting malicious data trying to penetrate the system. Additional options let you customize the alerts and notifications in case of infected messages. These can be marked with a user defined template (I would not change it as it is as explicit as possible when it comes to the infection) and select the messages which should be appended the note.
Web access protection (scans downloaded files and shields you up against eventual attacks during web browsing) relies on the same ThreatSense engine. If you have already set it up for real-time and email protection then there is absolutely no novelty in setting it up here as there are almost the same options available.
Personal Firewall has three filtering modes that fit any user's needs, be him/her a beginner or advanced. Automatic filtering of the connections is the easiest way to go here. Of course, it does not offer too much flexibility as each connection is automatically evaluated by Smart Security and taken care of. Most of the users will appreciate this filtering mode as it automatically allows standard outgoing connections and blocks all non-initiated incoming connections.
However, more advanced users will not find this very attractive as there is no user input and you will have to submit to the application's decisions and not the other way around. Fortunately, interactive filtering mode gives you the opportunity of deciding "who" goes out and "who" comes in. Users will be prompted each time a connection is attempted, either inbound or outbound, in order to decide on the action. You can grant permanent or temporary permission or denial. Additional configuration permits selecting the protocols for data transmission.
A third filtering mode is policy-based and is the strictest of them all. In this case, the application will treat the connections according to the already defined rules. If some communications have no rules then they will be automatically denied.
Anti-spam, the third module of the application, can be handled with ease by both advanced users and less skilled ones. The interface does not offer much and at a first glance, whitelist and blacklist options are all there is. But there is more than meets the eye as in advanced setup, users can also define the text that should be added to spam messages and the folder they should be moved to. Automatic additions to whitelist are also possible and you can append all addresses available in address book as well as those of recipients from outgoing messages or in the emails not classified as spam.
Apart from the user's input in anti-spam settings, ESET Smart Security also integrates in a number of email clients for a better management of spam messages. Unfortunately, there isn't too large a pool of supported clients and they are limited to Outlook, Outlook Express and Windows Mail. ESS integrates in their interface by creating another button allowing quick access to spam scanner's settings and a folder in which all ESET detected spam is stored. The integration is complete as context menus in these three email clients also have an option (courtesy of Smart Security) for reclassifying the emails as spam or valid.
Tools area of the interface contains all the log files, quarantined items and the scheduler of the application. Users can access lists of detected threats, events and errors occurring in the program, on-demand scans as well as all remote attacks detected by the firewall. Each piece of information included in one of these lists is time and date stamped for an accurate placement in time.
Quarantine stores all malware that has been moved to a safe place from where it cannot act on the computer. The list can be enriched by adding files you think suspicious. More than this, all the files in this list can be sent to ESET laboratories for detailed analysis. Also, if the application has detected a false positive, this is the place you can restore it to its original location.
Regarding the scheduler sported by the application I was expecting something different. Its simplicity and yet functionality is baffling. You can program on demand scans for the entire computer to take place either at a certain point in time or triggered by an event (at computer start, dial-up connection to the Internet/VPN, when virus signatures are successfully updated, program is updated or at user logon).
Other activities like running an external application system startup file check or updating can also be scheduled. The same ease of use is encountered when planning any of these tasks.
Standard mode Antivirus and Anti-spyware Firewall and anti-spam
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
