Trend Micro - Low Detection Rates - Is it a good product anymore?

No security product is 100% effective, but I can definitely appreciate your dilemma.  Ive been a loyal TM customer for over 7 yrs, utilizing NeatSuite for desktops & servers, ScanMail for Exchange & PC-Cillin/Internet Security for laptops.  Ive been in several situations where Trend has detected infections, but has not been able to clean them.  However, youll have that experience with all products at some time.
 
The main issue Ive had w/Trend Micro presently is w/PC-Cillin/Internet Security.  Starting with their 08 version, the products quality has deteriorated in my opinion.  It causes lockups, conflicts, crashes & the embedded firewall just stops responding frequently.  With 200 laptops, it has been a challenging 2 years.  I recently renewed our NeatSuite subscription, but after evaluating a couple security suites, decided to go w/ESETs Smart Security for the laptops.  It uses less resources, has done a very good job with detection, & overall I am pleased with the decision.

However, in saying all of that, if you have only had a couple of issues with Trend over the past 3 years, Id say youre doing well.  My recommendation would be to evaluate a couple of the programs first.  If you find one or more are better suited for your environment, then make the decision at that time.  

Thanks for all your comments.

I have heard a lot of good things ESET NOD32.  Of all the packages, if I were to move they seem to be at the top of many people's list.  However, in doing some reading it appears that NOD32 is somewhat difficult to configure and is not necessarily recommended for smaller networks of 25 workstations.  I have to admit Trend Micro is easy to deploy.

ljones_cna - What has your experience been with installing and configuring ESET?  Do you feel it would be difficult to configure with all the options for a smaller network environment?  This is for a church environment and I am just a volunteer, so low maintenance and easy is best for me.

Thanks again.

Actually I run ESET's Smart Security for the laptops which is a different application from NOD32, so cannot really speak on the config difficulties of NOD.  Are you currently running OfficeScan on your network?  

Try running the ESET eval first - you can download NOD32 here:  http://www.eset.com/products/nod32.php.

Yes, I am currently running OfficeScan on my network.

Sorry about that.  I got the products mixed up.  I would also need the ESET's Smart Security, which is equivelent to the Trend Micro product I am running.  We have personal firewall and anti-spam with Trend.

How was setup and maintenance for you on the Smart Security compared to your previous Trend Micro?

Thanks,
Roger

Actually setup and config is easier with ESS - you do not have to worry about activating and registering the product... setup is not difficult at all and requires very little tweaking.  

You can download a 30 day trial here: http://www.eset.com/download/free_trial_download_ess.php.  

Forgot to add - ESS is NOT a replacement for OfficeScan.  I have not evaluated NOD32, so again, cannot comment on its interface.  I still run NeatSuite which includes OfficeScan, and still recommend it.  

Thanks for clarifying.  It is my lack of product knowledge.  We are not using TM OfficeScan.

We are using what is now called Trend Micro Worry Free Business Security, which has Anti-virus, Firewall, and Anti-spam.  As far as I can tell, this is equivent to ESET's Smart Security Suite.  The only diffference I can see between ESET's Smart Security Suite and NOD32 product is that ESS has a firewall and anti-spam based on the following link.  http://www.eset.com/products/compare_NOD32_and_Smart_Security.php

In reading about TM Office Scan, it appears to perform virus and malware filtering before even getting to the network or workstation.  The ESS is a second defense to viruses and malware.  We do not have a product or software which monitors incoming traffic for virus and maleware before hitting the network.  Defense sits at the computers themselves.  We are using a neat service called "OpenDNS", which does provide some virus scanning, but only for our internal network and not roaming laptop users.

Do I understand the differnces now?  
Would just using ESS be effective enough, since it seems to offer the same functionality as TM Worry Free Business Security?

Thanks again.

Gotcha!  Trend's Worry Free solution has central management though.  Do you know if you have the Standard or Advanced vesion?

We have the Advanced version, but we are not using the Interscan-Messaging portion since we are not using the Exchange Server on our SBS 2003 server.  We host our email with Rackspace to make life easier.  We get a non-profit discount, so the Standard and Advanced are basically the same price.

To confuse things even more, we have not upgraded our software to the TM WorryFree Security Suite.  We are still running the older software version called TM Client Server Messaging Suite for SMB.  Heard of problems with just doing a upgrading, so recommened to uninstall current version completely from server and workstation to avoid problems.  I have not gotten to doing this yet.

I see.  Because you're running a client-server environment-based product, Smart Security would not be the alternative.  Smart Security would be used more for stand alone machines or remote machines - machines that pull updates individually.  

My opinion would actually be to go ahead with the installation of Worry Free Sec - it's a great product.  You would not perform an upgrade though as you stated.  This should be a clean install.  

Thanks for your reply.

Actually, you bring up a good point.  I do not like how the client/server works with Trend for laptop users.  You need to set the laptop into a "Roaming Mode", but if our server is not able to be contacted then updates do not occur.  The user has to do this manually.  I have heard this issue from other users.  I think they did something in the new version to fix this but need to research more.

I sort of like the idea of each computer getting it's own updates.  It appears their is a centeral management console in ESS from their website which looks great.  I assume that ESET Smart Security Suite 4 is the same as ESS that you refer to, since they are shown on their website under the same topic.  

ESET Smart Security Suite 4 Website states: -- Easy to Manage  ESET Remote Administrator provides a single management console to control an entire network from a single screensupporting tens to thousands of computers. Installation, updates, alerts and other tasks are all easily managed from these intuitive screens.

As you mentioned Trend Micro is a good product, but after reading more reviews, I actually would really like to move over to ESET, because the detection rates are so much better based on AV-comparitive testing.

Do you think the ESET Smart Security Suite 4 with remote management would work in my case?  I do not think it will strain our network to much to have each computer (25) go out and get updates themselves.

Thanks again for your time.

It would work, but you would still need a centralized machine tol collect and store all of the data. Let me find the product sheet...

See the following URL for a diagram and description of Remote Administrator:  http://www.eset.com/products/remote_administrator.php.  

To use Remote Administrator, you'd need a Remote Administrator server  which doesnt necessarily need to be an actual server.  See page 5 of the following ESET manual for system requirements:  http://www.eset.com/download/ERA_Manual_ENU.pdf.

Lastly, I hate to sound like a broken record, but I highly recommend you demo the software before making a decision.  I'd hate to see you replace a great product with one that does not meet your needs, especially considering you have not migrated to the Worry Free version yet.  

This article is what makes me very concerned about sticking with Trend Micro.  Basically, failed the tests in general.  It is not the business version, but they use the same detection engine.

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/44060/review/internet_security_pro_2009.html

Let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Roger