I personally use ESET NOD 32, a paid version of antivirus software.  I was sold on this product based on how lightweight it is, how it constantly scans files being used, updates hourly, and overall is just engineered well.  I use it on all my machines and frequently sell it to people.  I have not used other virus protection regularly in a couple years now so I had no idea what to expect when running Comodo Antivirus.  The rest of this post will be broken up into different sections based on different tests that have been performed.  Below are the results in a table.  Under the table, each section is explained in detail.

*In a 5 hour block Comodo never updated.

System Setup

For the system setup I used a host machine with VirtualBox running a client operating system.  On the host machine I used a custom built computer running Microsoft Windows 7.  More specifically, it had the 64 bit professional edition.  The processor was an Intel dual-core running at 2.33GHz.  It had 6 gigabytes of memory.  This included two dual channel 1 gigabyte sticks of random access memory and two dual channel 2 gigabyte sticks of random access memory.  The motherboard being used included a built-in NIC running with a 1Gbps connection to a Linksys switch, which in turn was running 1Gbps to a Dlink router.  The router was connected to a Wide Open West (WOW!) Internet connection.  The Internet is supposed to handle 10Mbps for downloads and 1Mbps for uploads.  I suppose I should also note the exact version of VirtualBox that I used: 4.0.4r70112.  All of these specifications are important to note considering the types of tests I completed to compare the two products.

Before starting to test the two products, I was planning on running two virtual machines simultaneously.  I have done that in the past with Linux machines and have not seen too much of an issue.  Upon installing two identical installations of Windows 7 in VirtualBox, I quickly realized they were competing for processor power.  I did not feel this would be a good comparison since it was ultimately up to the host machine what client received the bulk of the processing power.  What I decided to do was first come up with a game plan as to what things I was going to test for.  After brainstorming for a while, I came up with a list of objectives: Boot, Boot to usable, Internet Speedtest, VP Install, Updates, Scan entire PC, Download Virus, Update frequency, Auto Scan, Create virus, and Uninstall.

Since the two clients were fighting for the processor I thought about equally dividing up the processor in the VirtualBox settings.  After further review, the machines did not benefit from running at single core speeds.  Today’s standards consist of two to four core machines; so again, I came up with a different plan.  I decided to run one virtual machine.  I would first benchmark the clean install using a couple of tests.  Next, I installed Comodo, ran some predefined tests and then uninstalled Comodo. Finally, I installed ESET NOD32 and ran the same tests.

As for the client side, after all the decision making, I ended up installing a 32 bit version of Windows 7 Professional edition.  I allocated the two gigabytes of random access memory as planned and gave the machine the full processor (minus minimal host resources).  The virtual machine also had access to the 1Gbps Internet connection.  At this time, I installed all the Microsoft Windows updates available, as well as the recommended updates.  Next, I installed Adobe Flash and Adobe Reader.  Then I enabled auto logon so the tests would not be compromised by my keystrokes at boot.  Finally, I checked for full functionality by opening programs, surfing the Internet, and opening miscellaneous programs.

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