It will be needless to say that ESET's NOD32 Anti Virus software is now one of the most popular security products in the world. As with any popular products, the demand for the product was high, even among software pirates. There were many pirated versions of ESET NOD32 and ESET Smart Security floating around the new for a while. Not only did these versions carry the full feature set, they could also download virus definition updates - a critical factor with any security product.
Many of these pirated versions were 'extended' trial versions. The cracks would extend the normal 30 day trial period to some 15000+ or 24000+ days. These 'extended' trials could connect to ESET official update servers and download latest definition updates just like any legit version.
In addition to the extended trials, there was another form of workaround for getting virus definition updates. These were 3rd party update servers. These servers, run by various individuals, were mirrors of ESET update servers but sans the authentication so that any pirated user could connect and download updates without issues. This method is not that popular since many go offline quickly and majority of the others get blocked by ESET.
However, a recent server upgrade by ESET may have crashed the party for users of pirated ESET products. The server upgrade has rendered most of the 'extended' trial versions useless. Although the trial period would still read as 15000+ or 24000+ days, the clients will no longer receive latest updates even when there are newer definition files available. Cracked versions will return the message "The virus signature database is current" even when it is not.
There is currently no permanent workaround that i know of to counter this latest move by ESET. However there is the odd exception such as some of the older cracks still working to date on some platforms and some beginning to work after a reinstall. Perhaps a scene group or a P2P group would be able to find a 'PROPER' crack in the near future.
