Windows Server 2003 Antivirus Suggestion?

[Xemus]

Hey all,
I recently built a 2003 domain for a small office. The server is behind a firewall at the moment, but waiting on antivirus. $500 for Norton Corporate isn't justifable, so I need some suggestions. What other AV products that will run on 2003 server are worth the money? What's something for around half that price, but still useable (actually stops virii).

Thanks.

MCSE, A+

 

[sabrinaduncan]

We installed Windows-Exchange into a Netware environment. The Netware server is the virus scanner server, and I plan on keeping it that way. I was able to install the Norton client on the Windows 2003 server just fine, just like any other workstation.

Maybe just a regular version of Norton would work?

F-Prot acted rather strange on Windows 2003 server. Maybe it just coudln't read the file system or soemthing. It did a full scan, but the report said that it only scanned about 200 files.

Also, the Netware client did cause a lot of problems on the Windows server. Removing everything Netware suddenly made all the problems go away. But we did keep the Norton client on.

 

[rhyno2k]

$500 not justifiable when the O/S costs at least $800 and the box $1000+? In these times of Blaster, SoBig, Welchia, etc. etc. etc. etc. I consider Antivirus to be a CORE component of any network! Sure you can go with freeware solutions, but they're mostly per-computer applications. The central management features of a package like Symantec AV Corporate Edition are a necessity to ensure what/when/where scanning takes place. You ensure when new definitions are obtained & installed, you can immediately check the status of any workstation from an MMC console, perform a Network-wide virus sweep if you think a worm is spreading...

I'm all for freeware/open-source, but something like this shouldn't be done on the cheap, IMHO.

But if you insist:

http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php

--RHYNO

 

[Xemus]

Thanks for the posts.
My statement that $500 wasn't justifable for the server was based on the fact that all clients (3 of three) have Norton installed allready, so I wouldn't need the NAV server features. I've allready tried installing a normal version of NAV (2003 version), but it wont install on a server "This product can not be installed on a Windows Server".
I'm all for good AV software, but price is an issue here.
Thanks again.

MCSE, A+

 

[gcdhnjgfhfgsxh]

How about sophos???

http://www.sophos.com

Dave

http://affy.dynu.net

 

[sabrinaduncan]

I can't recommend AVG at all. I got Nimda twice at home, and it detected Nimda but couldn't remove it. Both times, F-prot bailed me out.

I am still missing Doctor Solomon.

 

[sabrinaduncan]

Has anyone considered Trend Micro (PC-illin)?

I should say that we didn't use a normal home version of Norton on the server. We already had the corporate version installed on Netware. Setting up the server as a client worked for our server.

Here is F-prot's site: <

http://www.f-prot.com>.

Good luck.

 

[Xemus]

Sabrina, how often were you updating AVG? Did you have the latest definitions when you got hit, or?
I'm aware of the other AV companies, I was curious to see if anyone had run them on a server and what the results were (fully protected, or did they fail?).
Once again, thanks for the advice.

MCSE, A+

 

[sabrinaduncan]

I was just installing a fresh Windows 2000 server at home when I got Nimda. This was in January of 2002. I was in the process of downloading and installing service pack 2. Suddenly, Nimda appeared. I hadn't thought of installing a virus scanner at the time. Plus, you don't want to have a virus scanner running when you install a service pack.

I went out to the Net and downloaded AVG on a machine at my workplace. Thus, I had the latest and greatest definitions. I made the AVG rescue disk, and AVG failed to remove Nimda.

AVG is also by far the slowest virus scanner you can find. It took about three hours, and then it still didn't remove Nimda.

I did everything right. AVG is garbage.

 

[ChampagneLSC]

I installed the free version of AVG on a friend of a friend's PC, and it found 235 virus infected files. It was able to clean 233 of them, and the other two were just some worthless stuff that I deleted. Also, it may scan slower than NAV, but it doesn't slow down the system as much with it's resident shield.

 

[sabrinaduncan]

In may case, however, there was nothing else running. When I used the AVG rescue disks. I had booted into DOS from a floppy. You can't get rid of Nimda any other way. I did everything right, and AVG still failed.

And it took forever to fail. This was a fresh install of Windows 2000, so I didn't have a lot of stuff on the PC besides the operating system.

F-Prot got rid of Nimda fine. Maybe AVG has been improved since then. I certainly hope so.