Alternative Enterprise Anti-Virus Solutions?

Darth_brooks asks: "I admin for a great non-profit organization that has spent the last year rebuilding after a massive fire. We've got a pretty tight system running now, especially compared to the unmanaged chaos that existed before the fire. Firefox for surfing and T-bird for for e-mail, WSUS for updates, and we're slowly replacing Office with OpenOffice. But out anti-virus solution (command AV, a holdover from our old system) is not cutting the mustard. Specifically the management console isn't exactly reliable, and we just don't feel like we're getting our money's worth. What alternatives can the Slashdot crowd suggest?"

"The two obvious names that come to mind are Norton and Mcafee. Since all of our machines are donated, we really don't have the resources for Norton (who does?) and Mcafee's just been dealt a black eye. In addition, we're on a limited budget. Our machines are mostly P2 & P3's, and we're an XP / Active Directory shop with some scattered Fedora & BSD boxes scattered about for non-desktop tasks.

The biggest features we're looking for are the ability to centrally manage updates (which rules of AVG's free edition), and a reasonable price tag for licenses for 50-60 machines. Our current solution is only in place because we signed a long term licensing agreement, and I don't want to see us get into another deal for a product that doesn't turn out to be as god as advertised. I'd also like to hear some of the Horror / Success stories from users."

ClamAV/ClamWin

[LinuxWhore]

ClamAV might work. THe only downside is that it doesn't yet have a real-time process scanner. If you can keep people from executing what they download before scanning it for viruses, ClamWin [clamwin.com] might do the job. You could manage the virus updates via your logon script, or just use the normal internet update. Plus ClamAV works on your Linux boxen too!

I'd call AVG...

[masdog]

It wouldn't hurt to call up Grisoft and explain that you're a non-profit looking for a good AV solution. You might get a pretty sweet deal if you talk to them.

AVAST!

[Verteiron]

Try Avast Antivirus. It's got a far more powerful and configurable network manager than Symantec's, costs about half as much (for 3 years!), and updates MUCH more frequently, using smaller updates. It also automatically uses a local mirroring system so that your clients don't hog the bandwidth trying to get updates from the internet. The client has a smaller memory footprint than Symantec's client.

The best part is you can download it and run it completely unrestricted for 60 days to see if it works for you.

Re:Just get AVG and be done with it

[ceeam]

One note though - during the time I used AVG it detected exactly _zero_ email viruses of 5 or 6 I got - even when I specifically asked it to scan attachment EXEs. Ok - quite probably other AVs are no better since it is the nature of such viruses to propagate within hours of being released and AV updates take days. Now I just run without any AV. Yes, corporate environment may differ but I just wanted to point it out.

F-Prot

[Bob Cat - NYMPHS]

http://www.f-prot.com/ [f-prot.com]

$5 per PC/yr, less in volume. At >100 it goes down to $2/yr.

A bit of a clunky interface, but the users will never have to bother with it. Set it to auto-update from a server (which updates from f-prot), tell it to mail you when a virus hits the real-time scanner. Simple, cheap, fast, and effective. The updater and real-time scanner take less than 1MB memory.

Try the free trial, keep the (free) DOS scanner on a bootable CD with your tools, even if you don't buy the GUI version.

Re:Don't get TrendMicro OfficeScan

[giorgiofr]

Uhm yeah it took me all of two minutes to disable it on my box at work, even though it was locked down. The fact that TrendMicro put a backdoor (a default password for when you forget the real one) in it helped quite a bit.

Re:F-Prot

[Reziac]

My choice for over a decade. Reliable, competent, and lightweight.

And they've never once given me any reason to believe they're in anyone's pocket or have any hidden agendas. Just a good reliable AV solution at a minimal price.

Re:NOD32

[MaineCoon]

I can't agree enough; NOD32 is superior to anything else I have used. We use it on all our computers at home, I had my mom get it, and every friend who I have convinced to give the 30 day demo a try, has ditched whatever they were using and bought it.

It's low impact on system resources, extremely effective, and they update frequently. It catches stuff Norton/McAfee don't bother with - things not quite 'viruses' but not exactly good for you either (such as intrusive activex controls and the like).