What network anti-virus do you use?

[Asha'man X]

Hey fellow admins

I was just looking though the NOD32 admin program when this though popped into my head. What package are you using on your networks, and why? Are you happy with it, and does it perform well?

Here at our school, we changed to NOD32 from Symantec Corp AV version 9 about 3 months ago, and it's paid itself off already in infections picked up. The reasons we changed include Symantec falling behind the times, update files were huge, and performance was sluggish. It missed a lot of the new breed of malware. Also, we have a lot of older computers in the network, and the new Symantec packages are too system intensive for that.

The amount of infections entering the network is now almost down to nothing, it's just the odd flash drive autorun trojan that pops up. Almost every computer had been infected with the SYS32 trojan, but now it appears to be only lingering on the odd flash drive.

I do have to admit that the management tools of the Symantec AV were very good, it was easier to work with than the NOD console, but it's no train smash.

I'd be interested to hear your stories

 

[HillBilly]

AVG -> ESET

I was using AVG 7.5 Network but switched to ESET Smart Security.

AVG used more system resources during system scans. It was also a LOT cheaper to move to ESET and get more functionality (ie anti-spam module) than to renew AVG.

Personally, I like the ESET centralised admin tools more than AVG. I have finer control over firewall configs.

The downside to ESET is that the admin server has to run on Windows and I could never get the remote installation to work; ended up having to go round to each workstation to install and point to the admin server.

 

[AvOk]

I was using AVG 7.5 Network but switched to ESET Smart Security.

AVG used more system resources during system scans. It was also a LOT cheaper to move to ESET and get more functionality (ie anti-spam module) than to renew AVG.

Personally, I like the ESET centralised admin tools more than AVG. I have finer control over firewall configs.

The downside to ESET is that the admin server has to run on Windows and I could never get the remote installation to work; ended up having to go round to each workstation to install and point to the admin server.

Worked with AVG, ESET, Symantec, Mcafee.

AVG worked really well, just get the scanning times scheduled correctly as Hillbilly mentioned.

Symantec = , but its seems a lot of corporates are using it and still there are people who swear by it.

ESET, we have one site on ESET, and it does not seems to detect all spyware and trojans(machine was cleaned with AVG), in saying this all machines were quiet badly infected when ESET was loaded by the previous comopany.

Currently we are using Mcafee, all round it is all right, nice management from the server side, but push installs are problematic as well as updates. But it seems the IT managers are pushing for Symantec next year. It comes down to functionality and ease of deployment in a large corporate environment. If you have decent proxies, decent firewalls and control of all Profile environments Symantec should be fine.(Symantec will be integrated with our Blue coat firewall as well as SCCM/WSUS)

Personally in a small environment I would look at AVG. (less than 200 users)

 

[Kloofvreter]

SEP FTL

 

[Asha'man X]

Interesting reading so far, thank you. Always good to learn and appreciate other people's views.

@HillBilly

Pity you couldn't get the remote install feature to work, it saved me quite a bit of time when deploying it here at the school. It only failed on me once, when a laptop had an aborted install of Avast that I had to sort out manually.

Anyway, in general, NOD has worked well for us, and now that those flash drive tojans have basically been cleared out, things have settled down and become quiet.

I would like to work with some other packages to broaden my knowledge, but getting hold of corporate style products isn't always that easy. I haven't seen any college or training institute offer courses on these products either. Bit of a catch 22 I guess.

 

[ghalied]

Trend Micro OfficeScan and Mcafee Enterprise

 

[Conradl]

I tried using Mcafee and it just irritated me. The updates are massive and the management interface is painfull. I prefer Symantec. I also implemented Kaspersky at a customer the other day and was pleasantly surprised....

 

[syntax]

I would like to work with some other packages to broaden my knowledge, but getting hold of corporate style products isn't always that easy. I haven't seen any college or training institute offer courses on these products either. Bit of a catch 22 I guess.

I sound like a broken record on the Av side, but F-secure has a trial period on their products, u can install the management server and clients etc...
http://www.f-secure.com/webclub
If you need trial keys pm me.

Trend Micro OfficeScan and Mcafee Enterprise

Dont know much about trend except how to remove it, had complaints from clients about it missing alot of stuff on usb's...

 

[ghalied]

You can only miss potential threats if your virus/intelli traps are outdated, updates should be done everyday, your software can't catch what it's not aware of as potential threats, USB port should be locked down as well.

 

[Kloofvreter]

I tried using Mcafee and it just irritated me. The updates are massive and the management interface is painfull. I prefer Symantec. I also implemented Kaspersky at a customer the other day and was pleasantly surprised....

Are you talking about Symantec Endpoint Protection? Now there's a resource hungry anti-virus package!

 

[Bismuth]

We use Trend Micro OfficeScan for the WinXX machines.

And Linux on the rest!

B

 

[Conradl]

Are you talking about Symantec Endpoint Protection? Now there's a resource hungry anti-virus package!

Made me think for a bit there SV; actually I was talking about Symantec AV corporate edition. I like it because it is simple to use and provides simple AV protection. Took a look SEPs functionality and it looks like your description is right.

All I want is simple, realtime AV protection. My new notebook had some new Symantec do all, cure all package and it just frustrated me. Being told that something bad could happen everytime I clicked started to make me paranoid! When Symantec Corporate goes EOL I'm screwed....

 

[Kloofvreter]

Made me think for a bit there SV; actually I was talking about Symantec AV corporate edition. I like it because it is simple to use and provides simple AV protection. Took a look SEPs functionality and it looks like your description is right.

All I want is simple, realtime AV protection. My new notebook had some new Symantec do all, cure all package and it just frustrated me. Being told that something bad could happen everytime I clicked started to make me paranoid! When Symantec Corporate goes EOL I'm screwed....

I found Trend quite effective and not at all resource intensive. AVG 8 works for me as well. Although SEP is much more than just an AV, it still required a gig of RAM to prevent your PC from being too slow.

 

[Asha'man X]

Made me think for a bit there SV; actually I was talking about Symantec AV corporate edition. I like it because it is simple to use and provides simple AV protection. Took a look SEPs functionality and it looks like your description is right.

All I want is simple, realtime AV protection. My new notebook had some new Symantec do all, cure all package and it just frustrated me. Being told that something bad could happen everytime I clicked started to make me paranoid! When Symantec Corporate goes EOL I'm screwed....

The Corp Editions had a lease of life granted to them with virus updates being continued, but that will stop during this year. It was the reason we moved over to NOD at my ex-job.

I would suggest NOD if you are looking for plain and simple protection, it works a charm. It's not noisy, doesn't slow the systems down, and can run on quite a lot of older systems. The integrated anti-spyware is ok I guess, I've never really had to test it.

 

[dabouncer]

Are you talking about Symantec Endpoint Protection? Now there's a resource hungry anti-virus package!

Too bloody true. Systems using it are dead slow now.

Have a look at Mcafee TOPS, it has proved to be quite good. Simple application and works quite nicely.