Do I need antivirus software?

[Grasshopper]

I'm building a new, dedicated Sage server. If Sage (and YAC) are the only software running (under Win XP), and it's behind an SPI-enabled firewall router, do I need antivirus software?

[stevech]

I have a web server (not Sage) that I've run behind a router for 3 years. No email and no IE.
It has no anti-virus software.
It's never been compromised.

[jptaz]

From my experience I would say do not install antivirus. For me it actually hurt playback performance. Even when I excluded the Recordings directory and stuff it caused problems.

As long as you are not downloading and isntalling weird stuff you should be good.

John

[GTwannabe]

I would definitely run anti-virus. It won't affect Sage at all if you configure it correctly and pick the right package.

AVG makes a good free AV client: http://free.grisoft.com

I use Symantec Antivirus on my Sage server, but have excluded the TV directories from realtime scanning.

[dbfresh23]

If it is just a media server and you don't run anything else on it then I'd run it without an installed AV app. If you want you can still run one of the free online scanners once or twice a month. If you do go with an installed AV app I'd highly suggest not going with Symantec as it is a huge resource hog and in general has slowed down any system I've ever installed it on, not just media servers.

I don't run any installed AV software on any of my systems but do run Panda ActiveScan on them once in a while (maybe once every 2-3 months). I've found that to be better then Trendmicro's Housecall, both of which are free online scanners.

[stevech]

Using the infamous Internet Explorer from the Innovators at Microsoft, and with no real time virus scanner, I got spyware on my PC that rendered my PC useless for several days. Being a software-literate guy, even I wasted tens of hours trying to research how to get this crap off my PC. I was about to reformat the disk and waste another 10 hours when I used a 2 month old restore point to recover, mostly.

Based on that experience, and similar ones in my family, I believe in real-time scanning. The spyware and IE hijack that I got was an old and well known one.

I also switched to FireFox.

None of this relates, I suppose, to a dedicated HTPC.

[dajota]

http://www.litepc.com/

It allows you to remove some vulnerable windows apps on Win98, 2K and XP.

[PGPfan]

Originally Posted by dajota

http://www.litepc.com/

It allows you to remove some vulnerable windows apps on Win98, 2K and XP.

In my experience, LitePC only does a 'fair' job of removing vulnerabilities plus it's not cheap for what it does. A better solution (IMHO) is to use nLite which is FREE and will remove much more. It creates a custom install disk of XP (and other versions) that have the vulnerable extras removed. It just makes more sense to not install something in the first place rather than remove it later.

-PGPfan

[jquinlan]

Originally Posted by dajota

http://www.litepc.com/

It allows you to remove some vulnerable windows apps on Win98, 2K and XP.

Do you run your media server uning LitePC?
I have always wondered if LitePC or NLite would work to streamline my media server by removing parts of Windows not needed by SAGE.

[Jesse]

Do you run your media server uning LitePC?
I have always wondered if LitePC or NLite would work to streamline my media server by removing parts of Windows not needed by SAGE.

Me too. More info please.

BTW, which parts of XP would you recommend removing.

Jesse

[jptaz]

A couple of other solutions:

1. Use a virtual machine for browsing the web, a browser CAN NOT cause damage to a PC if it is running in a virtual machine:
http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/vm/browserapp.html

2. Invest in Process Guard...I use it on all my PCs now - it pevents any process from running that you do not explicitly allow...perfect for a media serever. I only expect a select few applications to ever run.
http://www.diamondcs.com.au/processguard/
This is not a perfect solution, but it does prevent the vast majority of spyware apps and viruses that do not run in the context of a host program.

[PGPfan]

Originally Posted by Jesse

Me too. More info please.

BTW, which parts of XP would you recommend removing.

Jesse

I've created many Sage server builds (and client for that matter) using nLite. I tried LitePC on my main PC, but it really didn't do as much as I hoped it would. The earlier versions did wonders (98Lite) on Win9x, but it's just not the same with XP. nLite on the other hand, WOW. You can do a ton with it. You have to be careful and not remove too much or your system won't work correctly. It's free, so the best bet to use it is to read their forums for guidance on what to remove, and what not to. Every build can be different so there is really no 'recommend' things other than common sense. For example, if your Sage server is 'headless' (no monitor, mouse, or keyboard, and running in a closet or basement), then you would likely remove Windows Media Player, Outlook Express, Games, etc. that you would never run on it anyways.

-PGPfan