Which Antivirus?

[mistergq]

Well, I just tried Kaspersky. I was setting up a new computer for my Mother. her computer has Vista 64 installed on it and CA will not install on a 64 vista. So I installed the trial of Kaspersky on it and on my laptop. I am impressed with it. It is light weight. I actually have the firewall running with it.

I plan on buying 5 licenses in the near future. I will probably uninstall CA on my Sage server and put Kaspersky trial on that computer this week.

[ybrew]

I use Avast on all my PCs.
I normally don't run AV on my sage box, but I've been using this box more and more for remote RDP from work, so I'm installing Avast right now.

I will exclude all my media drives and my sage install folder from scanning. I mainly want the internet protection while using webbrowsers (firefox primarily).

[heffe2001]

Up until a week or so ago, I was a die-hard NOD32 customer. We used to use the older version of Norton Antivirus (the corporate edition) at my work, but last year we were 'upgraded' to Endpoint Protection. Due to a bug in the installer for it, it caused all manner of problems (basically, it left part of the old corporate edition installed alongside Endpoint, and pretty much brought any system with it installed on it to it's knees). We switched over to NOD32 on all our systems, and have been happy with it. A couple weeks ago a friend of mine (who's the Editor-in-Chief over at Neowin.net) handed me the latest Norton Internet Security 2009 package and asked if I wanted to do a review of it for Neowin. I took it and installed it on a couple test systems, and I couldn't be happier with it. Memory usage is much lower than anything else I've used, and the impact on CPU resources has been streamlined as well. NOD32 usually sits at around 40m in memory at idle, where NIS2k9 uses a mere 6-7m on average, with spikes of 18-20m. They also have a new Silent mode that disables notifications when using a full-screen application. For a Sage-only box that you'd like to put some sort of AV on, I'd suggest the Gamer edition, doesn't have all the features of the NIS, but is also light weight, low-impact, and has even more aggressive Silent features. If you'd like to check out the review, it's here: http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/0...-security-2009

[motobarsteward]

I'm using Kapersky on my server and two clients. Although completely stable on the clients, I get the occational BSOD on the server. I'm trying to diagnose this at the moment but since XP's full memory dump on BSOD the problem has not re-occured!

I'll let you know the outcome...

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by heffe2001

snip 8< A couple weeks ago a friend of mine (who's the Editor-in-Chief over at Neowin.net) handed me the latest Norton Internet Security 2009 package and asked if I wanted to do a review of it for Neowin. I took it and installed it on a couple test systems, and I couldn't be happier with it. Memory usage is much lower than anything else I've used, and the impact on CPU resources has been streamlined as well.

Wow they must have completely revamped their software in the last few years. There was a time when anything with the Norton name on it was sure to win any "Most BLoated/Resource Hog" award on the planet!

[mistergq]

I uninstalled Kaspersky from the server. When Sage would update the guide, it would freeze the clients and extenders. I decided to go with AVG.

[rockwella]

Ive been using zonealrm suite for a few years, and have always been happy with it. It is not excessively annoying, or lax about security. I find I can customize most everything about what it does. I like it a lot. And the way I have come to see antivirus is that a. something that is free is less likely to be as regularly updated as a pay service, 2. even with antivirus you should always be ready to walk away from an install of windows and reformat..sometimes it just not worth the hassle of getting rid of the virus. Like I said, been using zonealarm for years, have downloaded many many suspicious files, and have been on this install of windows for the better part of six months.

Id look at reviews online as these things seem to fluctuate in comparative quality

[HD_davester]

The best anitvirus for my Sage server is to not use the web browser on that box. Or email. Or use of folder sharing with any permission other than read-only. I suppose the "Online Services" function could provide some vulnerability. If the user could select "Warez.com" as a URL, it probably would get tainted.

Unless you don't have a firewall, it would be rare to "catch" something otherwise. I support servers for a living, for a company that also sells Antivirus. Granted, they are Unix boxen, but even when available, I don't know anyone that would waste a cycle running such services. We watch CPU and memory usage closely. The methods and efficacy of antivirus software always show enough warts to get removed. One lost transaction and that package is toast.

Chances are you only needed a MS patch anyway.
I've scanned my server over the years (since 2004) and never had one.

And I can get the "yellow box" corporate stuff for free.
Fine for the laptop or workstation. End-points are fine.
Not for servers, IMHO.
Do your (Non-Sage) browsing and email somewhere else.
Use the antivirus on all other user boxen.

[LJSSageUser]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Thanks for all the comments so far.

I just realized, based on at least one post, that I forgot to say that this is for Windows XP Pro.

Oh, and:
I'm curious: Is this only for the free version & the paid-for version gets rid of those things?

I have no problem paying for software, but I won't use anything "free" that has hidden strings like ads & nags... that's not really free.

- Andy

This message brought to you by Chew-It, the worlds favorite gum for professional level jaw workouts.

My favorite free one is Avira Antivirus. It's unobtrusive, has good scheduling capabilities, and superb detection.