Antivirus Solutions

[Andrew]

We're currently running SAV Corporate 10 on our 2003/XP network and really
don't want to shell out the $1500 for new 50 new licenses. Symantec has
become increasing more bloated with each new version to the point where, if
I wanted to upgrade to Endpoint Protection 11, I'd need to upgrade my
workstations, and that's not going to happen any time soon.

I've been looking into some alternate solutions and wanted some opinions on
NOD32. AVComparatives.org shows it has a high detection rate and there
seems to be a lot of praise coming from IT admins in various forums. I've
installed the trial and like it so far. Uses much less resources than SAV.
Anyone had any good or bad experiences with it.

Also, does anyone know of any other good products that perform well on
2003/XP?

Thanks,
Andrew

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

NOD32 & Kasperky

 

[R. McCarty]

Agreed - both are top tier products and manageable.
Cost wise NOD32 may be a better value.

 

[Cassandra]

I've had very good experiences with the free version of Avira Antivir on two
different WinXP Pro systems. It also gives good results in the third-party
tests. I've never tried the paid version.

Thanks.
C.

 

[David B.]

I believe the EULA of the free version does not allow use in a corporate
environment.

 

[Andrew]

We are based in the US. Avira seems nice, but as far as I can tell, they
only offer enterprise support in Europe. I was only able to price out their
enterprise product in Euros on their website which took them off my list of
potential solutions.

 

[Thee Chicago Wolf]

I believe the EULA of the free version does not allow use in a corporate

environment.

The OP didn't ask for free alternatives, just alternatives. Yes, they
would have to pay to use Antivir Premium in their environment.

- Thee Chicago Wolf

 

[Thee Chicago Wolf]

We are based in the US. Avira seems nice, but as far as I can tell, they

only offer enterprise support in Europe. I was only able to price out their
enterprise product in Euros on their website which took them off my list of
potential solutions.

Give them a call or send them an e-mail and say you're looking to
ditch SAV for their product but you're concerned about US support and
you want competitive pricing. You never know. Business is business.

- Thee Chicago Wolf

 

[ColTom2]

You might look at AVG, as I know of a business with similar number of
licenses that is well pleased with it. I have had it on both my home
computers for sometime now and I too am well pleased.

A cursory look at AVG's pricing for 50 licenses for two years is about the
same price as SAV for one year.


We're currently running SAV Corporate 10 on our 2003/XP network and really
don't want to shell out the $1500 for new 50 new licenses. Symantec has
become increasing more bloated with each new version to the point where, if
I wanted to upgrade to Endpoint Protection 11, I'd need to upgrade my
workstations, and that's not going to happen any time soon.

I've been looking into some alternate solutions and wanted some opinions on
NOD32. AVComparatives.org shows it has a high detection rate and there
seems to be a lot of praise coming from IT admins in various forums. I've
installed the trial and like it so far. Uses much less resources than SAV.
Anyone had any good or bad experiences with it.

Also, does anyone know of any other good products that perform well on
2003/XP?

Thanks,
Andrew

 

[Michael Jennings]

NOD32 has the smallest resident virus snooper of all the AV's, other
than F-Prot's, for least impact on system performance. F-Prot would be
less expensive than NOD32, but not as effective - doesn't test as well.

 

[Andrew]

Leythos,
according to sites like AVcomparatives.org and avtest.org that other sites
like cnet.com reference, NOD32 seems to be a better choice for overall
protection on one system. NOD32 also has decent reporting functions built
in. I've set up the Remote Administration Conosle on my lab server and it
appears to be quite versatile. It actually has some features that are left
to be desired in Symantecs AV 10 (the RA side of it at least). I haven't
used SEP 11, but I've read horror stories, most of them on Symantec's
forums. Comparing Symantecs $30/license opposed to NOD32 $18/license, where
should I be seeing those extra $12 worth of benefits?

 

[ThePro]

Hi,

You have to remember that all the network admins (like me) with successfull
installation of SEP will *not* post on Symantec's forums.

I found that SEP 11 is less resource-hungry than SAV Corp 10, is easy to
manage, and runs well on 32 and 64 bits platform.

You can enable only the features you want to use (we do not use the firewall
and intrusion detection) and we paid 30$/license for 100 licenses.

ThePro

 

[Chris Barnes]

You might look at AVG, as I know of a business with similar number of
licenses that is well pleased with it. I have had it on both my home
computers for sometime now and I too am well pleased.

I had problems with AVG. First, the built-in firewall tended to block
too much stuff that it should already know about (such as MSN Messenger).

Secondly, when I tried to run the Cisco VPN client, I got a BSoD with
AVG running. Duplicated this on 3 different computers, both with XP and
Vista. Removing AVG solved the problem - and it did not reoccur when I
switched to something else (in my case, Symantec EP).

 

[Hank Arnold (MVP)]

We're currently running SAV Corporate 10 on our 2003/XP network and really
don't want to shell out the $1500 for new 50 new licenses. Symantec has
become increasing more bloated with each new version to the point where, if
I wanted to upgrade to Endpoint Protection 11, I'd need to upgrade my
workstations, and that's not going to happen any time soon.

I've been looking into some alternate solutions and wanted some opinions on
NOD32. AVComparatives.org shows it has a high detection rate and there
seems to be a lot of praise coming from IT admins in various forums. I've
installed the trial and like it so far. Uses much less resources than SAV.
Anyone had any good or bad experiences with it.

Also, does anyone know of any other good products that perform well on
2003/XP?

Thanks,
Andrew

We are currently running Sophos End Point Security. Switched from SAV a
year ago and haven't looked back. they are very willing to deal. We got
a very sweet deal by extending the contract to 4 years....

--

Regards,
Hank Arnold
Microsoft MVP
Windows Server - Directory Services

 

[Phisherman]

We're currently running SAV Corporate 10 on our 2003/XP network and really
don't want to shell out the $1500 for new 50 new licenses. Symantec has
become increasing more bloated with each new version to the point where, if
I wanted to upgrade to Endpoint Protection 11, I'd need to upgrade my
workstations, and that's not going to happen any time soon.

I've been looking into some alternate solutions and wanted some opinions on
NOD32. AVComparatives.org shows it has a high detection rate and there
seems to be a lot of praise coming from IT admins in various forums. I've
installed the trial and like it so far. Uses much less resources than SAV.
Anyone had any good or bad experiences with it.

Also, does anyone know of any other good products that perform well on
2003/XP?

Thanks,
Andrew

I've found that using different anti-virus applications is very
effective against a network attack and detection, with a slight
incease in maintenance. I'd stick with the top 5 rated products. The
$30 per PC sounds quite reasonable, though.

 

[Hank Arnold (MVP)]

I've found that using different anti-virus applications is very
effective against a network attack and detection, with a slight
incease in maintenance. I'd stick with the top 5 rated products. The
$30 per PC sounds quite reasonable, though.

Are you suggesting running multiple AV software packages on the same
computer/server? This, AFAIK, is a very bad idea....

If not, then I don't understand your point.

--

Regards,
Hank Arnold
Microsoft MVP
Windows Server - Directory Services

 

[ju.c]

NOD32 is one of the best so if you like it stick with it.

The best though, and everyone will have an opinion, is Avira:

http://www.avira.com/en/products/index.html


ju.c