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Anti-Viral Software for Unix?

Posted by Cliff on from the norton-anti-virus-ain't-the-only-thing-out-there dept.

dameon asks: "I have been looking at using samba to serve NT Files in my office. Currently we use NT servers and pay a premium for HP NetServers. I recently arranged the purchase of a small cluster and a 1.5TB NAS device for some CFD calculations we are doing. My NT Server is scheduled to be replaced this year, and I don't want to spend any more money than I have to. So, I wanted to use the existing VA NAS device to do the serving. I ran into one problem: the lack of commercial Anti-viral software for Linux. My company (large to say the least) uses Norton Antivirus exclusively. They will not accept anything else. I cannot guarantee that the client PC's all have updated Virus Definition files, so I need to have the server protected. My question is this: What will it take to get commercial Anti-Viral packages to list Linux as a supported platform? I am surprised this hasn't been a bigger issue to date. Or perhaps I am missing something." Anti-virus scanners aren't anything new to Open Source software, is this the reason why players like Symantec haven't tried to break into it? If not, what would Unix users need to do to convince Symantec and other commercial entities that there really is a market for native virus scanners?

6 of 19 comments (clear)

  1. Norton only? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2
    My company (large to say the least) uses Norton Antivirus exclusively. They will not accept anything else.

    You might be able to argue that is it better to use a different antivirus solution on the server. Different products have different strengths, and one will be quicker than the other to catch a new virus. By using Norton on your desktop systems and McAfee on your server, you'll catch more problems sooner. After all, if an infected file is on your server, your desktop protection has already failed -- that file on the server came from a desktop system, right? Bonus points for having a server that can't be infected by a Windows virus.

    Rules are made to be improved.

  2. Re:What we do... by larien · · Score: 2
    McAfee is a dream to administer for updates; at my old work, I grabbed the updates nightly from NAI's web site onto the local FTP server (NB: don't try to use 'mirror' for this, as the MS FTP server doesn't work in way mirror expects). Then, all the clients would check overnight for updates and automatically install them. Also, the system had a 'window' it would try to do the updates in, so they didn't all go to the FTP server at the same time!

    After spending a couple of days on getting the installer working (it also comes with an installer creator which will automatically put all the install options in), I never had to touch the clients and they were always kept up to date. Not bad for over 250 workstations!
    --

  3. Unix Antivirus by Mc+Fly · · Score: 3


    Well, we have been using Kaspersky anti-virus for Unix with no problems. It has an add-on for sendmail, postfix and qmail.
    Also, there is an NT version "Webinspector"...
    It works really good!

    Thats why we sell them here in Argentina...
    Contact me for details...

    --
    He is the Path, the Truth and the Life
  4. F-Secure by kinnunen · · Score: 2
    I know at least F-Secure makes a Linux-version of their anti-virus software, and if I'm not completely mistaken, they have for years.
    http://www.f-secure.com/products/anti-virus/

    It really is surprising that not everyone port their AV-software, as the most important part of package is the scanning engine (plus defs) which should be 100% computation (=portable). A Linux version shouldn't need a memory resident part or anything else highly OS-specific, just a simple command line-program that scans a file.

    --

  5. What we do... by wizzy403 · · Score: 4

    While not an open-source solution, here's what we do where I work. We use Norton Anti-Virus Corporate Edition (The corp-ed is important). This lets us build a NAV server which will go out and grab the updates auto-magically on a schedule (we do it once a day early in the morning). It will then push the updates out to all running clients! And if a client is not online, as soon as it is turned on, it contacts the NAV server and queries if there is a new signature update.

    This package is a dream to administer. Once a quarter, Symmantec sends me a CD pack with any updates to the scanning program, and I install this on the server. Because I run Win2K on all the desktops, I can remote-install the software on all the workstations in the building without having to go over and do the usual "Let me know when I can schedule 30 minutes to install this software." crap across a few hundred machines. Plus I never have to worry that someone didn't bother to keep up with the virus updates. I can also schedule scans of any computer whenever I want, and get notified if problems crop up.

    As pointed out by someone else, if you're uber-paranoid, just map a network drive to the samba shares and schedule a scan from your NAV server. You can use any system running either NT or 2K for your NAV server. You don't have to dedicate the machine, and the box can even be running the "workstation" flavor of Windows and still be a NAV "server".

    Now if you could do all this under Linux that would be super-cool, but until then, I think this will be your best bet. The Server license is a bit more than the usual copy of NAV, but the client licenses are dirt cheap ($10 apiece if I remember correctly) so if you have more than 25 workstations to adminsiter, you're going to be saving TONS of money and time.

  6. Commercial Anti-virus for Unix by arglesnaf · · Score: 3

    McAfee has a version of netshield that run under UNIX