Which Anti-Virus prog. to replace Norton for my small business?
 

I need to replace norton anti-virus on my small business network. I am looking for opinions regarding what program I should consider.

I know it has been discussed on other threads, which anti-virus to use, etc. but this thread/question is for a small business environment only. Respectfully, I'm only looking for advice only from people who have used or installed an anti-virus system in a business setting, for at least 5-10 computers. This is a decision that is "business critical" and I can't "wing it".

I have about 10 desktops and one server. 1/2 of the comps. are decent workstations used for desk-top-publishing - all running Windows 2000 professional, except one Mac. I have a sonicwall firewall that is a few years old and works great. I have been using Norton - running liveupdate from the server. The desktops then pull updates off our server when their live-update fires up.

I'm not clear on all the reasons, but my technician wants to get away from norton. Maybe something to do with their new subscription model and also some conflicts with windows updates, etc.

I am not looking for anything for free. I want to pay for frequent update service.

Please let me know how it worked for you and how many computers were on the network and if the server can dl the updates for al the other computers so that I don't have all 10 comps. going to the web for their own updates, etc.

Thanks guys.

Avg is totally free and as good as norton.

Lookup up Grisoft on google.

I've used Trend Micro's anti-virus software for the last 2 1/2 years and have been very pleased. Server Protect for our 10 servers, OfficeScan for our 175 workstations and ScanMail for our exchange server.

The server downloads the virus profiles from the internet (mine is set to check for upgrades every evening) and then pushes the upgrades out to each of the clients. If you're running an NT network you can also remotely install the virus software on the clients.

For the 2 times I've needed tech support they were quickly available and solved the issue in a reliable and professional manner.

They've provided our non-profit with discount pricing.

They evern have a free online virus scan.

You can get more info at http://www.trendmicro.com/en/home/us/smb.htm

"Totally free" for personal use. Not for businesses. However, I second the AVG recommendation; I've never seen it cause interference the way McAfee has for me.

I third AVG, even if you get setup for a business lic. they are by far one of the most resonably priced anti-virus programs.

I don't want to critisize (sp?) but if your technician has problems with Norton AV, shouldn't he recommend another program that does work well with your setup?
Or is this a second-opinion?

the reason I'm asking is: I've been a happy Norton user for several years, and besides some Windows bug that cancelled my automatic updates, nothing ever went wrong for me... But I only have 2 workstations that each download their own updates.

i'll second the "why switch." comment. What's wrong with Norton. We've used norton Corporate at my job for years and have never had a problem with it.

Not to be indelicate, but are you sure the problem doesn't lie with your technician?

Let me first say that I am a personal user and I do not own a small business or anything like that, so I'm telling you that so you take my opinion for what its worth which is, here, admittedly, very little.

I've tried Norton, and I've tried McAfee. They both work. And they both hog system resources among other things. Right now I'm using the free personal use version of AVG and I couldn't possibly be happier. It works just as well from what I can tell (but, again, since I'm a personal user it's not like I have a lot of connections running in and out putting me at high risk) and uses far fewer resources. I know that their business version is a pay version, so, it must have something that makes it different than the free version I assume.

It's worth looking into - that's my suggestion. It would be stupid for me to suggest you use it outright without having any experience in what you're using it for...but I do suggest you take a look at it.

we use e-trust antivirus for our 14 home computers (including 2 servers).

http://www.my-etrust.com/

It works grand, and has never let us down yet.

:)

I hate to devil's advocate, but why dump norton? you'll have to remove all the client installs, setup the new installs, get the updating going.

I've run Norton Small Buisness on 15 machines (10 workstations running 2k, 5 2k servers, exchange scanning), and I've never had a problem with windows update, backups, and the exchange server's done real well. Pushing to clients is a breeze, setting up weekly scans is easy, and it has a feature where if the scan's mised, it'll re-try over a few days.

Pulling this off topic a bit, but can you have AVG installed along side Norton or is that likely to cause problems?

I have someone who has a company laptop running Norton AV software but they cant manually update and are rarely in the office for the server to update the pattern files. What I would like to do is have AVG as back up (with hopefully more uptodate pattern files).