free commercial-use Antivirus solution (Win2003,XP,Vista)

[retroborg]

Hello,
I work in a small corporation / Enterprise and I have been searching for a free commercial-use Antivirus solution that includes an on-access real-time scanner (Hard Drive & Internet), e-mail (Outlook) scanning support as well as being able to update it via the Internet.

I have a Network domain that consists of one (1) Windows 2003 Server Standard Edition R2 (Domain Controller/ DNS/ DHCP / File Server) and thirteen (13) Client PCs using Windows XP PRO & Windows Vista 32-Bit Business. So I would need the Antivirus to fully support these operating systems.

So far, the only free for commercial-use (supposedly) Anitivirus solutions that I’ve been able to track down are the following, but I have no idea whether they will be able to fully cover the above said tasks?
Has anybody else here tried them and if so, how well do they perform?

Comodo AntiVirus Beta 2.0
http://antivirus.comodo.com/faq.html
http://antivirus.comodo.com/features.html

PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition 4.0 - New Version
http://www.pctools.com/free-antivirus/
http://www.pctools.com/info/eula/product/anti-virus/
http://www.pctools.com/forum/archive....php/f-10.html

BitDefender
http://www.bitdefender.com/site/Down...tionVersion/2/

Any help or suggestions on these Antivirus programs (Or any other that I’m not aware of) will be highly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

[Infinite]

http://free.avg.com/

AVG is that free for commercial use?

[nichomach]

http://free.avg.com/

AVG is that free for commercial use?

Nope. Personal non-commercial use only.

[retroborg]

No AVG is not for commercial use.

What about the ones I mentioned above?
Has anybody tried them?

[timread]

Comodo is not supported on Win2k3 Server OS or Vista:

* Windows XP Home Edition or XP Professional (Service Pack 1 or later)
* Windows 2000 Professional (Service Pack 4 or later):

BitDefender AV 2008 and PC Tools Antivirus Free Edition also do not state that their free/eval products support installation on any Server OS.

I very much doubt there is anyone offering a free AV package for what you require.

Also, are you running Exchange Server or is your email hosted?

I'd suggest purchasing a well known AV product if you want to install it on a Win2k3 domain controller, e.g. McAfee VirusScan Enterprise. For the number of PCs you require it shouldn't be too expensive. At least you'll be supported if & when you have any issues.

Also you should be aware that Microsoft recommend setting some important AV on-access virus scanning exclusions for Servers, especially domain controllers. See this KB article for details: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822158

[Betty_Swallocks]

You could suggest to your company that they stop being so bloody tight and pay for a commercial product It is tax deductible after all.

[madman045]

Even NOD32 isnt massively expensive for the systems you have.

[Infinite]

You could suggest to your company that they stop being so bloody tight and pay for a commercial product It is tax deductible after all.

I lol'd

[retroborg]

Comodo is not supported on Win2k3 Server OS or Vista:

* Windows XP Home Edition or XP Professional (Service Pack 1 or later)
* Windows 2000 Professional (Service Pack 4 or later):

BitDefender AV 2008 and PC Tools Antivirus Free Edition also do not state that their free/eval products support installation on any Server OS.

I very much doubt there is anyone offering a free AV package for what you require.

Also, are you running Exchange Server or is your email hosted?

I'd suggest purchasing a well known AV product if you want to install it on a Win2k3 domain controller, e.g. McAfee VirusScan Enterprise. For the number of PCs you require it shouldn't be too expensive. At least you'll be supported if & when you have any issues.

Also you should be aware that Microsoft recommend setting some important AV on-access virus scanning exclusions for Servers, especially domain controllers. See this KB article for details: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822158

Also, are you running Exchange Server or is your email hosted?

No I don't have an Excange server. My e-mail is hosted at the ISP and I use Outlook client to browse it.

Also you should be aware that Microsoft recommend setting some important AV on-access virus scanning exclusions for Servers, especially domain controllers. See this KB article for details: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822158

Thanks a lot!

I'd suggest purchasing a well known AV product if you want to install it on a Win2k3 domain controller, e.g. McAfee VirusScan Enterprise. For the number of PCs you require it shouldn't be too expensive. At least you'll be supported if & when you have any issues.

What about Symantec Endpoint Protection 11 / Symantec Enterpirse 10.2?
Is it any good?

Thanks in advance.

[retroborg]

You could suggest to your company that they stop being so bloody tight and pay for a commercial product It is tax deductible after all.

Well this is a public service and things do take an awful long time to get started and running!

[timread]

We recently moved from McAfee to Symantec. Wasn't my decision, it came from our parent US business. SEPM seems OK, but the RTM version of 11.0 had some really major bugs that should never have seen the light of day in a commercially released product, especially if you ran multiple SEP Management servers and replicated the config/AV files between sites. Which you don't need to worry about, given your site size, but still! One of the bugs basically consumed disk space on the SEP server until it ran out of space. Unbelievable!

Maintenance Release 2 of SEPM 11.0 fixed a lot of the bugs. Take a look at the Symantec forums for more information: https://forums.symantec.com/syment/b...t_protection11. If you go for Symantec, make sure you go straight to 11.0 MR2.

I've had experience of running McAfee VirusScan Enterprise and GroupShield for a long time, and while they too had their issues, they were also good products. You had to make sure you installed the latest patches for VirusScan Enterprise! Building a customised VirusScan package for deployment to PCs etc was also pretty straightforward.

[Giraffe]

Avira is supposed to be good - some of the Mods. on Comodo forums use it!

Comodo AV is due for v3 this month but, like all AVs, needs a bit of time to get the defs. up and running. When it's settled it'll be worth a look - and is free.

[Splash]

Clamwin is pretty decent, but has no on-access scan (ie it's great for a scheduled scan once a week or something)