Business Anti-Virus (Windows 8/Server 2012)

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Zeon

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Topic # 151118 14-Aug-2014 13:33

Hey guys,
Our AVG is about to expire and wanted to see what anti virus people recommend for a business setting. Up to 80 desktops/laptops and the endpoint manager is absolutely vital so we can quickly check the status of each device (this is quite good on AVG). One of the things that irks me about AVG is I was never able to get it setup with group policy to auto-deploy to any new computer. Ideally I would like to add it to the group policy so it alongside all other software is automatically deployed to computers.

I heard NOD32 is good. Any suggestions?

Dynamic

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Reply # 1108385 14-Aug-2014 13:35

Have you looked at the AVG Cloud solution? IIRC that notifies you of unprotected machines.

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CYaBro

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Reply # 1108401 14-Aug-2014 14:03

Eset Endpoint Antivirus (NOD32 for business) is awesome and has a great remote administrator console for seeing what your devices are up to.
I've never tried to deploy via group policy as have just used the push installation from the remote administrator console for new machines.

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DravidDavid

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Reply # 1108871 15-Aug-2014 10:49

The place I used to work at used Sophos. They thought it was the best thing since the internet began. I've heard it rates fairly well, but not sure if it would be right for you.

Sometimes what you don't get is a blessing in disguise!

Dynamic

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Reply # 1108878 15-Aug-2014 10:52

I worked for the company that was the local Sophos distributor 10 years ago and did local tech support for the product. I rate it highly.

Having said that, I've phoned their Sales team in Aussie yesterday and filled out a web form 5 days ago and have still not had a call back.

"4 wheels move the body. 2 wheels move the soul."

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

lchiu7

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Reply # 1109294 15-Aug-2014 20:57

I use Sophos also and the Wellington support team respond very quickly. In fact I have given them restricted VPN accounts so they can logon when I enable the account and troubleshoot for me.

Hard to rate products but the service is good.

System One: Popcorn Hour A200, PS3 SuperSlim, NPVR and Plex Server running on Gigabyte Brix (Windows 10 Pro), Sony BDP-S390 BD player, Pioneer AVR, Raspberry Pi running Kodi and Plex, Panasonic 60" 3D plasma, Google Chromecast

System Two: Popcorn Hour A200 , Oppo BDP-80 BluRay Player with hardware mode to be region free, Vivitek HD1080P 1080P DLP projector with 100" screen. Harman Kardon HK AVR 254 7.1 receiver, Samsung 4K player, Google Chromecast

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Zeon

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Reply # 1109744 17-Aug-2014 00:33

Thanks for the tips guys. I'm trialling Sophos now. The interface doesn't look as cool as AVG but looks OK otherwise. Looking at centralised deployment atm. Quite interested in the mobile protection and management too.

networkn

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Reply # 1109749 17-Aug-2014 01:03

Wouldn't use Sophos if they paid me, I have seen a bunch of issues with servers.

We recently did a lab test internally and compared 7 popular AV products. The ONLY one to catch cryptolocker was Symantec Endpoint and it did it with 7 month old definitions (which wasn't part of the test). We have had 3 clients with Cyptolocker and all three ran current versions and up to date versions of definitions.

Symantec easily gets my vote. It's not a perfect product but it's protected the majority of our clients for 15 years and lets next to nothing through. Eset would be my second choice. Webroot seems popular but it let Cryptolocker through and I have found support fairly average.

mckenndk

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Reply # 1109824 17-Aug-2014 10:44

I've used both sophos and Nod32 and did not mind either.

Both have their advantages and disadvantages the biggest problem I had with Sophos is when windows updates go out it would see the exe for some programs changed and stop you using them until you register the new hash of the exe.

That really comes down to testing updates what was not really a big thing as important updates were released automatically.

Was not that difficult to fix once you updated it in the console it updated all the clients pretty quickly.

I recommend Nod32 to any businesses I deal with.

Regs

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Reply # 1112408 20-Aug-2014 21:03

Have you thought about using a cloud service like Windows Intune? Priced around $7/user/month 'retail' but gives you so much more than just anti-malware. If you buy it as the Enterprise Management Suite license bundle (not much different in price) then you also get Azure Rights Management Service (DRM for documents), and Azure Active Directory Premium (integrate your AD to cloud, provide multi-factor authentication for connected web apps, provide user self-service password reset (uses MFA)).

Other features:
* supports BYOD app deployment and security features for Windows, Windows Phone, Apple iOS, Android
* company app portal for deploying 'custom' apps, or recommended store apps
* remote wipe, selective remote wipe(e,g. business data only)
* hardware inventoy
* software inventory
* monitoring

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/products/windows-intune/explore.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/products/enterprise-mobility-suite/buy.aspx

Happy to have a chat, or put you in touch with a Microsoft partner if interested.

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