Enterprise Anti-Virus Solutions

[FlashMac]

Hi Everyone.

Been using Symantec 9, when 10 came out they sent it over as part of our license deal. It doesn't work. I had very strange network behaviour on all my clients so had to remove it. I can't remove it from the server, the passwords have stopped working and so has the uninstaller. Symantec support is a joke ("please go to the Registry/C: drive/ Add/Remove Programs") and the last I heard they were contacting Apple to try to find out how to remove their software from my server. Having spent 5 hours on hold to India over the last two days I am cutting my losses and going to try manually removing the files. I may have to rebuild the entire server OS.

Needless to say, I will not be installing Symantec 10 on the new build, I will pass it over to my legal dept to seek a full refund.

Can anyone recommend an alterntative corporate antivirus solution? Please spare me the 'Macs don't get viruses' schtick, we're running a business here.

Are McAfee still good?

[nixgeek]

Yeah, I wouldn't bother with Norton/Symantec since their support for OS X is nil for some time now.

At our school district, they are using Sophos Antivirus on the PCs and they also have a Macintosh client. I don't know if it's Leopard ready though. So far, they've been OK on the PCs but I haven't tested on the Macs yet. I haven't found a virus that would infect a restricted user's account beyond the actual home folder and account, especially since most of the malware out there has only required administrative authentication to actually execute (something that a restricted account wouldn't have access to).

http://www.sophos.com/products/enter...mac/index.html

From the looks of the site, their current product is Leopard ready.

[FlashMac]

Thanks for your reply.

Well, I soldiered on, managed to get someone at Symantec to send me a list of files to delete. Re-installed it, it doesn't work at all now, get MySQL errors all over the shop. I've made careful note of everything during the installation process, changed the relevant MySQL root passwords, jumped through hoops and spent an hour and a half on hold today.

Nah, I'm cutting my losses and looking at alternatives. I will certainly look at Sophos, them and McAffee Virex are the only ones I can think of, though.

[Go3iverson]

I had done a slew of testing with Sophos (mainly overhead, ease of use, etc - not actually installing a virus and seeing if it was caught) a while back and was pretty pleased with the product. I wish their Enterprise console would run on Mac OS X Server though. Guess you could see if you can virtualize it

Michael

[FlashMac]

Well we're probably going to go with Intego. Sophos doesn't measure up because it needs a PC Server to download and distribute the updates, and requires user action to initiate a scan.

A word of warning for people considering using Symantec Anti-Virus 10 for Mac - don't. Please, for your own sake, just don't. It is without a doubt the worst designed and implemented software I have come across in 12 years in IT (and I've supported Lotus Notes). It requires root to be enabled, and has now locked me out of the root account on every one of my 60 Macs. I may well have to manually rebuild every single one, as every method of resetting the root password has so far failed. I have to do this, as since installing it network connectivity has been sporadic at best. Some Macs have grey-screened, some can't connect to servers for no reason at all, some won't even log in. I am genuinely HORRIFIED by how bad this is, and that someone could charge money for it. They have no dedicated Mac support, and I suspect the server implementation was designed by a PC server guy with a diagram of where everything is on a Mac, it couldn't be more poorly laid out.
I am considering legal action against Symantec for the damage their software has done, its going to take me quite literally over 100 man hours to rectify this, and I'm on my own here.