Trend ScanMail for Exchange, or Trend's Interscan Viruswall. Both are
great products and definitely lifesavers. Trend also lets you update
your software for up to 1 year free. We had 8 days left on our software
purchase and they sent us a new license for the new version without a
problem. We purchased Interscan VirusWall a few months later because of
issues with McAfee.
McAfee Webshield SMTP is not 1/2 bad, but it is not 1/2 good either.
Their tech support sucks unless you buy the phone support...and then it
is still not that great. It took them 2 weeks to get me an answer when
I filed a question on their web support page one time and 1 week the
next. During that 2 weeks I had to install a completely new server.
Norton's mail proxy product is not very user friendly.
I have heard wonderful things about Antigen.
Of course they are all expensive! Look at what the program does, look
at the hourly work that their definitions programmers conduct. Think of
the QA testing of a new virus def. Compare that to the consequences, AV
scanners are actually cheap insurance.
To bring it to light: We all HATE that car insurance bill...until we
get in an accident and see $20k going out that we would have lost. Some
executives I have worked for up north thought that IT/IS was a money
hole...until one called me on a Sunday morning to help out their kid in
college on a computer project.
I am going to bet that you are not aware of Microsoft's best security
practices located @ Microsoft's Technet site. Most people make desktop
and anti-virus the first step. Secure the machines as well,
particularly your servers.
Example of a small cost analysis:
Precursor to this:
At least present a P.O. for one of the Anti-virus products. If the
CEO/President denies the P.O. and you get a virus, present the P.O.
again and ask for it to be signed. Software is expensive...but not
having it is more expensive. Check with Paul Christiansen @ Insight.
They have pretty good pricing.
Corporate Structure:
500 user engineering software development and support firm with a annual
payroll of $22.5 million (Average of 45k/person). (or, for that matter a
500 person law firm)
Employees work 7 hours with a 1 hour paid lunch.
75% of its business and written communication conducted via e-mail.
There is 1 fax machine per floor and one in the executive suite.
Client e-mails are in address books and are custom recipients.
Full T-1/DS-1.
"Non-destructive" worm:
A worm comes through e-mail and propogates.
This is a "nice" worm like the "Love ya" virus and not bad like the
nimda virus.
Exchange server has to be shut down for the day to prevent propogation
until you can get a trial version of Trend installed.
You call Trend for support, even during the 30-day trial, and they do
their best to help and may even offer suggestions on what file types to
block. I follwed ICSA.net's guidelines.
Internet activity is slowed to a crawl because of the worm sending out
messages.
Consequences:
Wasted time alone is $19,687.50 based on 7 hours of 500 users @ 22.5mm
year @ 2000 hours paid with a 25% loss in productivity. I can guarantee
that 1 day of downtime will more than offset for the software in a
company that can afford the Exchange box, CALs, and infrastructure
Employee effectiveness is reduced by 25%
Clients are pissed. A client may get the worm. Their charismatic, but
otherwise barely technically competent sysadmin blames your company.
Their CEO calls your CEO and blames your company. Your company eats 10%
as a customer satisfaction discount on the new engineering software.
Getting chewed out wastes 1/2 hour of your time.
You work to fix the problems.
Clear out the IMS/IMC...accidentally wipe important e-mail from the
President of the company to a board member overseas.
Your boss is more than unhappy. Three weeks later they hire another
admin that you get to "supervise and train" over the next month. The
end of the next month, for no reason, you get the chance to wait in line
to learn new resume writing skills at the unemployment office.
Solution:
Install 30-day trial to get you out of the fine mess you have gotten
yourself into.
If the software trial runs out and you do not purchase the
product...guess WHAT? You get to go through this again and again until
some destructive virus, such as nimda comes in and wipes out important
corporate data and servers.
You find yourself prepping a resume.
Bob
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tony Flannery [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Sunday, 25 November 2001 2:42 a.m.
> To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues
> Subject: Anti-virus software for Exchange
>
>
> Hi,
>
> Has anybody got any opinions/recommendations on anti-virus
> software for
> Exchange 5.5 ? I've come across MailMarshal, Antigen, and GFI
> MailEssentials, but they all seem quite expensive.
>
> Thanks for any input.
>
> Tony.
List Charter and FAQ at:
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/exchange_list_charter.htm
