Sean Tempesta wrote: > Dear ClamAV users, > > My name is Sean Tempesta and I am a graduate student at the University > of Missouri: Columbia. I am doing research on open source anti-viral > products and I wanted to ask a large user base what you thought about > ClamAV. If you wouldn't mind responding, I would really appreciate any > feedback since it will help me better understand this project. > > Questions: > 1. Project Status: > a) Is this project being actively developed, or has it been > primarily bug fixes in recent times? (past 6 months)
I haven't checked the ChangeLog myself, but judging from the developer activity on this list in the last month or so I'd say that it is definately an active project. Perhaps more important than new features is the fact that virus definitions are kept up-to-date. > > b) If the project is actively being developed, what important > advances have occurred in the last year? Not sure. Check the ChangeLog. > 2. Proof or Concept? > a) Is the project geared toward theoretical anti-virus research as > OpenAntivirus is (http://www.openantivirus.org), or is it used in > production environments? Definately production environments. From what I hear, the development version of ClamAV is MUCH more stable than the latest stable version at this point (clamav-0.60). However, I get good use out of the stable version as long as I follow my clamd+daemontools howto, found here: http://clamav.sourceforge.net/doc/clamd_supervised/clamd-daemontools-guide.txt (daemontools is a package written by DJB of Qmail fame. It basically restarts clamd if it dies.) > b) If the project is not just theoretical, what companies are using > ClamAV in production? (any comments on effectiveness or recommendations > on other products used in conjunction ie. spamassassin would be great!) My employer, WingNET Internet Services, uses ClamAV (clamd and clamdscan, specifically) to scan all incoming and outgoing emails on a ~2000 user mail server. ClamAV itself works beautifully, but my scanner software, qmail-scanner, really flogs my FreeBSD mail server's little 500Mhz processor to death. I don't consider this a problem with ClamAV. I consider it a problem with my scanning software. Namely that it's written in Perl. :) Nevertheless, between Tue, 02 Sep 2003 14:03:49 and Fri, 24 Oct 2003 09:46:10, we've caught 16529 viruses. Not bad. If my math serves me correctly then I believe that comes out to an average of approximately 318 viruses a day. As far as spamassassin goes, I believe qmail-scanner has built-in spamassassin integration, but we don't use it. We prefer the thoroughness of TMDA: http://www.tmda.net Note: Before implementing ClamAV, I personally contacted the Tennessee region's sales rep for McAfee Antivirus about a license for a 2272 user FreeBSD mail server. On Oct 04 2003, he quoted me $15,700 for a "perpetual" license (unlimited engine updates) and two years of 12x5 support (virus definition updates, basically). After that charming little drama, it was NOT a difficult decision to go with ClamAV. I also looked at Sophos before I went with ClamAV. Sophos is cheaper than McAfee up front, but McAfee is quite a bit cheaper than Sophos for the long haul. ClamAV is by far the biggest bang for your buck on an Open Source mail server. -- Jesse Guardiani, Systems Administrator WingNET Internet Services, P.O. Box 2605 // Cleveland, TN 37320-2605 423-559-LINK (v) 423-559-5145 (f) http://www.wingnet.net ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: The SF.net Donation Program. Do you like what SourceForge.net is doing for the Open Source Community? Make a contribution, and help us add new features and functionality. Click here: http://sourceforge.net/donate/ _______________________________________________ Clamav-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/clamav-users
