Corporate Antivirus: McAfee vs. Symantec ???

[timkowal]

I am supporting an organization that currently uses Symantec AntiVirus Corporate 8.1. They have 25 users. They are considering switching to McAfee's ASaP software, for lower maintenance costs. The argument is that the updates and scan engine are all centrally managed, and therefore will require less maintenance overhead.

What do you think? I haven't used the Mcafee software, so I can't make an educated decision here. Thanks!

 

[enkie]

In choosing an av product, you can refer to certification bodies like:

http://www.virusbtn.com

http://www.av-test.org

But I highly suggest that you try them out yourself. Download
an evaluation copy and do some metrics like performance overhead, file scan throughput, false-positives. you can also
try Officescan from Trend Micro:

http://www.trendmicro.com/en/products/desktop/osce/evaluate/overview.htm

 

[AVChap]

Pardon my objections, but Trend Micro has always been a poor performer when it comes to "FULL" testing. Virus Bulletin's test only includes "In-the-Wild" (ITW)viruses so it's a good indicator if it can protect you from what's out there. The same with AV-Test. If you really want to gauge how good an AV is over-all, look at the Virus Test Center's site. It tests for both ITW and zoo samples for effectiveness.

My 2cents

AVChap
... WARNING: The Surgeon General says to take my advise at your own risk.

 

[Kjonnnn]

Symantecs can be centrally managed. Just install the server.

 

[newkidontheblock]

like the last dude said norton corp rox. you can see who is infected and scan any system remotely . offce scan works well too. but go for norton. its rock solid. and if you need to switch from unmanaged to managed a simple dat file just needs to be copied to convert to the server list cheers.

 

[timkowal]

ok, thanks for the tips. one of the reasons i was even considering this switch was because it seemed like SAV was having a lot of trouble holding up. for example, several times a week i will receive notifications from the server to the effect of "scan engine failure," or "unscannable file detected." i have been worried that SAV just kind of breaks down or gets tired of scanning or i don't know what. just a lot of little errors and i don't know where to begin troubleshooting.

has anyone else had these kinds of issues?

 

[green250]

We have nav corp 8 as well and it runs solid.

 

[KimberTech]

Was there an event just prior to the little errors you mentioned that could be the cause? What exactly are the errors and when do they occur?

It sounds to me like you have what you need already, it just needs a little work.

My $.02

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[timkowal]

i think you're probably right. seems like everyone likes SAV pretty well. I'll start researching some of these errors.

Two errors in particular that I keep receiving are these:

(1)
No action was taken on the attachment.
Attachment patch.exe was Logged Only for the following reasons:
Unscannable File Detected

(2)
Undeliverable mail--"the Garden of Eden" No action was taken on the attachment.
Attachment border.exe was Logged Only for the following reasons:
Scan Engine Failure (0x80004005)


Any suggestions?

 

[KimberTech]

For the first error, was it on a send or recieve mail?


For the second error, Symantec website says in one place quote:

Solution:
This problem has been reported to Symantec Technical Support. We will update this document when new information or a solution is found.

File corruption within a compressed file is one cause for this error. The resolution was to have sender recompress the file and resend.

Some customers have reported that downloading and then running the Intelligent Updater file has solved the problem.
There are reports of this occurring when using another antivirus program that deletes infected files in the \NAVMSE\TEMP folder while NAVMSE is processing the same folder. Reconfigure the other antivirus program to exclude the Temp folder to solve this problem.

This error can also be caused by a problem in the \VirusDefs folder.

Do some searching on the website at Symantec, and see what you come up with. I found over 100,000 results when I searched out some of your strings there. See if you can apply what you know about the environment there and the errors they are getting.

(If you can post here what you learn, or more questions, it will help others in the future also.)

Let us know how you get on...

Kimber

Members of Tek-Tips provide answers to questions based on the information given. For the best answers, post detailed descriptions of the issue. Use the search features of the site to see if your issue was previously addressed in a thread or FAQ.