GRitchie Posted November 17, 2015 Posted November 17, 2015 Sorry if this is the wrong category, please feel free to move the post! I'm wondering what AntiVirus software everyone uses/recommends for a UK based school. I've seen a lot about AVAST, but I think I'm right in thinking that's only free for businesses in the USA? Ideally I would like a management console, so I'm aware of what's going on in the network. Currently I have Sophos, but I've never really liked it. Plus it doesn't even update now...(!) Also, would you use the same AV for your servers? Or do you have a different preference? Thanks!
Chuckster Posted November 17, 2015 Posted November 17, 2015 Currently using Symantec Endpoint Protection across all our workstations, laptops, the few Macs we have, and servers for some years now. Haven't had any problems with it and it's been pretty rock solid.
Edu-IT Posted November 17, 2015 Posted November 17, 2015 I've seen a lot about AVAST, but I think I'm right in thinking that's only free for businesses in the USA? No. The Cloud Version is free in UK too. 1
Oaktech Posted November 17, 2015 Posted November 17, 2015 SCCM endpoint protection. Free, easy to deploy assuming you have SCCM, and suprisingly capable. We've not had a virus outbreak in 4 years since using it and my predecessor had 1 or 2 a year before that using Sophos. I'd also recommend eset for it's effectiveness and ease of deployment, but it's not cheap.
ITGuyWestMidlands Posted November 18, 2015 Posted November 18, 2015 SCCM endpoint protection. Free, easy to deploy assuming you have SCCM, and suprisingly capable. We've not had a virus outbreak in 4 years since using it and my predecessor had 1 or 2 a year before that using Sophos. I'd also recommend eset for it's effectiveness and ease of deployment, but it's not cheap. This plus MS EMET and AppLocker.
Duke5A Posted November 18, 2015 Posted November 18, 2015 Currently using Symantec Endpoint Protection across all our workstations, laptops, the few Macs we have, and servers for some years now. Haven't had any problems with it and it's been pretty rock solid. I wish I could say my experience with it has been the same. The client is a total dog that renders respectable systems almost useless and it doesn't seem to catch anything. I swear I get more false positives out of it than anything else. I'm currently looking for a replacement. I was thinking Microsoft's offering, but the management piece is rolled into SCCM and I have no need for that.
Chuckster Posted November 18, 2015 Posted November 18, 2015 I wish I could say my experience with it has been the same. The client is a total dog that renders respectable systems almost useless and it doesn't seem to catch anything. I swear I get more false positives out of it than anything else. I'm currently looking for a replacement. I was thinking Microsoft's offering, but the management piece is rolled into SCCM and I have no need for that. If configured incorrectly it can be a drain on the system, especially if you have scheduled a daily task on the client that does a full scan. It has taken me a few tweaks here and there to fine-tune it. Since the introduction of SSD it flies. I have everything enabled - Virus Protection, Proactive Threat Detection and Network Threat Protection - in case you wondered. - - - Updated - - - I wish I could say my experience with it has been the same. The client is a total dog that renders respectable systems almost useless and it doesn't seem to catch anything. I swear I get more false positives out of it than anything else. I'm currently looking for a replacement. I was thinking Microsoft's offering, but the management piece is rolled into SCCM and I have no need for that. If configured incorrectly it can be a drain on the system, especially if you have scheduled a daily task on the client that does a full scan. It has taken me a few tweaks here and there to fine-tune it. Since the introduction of SSD it flies. I have everything enabled - Virus Protection, Proactive Threat Detection and Network Threat Protection - in case you wondered. 1
cptn-easy Posted November 19, 2015 Posted November 19, 2015 All my schools use a Education department mandated McAfee enterprise...
LeMarchand Posted November 19, 2015 Posted November 19, 2015 LEA supplied McAfee, but will be moving to (free) Avast when contract runs out. Had some issues with a duff update that it looks like will involve a reinstall, otherwise fine.
synaesthesia Posted November 19, 2015 Posted November 19, 2015 McAfee was always utterly, utterly useless when our LEA provided it to any machine with MIS on. And the less said about Symantec the better! My primaries get on OK with Sophos however it's had a couple of infections it couldn't deal with, whereas rather oddly, SCEP handled them just fine. We're still on SCEP here as a secondary and it's been great. Not a single infection it couldn't deal with and as a result, absolutely 0 outbreaks.
pete Posted November 19, 2015 Posted November 19, 2015 We moved from McAfee (LEA paid) to Avast (free) and the free offering from Avast is much better (in terms of client impact, day-to-day admin, detection). Not to mention I don't have to support a flaky Tomcat on Apache on Windows excuse for a management server to herd it.
Duke5A Posted November 19, 2015 Posted November 19, 2015 If configured incorrectly it can be a drain on the system, especially if you have scheduled a daily task on the client that does a full scan. It has taken me a few tweaks here and there to fine-tune it. Since the introduction of SSD it flies. I have everything enabled - Virus Protection, Proactive Threat Detection and Network Threat Protection - in case you wondered. - - - Updated - - - If configured incorrectly it can be a drain on the system, especially if you have scheduled a daily task on the client that does a full scan. It has taken me a few tweaks here and there to fine-tune it. Since the introduction of SSD it flies. I have everything enabled - Virus Protection, Proactive Threat Detection and Network Threat Protection - in case you wondered. Any advice is greatly appreciated! The client has already been stripped down and only contains 'Virus and Spyware Protection' and 'Proactive Threat Protection.' The weekly scheduled scan has also been disabled. We don't have many systems with SSD in them yet, but I the ones that do run just fine with Symantec. The problem is on desktops and laptops with mechanical drives. The installer is 1GB in size and when uninstalled system performance picks up considerably. All the systems are multi-core of some flavor with at least 4GB RAM.
sparkeh Posted November 19, 2015 Posted November 19, 2015 We use SCCM/SCEP and found it very good. With Windows 10 it just pushes out a layer to sit on top the inbuilt Defender so no client as such to deploy. Works very well. Before that we used Sophos which was ok but had a fair few niggly issues which made running it a bit of a chore. In the past I have use Symantec but really did not get on at all well with it, but can't comment on current version.
caffrey Posted November 20, 2015 Posted November 20, 2015 ESET here, Is there a easy to follow guide for SCCM and endpoint protection anywhere ? I've never used SCCM before and I'd like to try when I get some time.
sparkeh Posted November 20, 2015 Posted November 20, 2015 (edited) ESET here, Is there a easy to follow guide for SCCM and endpoint protection anywhere ? I've never used SCCM before and I'd like to try when I get some time. This is a good guide on getting SCEP up and running: using SCCM 2012 in a LAB - Part 5. Enable the Endpoint Protection Role and configure Endpoint Protection settings - Configuration Manager 2012 - www.windows-noob.com Though if you don't already have SCCM running then I would work through the previous guides linked in the first post on that link. Note: if you are running Windows 10 then you need to have Defender running and deploy updates for Defender rather than Forefront. Edited November 20, 2015 by sparkeh 1
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