The best Anti-Virus Product for Ships ?

[Wasim Kayani]

Even though we use VSAT on almost 90% of our ships, Anti-Virus is still a problem when downloading the daily updates. MCafee for example, wants to pull down almost 10Mb daily which doesn't cost us any more but can be pain on a 128Kb link.

Does anyone have any good experience of AV products especially those of which download small updates ? Sophos ? AVG ?

[Efthymios Chaldeakis]

Hello there,
Well, my idea is instead of looking for aspirin go for the cure.
We have eliminated all PCs from on board!
Everything is centralized on virtulized servers operating under Linux and all users have access through thin clients! The complete solution is totally remotely manageable (even through narrowband satcom) and the need for Anti-Virus is minimized.
And not only that of course...

[Gary McDonald]

That is certainly one way of dealing with the problem and a brave one too! It's nice to hear technologies such as Linux and VM are being deployed in the maritime industry. Most land based companies run for cover when these are mentioned.

I would be interested to hear more about your IT solution.

Regards,

Gary McDonald.

[Chris Walton]

Hi Gary / All,

Efthymios provided me with a full demo of this solution at Posedonia (Athens) last year. The full "Windows" client-server solution was on the Setel stand.

It's impressive stuff. The biggest surprise, for me, was the indicated solution cost - it was far less than I imagined.

Should we move into a new forum with this? For me, the potential benefits extend far beyond anti-virus.

[Youri Hart]

I think a seprate forum for this would be great so that we can discuss this type of solutions.

[Youri Hart]

That is alo a solution and a good one it is. However it 98% of the shipping companies won't do this kind of setup due to implementation costs involt because they all look at the quick costs and not at the long payback and advantages that it has.

Another point is that not all maritime communcation software will work with Linux even not under Wine. Sure it is true that Wine can run more windows apps then Windows Vista (Yes I'm not lying) but we are still unsuccesfull in running AmosConnect /SkyFile Mail in Linux. We can offcourse create another email service but the biggest problem is the function of restore with message transfer when the connection was interupted. Would like to hear how you are doing this. You can also run Windows in a VM for only the windows apps.

[Efthymios Chaldeakis]

OK I think now is the time for a new forum thread for this.... follow the trail...
BRGDS

[Pete Adsett]

I am currently using both Mcafee and sophos on my ships currently ive noticed that sophos is performing better then mcafee, however i intend to put a aplliance in when we move to VSat.

[Martin Yates]

I have used AVG for over 5 years, which was originally developed by Marconi for their own use. It's a free product for single use and the updates are quite small. I've never been hit by a virus so far, as AVG has caught them all to date. Download and info here: http://free.avg.com/ww-en/homepage. We also provide our customers with a free guide on how to limit background activity downloads and the potential costs you could incurr, which includes the settings needed when using Microsoft products. Regards Martin (Applied Satellite Technology - marine divison)

[Gary McDonald]

AVG is only free to non-commercial users.

[Scott Strand]

We supply Kaspersky anti-virus to our clients. It is a highly configurable server based solution. By this I mean that you can easily set the software to perform downloads and updates per your schedule. Also, being server based, the downloads are pulled into your server then distributed to the other computers on the vessel. This makes it nice because you can then schedule the download to occur at the time of least Internet use on the vessel.

[Remon van Gijn]

=) That’s a nice confession of a potential software license breach.

AVG is nice, but not being hit by any virus then might say more (positive) about the way the crew handles IT activities with email then the quality of AVG. Don't take my word for it (being a maritime antivirus supplier myself) but look at the virusbulitin VB100 tests for the last 4 years. AVG scores very low on proactive protection and 0-day attacks.
And like Gary said. It's not free for use onboard.

Please look at the independent test results.

That is why we choose NOD32 as centre engine for the Port-IT antivirus solution. The only marinized solution, also suitable for offline vessels, that provides full protection with both engine and database updates without large engine updates by CD or download (like all Sophos based solutions).

[Scott Strand]

Remon, I trust you are referring to the posts about freely using AVG and not about Kaspersky. Kaspersky (KAV) is a fully licensed server/client deployment model which we adhere to without exception. Therefore I trust your comment "That's a nice confession of a potential software license breach" is aimed at the AVG post. Otherwise, I am afraid you are un-informed.

I think it would be a great idea to objectively discuss what, exactly, it means to have a "marinized" solution. Certainly, the implication is that the maritime world operates differently than the shore based world (which is true – to an extent). But, so many companies have come and gone that apply the moniker "marinized" to their products, usually as a veil to apply unreasonable markups to the profit margin. After 10 years in the aviation sector and 18 years in maritime I am very familiar with this motive. To me what makes a product most tailored to a special niche (such as maritime) is not so much the technical specifics, but rather targeted support that addresses the specialized requirements and configurations required by the clients within the niche.