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 ?

[Youri Hart]

Just for your information the updates files of NOD32 are protected. When NOD32 updates it uploads the antvirus signature into his own database if you delete the files NOD32 still has the antivirus signature database of the day you delete the update files.

The easy disable of the service is possible however there are plenty of viruses that can disable Norton. The most important thing is to get your antivirus client updated at least every week. And more important don't follow the trend. Because you can protect to what you don't know but you really want tp protect yourself against what you really don't know get it ;)

Also if we look at the treat sense network we see that none of the trend viruses are a big problem but other ones are. And if you are following the trend you are most likely already a victim of a infection.

[Wasim Kayani]

An update:
I have run several tests on various PCs, etc and I have to admit, NOD32 seems to be coming through as a clear leader for a product ideally suited for vessels. This based on 1. Small updates, 2. low CPU usage, 3.Ease of use and more importantly, 4. It works.

I used a couple of the free products found on the internet (not free for commercial use!) and found they did NOT find some trojans/viruses which some of the "paid" products detected. NOD32 found and removed them,

Anyone want more info, let me know.

[Jn]

Globewireless and SingTel provides shipboard anti-virus solutions, they are even taking care of sending the definations update to the vessel.

[Thomas Drakos]

We have utilised NOD provided its small updates. Integrated with Rydex and some special automation developed inhouse we can synchronise the AV updates. NOD utilises XML files for configuration and it is very positive when we want to make modifications onboard.

[Youri Hart]

We have setup a contract with ESET that we get special updates of their Ver 3.0 updates for maritime use. Due to the following reason. A normal NOD32 setup will combine the updates every month to a big update file of 1.5MB however why send the same update twice? In January of this year NOd32 even had an update of 8MB combined the updates of May 2007 toghether with the updates of December 2007 resulting in 8MB! Well this is a big file for sending over a email line and most of the time it will be blocked due to size.

We have a Antivirus service that will automaticly update via email using our transfer coach program however it is optimized for maritime use. Eset supported us in the build of such a solution. The updates will never be as big as normal. And ofcourse NOD is exaclty the best AV software on the market. Competiors are all using Sophos the thing is it isn't that good. If you really thinking about good protection there is only one solution. If you are thinking about costs their is only one solution and that is NOD32 (with use of our service ofcourse).

[wirelessworlds]

there are lots of ways to stop viruses both with software ( you hope running in windows) or hardware.
Both have issues , I prefere a firewall with trojan/virus ports closed. We use a small trimmed commercial
version of linux with iptables. very simple. even badwidth controls.

For free if your running XP use http://free.avg.com and get free version 8.
For malware use this.

hope this helps. let me know.

[wirelessworlds]

link to malware remover

[Gary McDonald]

Don't forget AVG is only free for private and non-commercial users!

[Youri Hart]

Besides that it is free and the updates are bigger once a month a while ago they issued a incorrect updates resulting in a full system lock of the computer using the software. That problem was hard to solve.

I also found a difference in updates of the commerical en free version the free version seems to detect less.

[Yuan Xu]

Hi Wasim

My name is Yuan and new to the forum.

We are using McAfee 8.5i on all our vessels PCs.
Here is how I did it. I download the virus updates weekly from
ftp.nai.com/CommonUpdater on to a Linux ftp server in Houston using wget command and then uploads via rsync the downloads to vessel's linux server.
All PCs on the vessels get their virus updates from the onboard linux server.
As we have arounnd 10 vessels, the process takes too much time via VSAT considering the size of upload..

Now My problem is every time when I do the download from McAfee I got around 400BM of downlaod, which means I have to upload 400BM of data via VSAT on to the vessels. It seems to much comparing with what you got.

Would you mind telling me how you did it or any suggestions to reduce the download/upload size.

Much appreciated

Yuan

[Youri Hart]

Hi Yuan,

Sorry to break in.

What if I tell you that our updates for our antivirus service are only 400KB a week MAX! on average. So from today to next week is only 400KB or smaller! How does that sound? And just to tell our product scores better in protection. 400MB on updates is even not a solution for a landbased network if I may say. I will be glad to know what you think of this. Imagine a full updated vessel every week with only 400KB on updates per vessel. (On average we have smaller updates but I just used the 400KB so that you can compare it to your 400MB).

[Wasim Kayani]

All

Have to agree with Youri...after using MCafee for a while, its not designed for vessels (unless you have a 1Mb pipe!). I have tested NOD and it is very very good. Forgetting the updates for a minute, the product doesn't take too much resources which means it doesnt freeze up the PCs like many other "bigger" apps. Sophos also seems to have quite small updates but I have not had a full look at it as of yet. AVG good for the home personal market.