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We have 55+ workstations (MS only) and looking for security suite software. I am looking at ESET Security suite, Symantec Endpoint protection, Trend-micro worry-free business security or McAfee Total protection.

Can the experts give me any opinion regarding this matter? Thank you in advance for any ideas.

8 Answers 8

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We've used McAfee for a long time and it's worked well for us. But over the past 2 or 3 years we've found that it's gotten more and more bloated and painful to manage. Sometime in the next year or so we'll look at replacing it, personally I'm thinking of going with Avast. Their personal free version works well on the few home and friend computers I've put it on, but of course it's the management features that will be critical. They have a 60-day trial of the enterprise version.

Also, check all the other questions tagged "antivirus," there's a lot of information there. (Enough that this should maybe be closed as a dup.)

For my own reference, here are the previous questions that have the most info.:

Enterprise Level Anti-virus software with these Requirements Windows Server AntiVirus Realtime antivirus software for Windows Server 2008 R2 Best Network Antivirus for Windows XP Should I install an AV product on my domain controllers?

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As I mentioned in this answer, we found ESET to be the best solution after trying several other options. We had narrowed it down to Symantec and ESET, and made our decision based on playing with the trial versions of each -- something I'd recommend.

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  • I am currently using Symantec Endpoint Protection, but I'm not happy with it. We will most likely be switching to ESET as well.
    – Nic
    Nov 17, 2009 at 3:20
  • Update: we did end up switching to ESET NOD32. Much happier now.
    – Nic
    Feb 9, 2010 at 7:26
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Any particular reason you're not looking at Microsoft Forefront?

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I don't have a comprehensive opinion for you, but I have used Symantec Endpoint protection and it seems to be approximately as good as any of these things are. The centralized management is good and easy to keep up with and the automatic updates work pretty well. I have had some problems with laptops that get disconnected from the network regularly not receiving their updates. I solved that by setting the clients on those machines to get signature updates from the internet, which may or may not be an option for you, so something to keep in mind.

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We've just switched to Sophos Endpoint Security. http://www.sophos.com/products/enterprise/endpoint/

you will get a very good av solution, personal firewall, applicaton control and device control for a good price It's easy to install and manage. we're managing about 3000 clients and servers which are spread over the whole world from winterthur switzerland and it just runs smooth.

and if you've got a 802.11q network you can license NAC (network access control). With these feature you can for example move non compliant pc's into a special network (vlan).

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Find out what anti-virus works better for your environment:
- if you have any suspicious or quarantined files try to send them to online service - this one checks submitted file against 38 different engines, in results you can see how successful and fast are your candidates;
- once you narrowed your choice, download and install trials for different control groups and see the outcome.

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I have some had experience with both Symantec Endpoint Protection and Kaspersky.

We started using SEP11 two years ago, and it had fairly significant problems when it when it was released (being locked out of servers, extremely slow clients, losing update connections, and more), but many of those issues have been resolved now. Even so, I still find that SEP places quite a heavy burden on older machines. I would not recommend SEP.

Kaspersky is quite a bit more lightweight, but we encountered a few conflicts during testing that made it inappropriate for our environment. It could be worth trying out.

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AV is a commodity. Send out requests for quotes, let them know they are competing against other vendors, and pick the cheapest one.

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    I respectfully disagree. I have personally experienced very significant differences in user experience with different AV products installed.
    – Nic
    Nov 17, 2009 at 3:17