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Have just got myself a new Windows Home Server (a Tranquil PC model) and loving lots of the features, but I can't help feeling that with all of my valuable data concentrated in one place, it's slightly vulnerable.
So I'm looking for recommendations for WHS compatible anti-virus software.
WHS is unique in a few ways, so just picking an AV package off the shelf may not work (and could be disastrous). It's a Windows Server OS, but for home users, so a lot of personal AV software won't install - but I don't want to be paying Enterprise prices for home AV! It does some unusual tricks with the file system, whilst it is NTFS it does clever stuff with it's storage pool to present any number of physical disks as one storage pool, and does data duplication of shared folders across the physical disks. Because of this naive AV/disk tools could do more harm than good.
I am very, very rarely going to be on the console, so I don't want most of the "extra tools" bundled with AV products (mail scanning, web-malware detection, and so on) just file and memory anti-virus protection without bogging the machine down. I don't mind paying, but nothing extortionate.
@random - is this not a useful wiki question. – Joe Taylor – 2011-10-03T15:03:08.780
Other than being a poll, no, not a good fit. Unless an edit makes this less than "everyone give me a suggestion, no answer would be too wrong". @joe – random – 2011-10-03T15:13:37.897
Erm, if your WHS is just being used as a backup/file server, do you actually need an AV on it? Presumably, all your connected PCs will have AVs to catch viruses at point of entry. Of course, if your WHS has something like a bit torrent add-on, and is downloading from the internet directly, then that's different, and an AV is essential. – Gcoupe – 2009-11-19T08:23:05.267
Actually I've never had AV running on my main machines, never liked the performance hits or other problems they tend to introduce. Particularly on my gaming machine that's kept as clean as possible with very few background processes running. So having AV running centrally on the file store to keep important docs safe is exactly what I'm after. – GAThrawn – 2009-11-19T10:43:08.293
OK, understood. Then you might want to read some of the discussions in the WeGotServed forums devoted to WHS security' there are recommendations in there. See: http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php?/forum/79-security/
– Gcoupe – 2009-11-19T11:02:07.367Any antivirus for a regular user will do, the eula won't change since it's for home usage, if you want something fast look no more, eset nod32 antivirus 4 (not the suite) a canadian product made at Montreal the same place where Ubisoft game publisher is born ... – zillion – 2009-11-21T20:32:57.747
1@Zillion, you've missed two important points here, WHS is a server OS, so a lot of home AV products will refuse to install, and WHS does a lot of funky stuff with the disks to do with its DE tech and backups, you want an AV that understands this and won't trash your data. – GAThrawn – 2009-11-22T00:37:12.757