Ever since 2001 I have been a Norton AntiVirus user. I had one license of NAV 2001, 2 licenses of NAV 2002, 3 licenses of NAV 2003, and 3 licenses of NAV 2004. Year after year, it got pretty expensive even though I was able to get each license for less than $30 a piece online.
With my new server up and running with Windows 2000 Server I needed to install an Antivirus software on my server to make sure that my most important files were protected. I decided to get another license of NAV 2004 and started to install it on my server. Would not work! The installation started and got about 20 seconds into it before it told me that I could not install NAV 2004 on a server OS.
I had a very hard time grasping why they would do this. I am a home user and I am using this server to store my important files on. Granted it is running as a domain, file, ftp, and web server... but still. I am a home user and I shouldn't have to pay enterprise prices to protect my data. Symantec thought that charging more for an Antivirus solution that would run on a server would be a great way of getting more money from businesses and not screwing over the individual. Well, I am an individual and I don't want to be screwed.
So I posted on this forum that I needed to know about antivirus solutions that would run on a server OS:
http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=42814&highlight=antivirus
I got some good responses about the Norton Antivirus 9.0 Corporate edition. I had found a five license pack for $150 and it seemed to be the way to go...
One of the last posts on the thread was by Computer Guru (a well respected member of this forum). Computer Guru said that I could use NOD32 for my server's antivirus software. I immediately disagreed because I had been looking for an antivirus program that was inexpensive and would work on my server for a couple weeks, and after reviewing at least 5 programs this seemed to be impossible, so why would NOD32 be different.
Well, they are! I called NOD32 customer support and asked them about installing their home user program on my server. The support agent said, "Yeah, no problem". I was overjoyed and excited, but I was a little weary about paying $40 a piece, for my now 4 computers, or a total of $160 a year when I could get one more license with Norton's Corporate edition. The rep told me to check out their website (
http://www.nod32.name and look under License Packs -> Family Pack. Come to find out, they have a cheaper solution for families (or individuals) with multiple computers!
What a concept, a software company that also caters to individuals!
I checked out the prices and found out that I could get 4 licenses for $99 in the family pack. Looked a little further and found 4 licenses for two years (I call them 8 licenses) for $148.50! I was excited... but I asked the rep "What's the catch?" He said, "No catch", the family pack is just like individual licenses, but they reward the person for purchasing them in bulk for non-commercial home use.
I decided that after my NAV 2004 licenses ran out, this was my solution. Last week, NAV started bugging me about my licenses running out... for the last time. I purchased 4 two year licenses in the family pack for $148.50 and went right to installing them.
To my surprise I was able to download an Administrator version of the software that would allow me to configure the Antivirus software on my server and distribute it to my other computers via a shared folder.
Click here for a PDF document explaining the installation of the Admin version. Setup was pretty easy with a few bumps because this is the first network installed program I have done, but the installation document got me through it. Now my server determines the configuration of the client's AV software and the server downloads the virus definitions from the internet and then shares them with the clients.
For the price and the ingenuity of this program, you can't beat it!
P.S. I hope I didn't hijack the thread, but I needed to review this and I didn't think that it would be good for me to start a new thread.
