Comparison clamav with other anti virus software

Steven Stern

2004-06-02 16:54:11 UTC

Post by Clamav
Hello!
We are using clamav and clamav-milter on our mail gateway together with
sendmail and it works perfectly - I'm really happy with it and think it
is a great piece of software.
I would be interested in differences between clamav and commercial
available anti virus software for our configuration (means only for mail
scanning). Are there differences/advantages between clamav and other
products? Are there types of viruses not detected by clamav but by other
products?
I'm interested in this point because some people think that free
software must have disadvantages compared to commercial available
software.

Just a couple of points based on having run Symantec AntiVirus on an Exchange
server:

1. Support: Support from Symantec was non-existent. It was impossible to get
anyone on the phone. Email support was slow. Support for Clam is excellent.
Every problem I've had has been answered quickly and thoroughly on this list.

2. Definition updates: Symantec's Live Update would fetch definitions when
they were available, but Live Update is limited to once-a-week or big events.
You have to write and schedule batch files to get daily updates. Clam's team
produces updates frequently and the Freshclam tool makes it easy to get
updated definitions.

3. Cost. I paid something several thousand dollars for the mail server portion
of Symantec. Were I using Clam on a commercial system, I would pay for it,
but I'd pay on what I perceived its value to be, not on the "what the traffic
will bear" basis used by Symantec.
--
Steve

-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.Net email is sponsored by the new InstallShield X.
From Windows to Linux, servers to mobile, InstallShield X is the one
installation-authoring solution that does it all. Learn more and
evaluate today! http://www.installshield.com/Dev2Dev/0504