Each software provider ensures
that their product incorporates the latest and most advanced protection
technology, along with the best features, however there are aspects and
problems that often arise when using antivirus software
together with desktop and server applications.
When you work as a systems
administrator, it is important to think much beyond what is necessary and
consider every operational detail that can be carried out, it is necessary to
be prepared for any situation in the system environment and on the network,
especially with interactions with users and other applications that can cause
alterations and problems of functionality and speed.
Products Designed For The Home, Not For The Company
It is common to resort to
antivirus at low cost and even many times for free, seeking an economic benefit
when functionality and protection are lost. Antivirus that are designed to work
on any home computer or for small business clients that do not need server
platforms, becomes complicated and insecure for larger companies that require
strict security controls and data verification.
The problem is the lack of
flexibility since these antivirus tend to be basic and with few configuration
possibilities. It is fine if they meet the basic security requirements, but
many times they are not designed to work with large volumes of data and processes
running at the same time.
Therefore, we recommend opting
for a functional system that adapts to your needs with options for flexibility
and control of insecurities in the systems.
Conflicts
With Real-Time Analysis
The real-time scanner has
become a fair standard in today's solutions and it is something that really
attracts attention, it usually works by monitoring disk access, searching for
downloaded files, USB devices and incoming emails that may include threats,
when the software suspects a problem, a pop-up alert is displayed to alert the
user and take an action. However if you use software like Messaging Server
there will be much more activity than a typical virtual machine.
Few process slows down disk
access, on a non-demand server there is nothing to worry about, but when it
comes to the opposite there will be alerts in large numbers.
Excessive
Scheduled Scans
A scheduled scan works in a
similar way to the real-time scanner but instead of searching for new files
being written to the disk it will search at certain times during the day for a
range of files or sometimes entire disks for threats.
In turn, this situation loads
the disk flow during the analysis, so these should be programmed in really
necessary situations when the load allows better operation. This situation
might not make sense on a desktop system, but when it comes to servers, special
care must be taken to obtain adequate protection while using applications and
services that use the storage disk.
Antivirus
Add-Ons For Outlook
Few business applications, have
their own Outlook plugins that generate and integrate certain features between
the applications. The problem appears when the antivirus also has its
own plugins that generate problems and incompatibilities.
It is recommended not to use
the antivirus Outlook plugins since, on the contrary, they generate conflicts
with other installed services.
Email Analysis On Client Computers
In addition to the Outlook
plug-in, some antivirus have scanners for mail traffic for SMTP, IMAP or POP3
sessions that can be carried out on servers and clients interfering with
information flows.
MDaemon's Outlook connector is
an example of a product that uses IMAP for the traffic standard, as well as for
calendar entries, contacts and other tools, this extended use of the IMAP
protocol and structure can cause conflicts with various antivirus causing
confusion, loss of data and emails, because you try to access the same
information from one source. For this reason, you must be aware of the email
analysis carried out by the antivirus software, it is best to disable this
feature in the antivirus for full functionality between the communication of
servers and clients.
Applications Blocked On Servers
Some antivirus solutions also
include their own firewall service which means a double job that will be
working on the system.
Again, in a desktop
environment the possibilities of receiving alerts about new applications trying
to access the Internet are not a problem, but for servers it is not only more
activity running, but less possibility of receiving these alerts as well.
Services tend to update frequently and when restarted it is enough to cause a
firewall to open or crash.
Consider if it is necessary to
have a second firewall and if so, always keep an eye open for exclusions as
they are the first entry and exit to possible new problems.
Antivirus Tools Conflict
Antivirus software will often
choose valid elements as threats simply because they contain signature files or
other elements, in fact it can end the operation of other important
applications if the tool analyzes it as a danger, this situation is better
known as false positives.
For this reason, it is always
advisable to exclude vital files and folders from the system or other
applications from the antivirus scan to prevent the security mechanism from
generating access problems and corruption.
Settings That Change With Updates
Finally, when you thought that
everything is configured, excluding files, with features you don't need and
ready to work on the system, the updates arrive.
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