[RESOLVED] What type of antivirus for web server?

[Krenshau]

I hope this is the correct forum to post this question. I usually just ask programming questions in the .NET forum.

I am setting up a windows 2003 server that will just be used to serve up web pages and run SQL Server 2005. I will occasionally remote into the server, but I will be the only one. I will also use it for my code repository for programming, and maybe a continuous integration server (but that is further out). That is all that I can think of that I will be using it for.

I have been looking at many different brands of antivirus but I am not sure what type of antivirus to use. I see there is webgate antivirus, ISA antivirus, fileserver antivirus, mailgate antivirus, and on and on.

What type is appropriate for primarily a web server?

Also, why do they require people to purchase 5+ user licenses? Don't I only need one?

Thank you for your help.

[Siddharth Rout]

My office uses McAfee. Though I like Norton as well...

[Krenshau]

Thank you for your reply.

I am not going to decide on the brand, until I figure out the type that I need.

The fileserver antivirus looks like it may work for me, but I am not sure if the fact that I am using this as a web server means I need additional protection for that aspect, if it is even offered.

[Hack]

If you have a web server running a web site wouldn't you want all the protection you can get?

[Nightwalker83]

I reckon AVG is good! No! I am talking about the paid version not the home version.

[Krenshau]

Hack, of course I want all the protection I can get/need. Unfortunately, I don't know what protection I can/should get. I feel completely stupid on this subject, but I am willing to endure shameful torment if means I get the answers I need to make a good decision.

Nightwalker, thank you for your suggestion. It seems AVG makes picking a server antivirus software easier than most. They just have file server antivirus and email server antivirus. Since I won't be using exchange, I am guessing the file server antivirus is all I need. Of course, that is why I am asking this question here since I don't really have any concrete confirmation that this is all I need.

Are there any network admins that have some good advice for me? I don't really want to contact a sales rep because they will probably just try to sell me on everything they can get me to buy.

[chris128]

I am not a web server admin specifically but I am a network/server admin and unless there are any special web server editions of anti-virus apps then I would say all you need is your standard file server AV. Personally I find that both Mcafee and Symantec are pretty naff now, but we seem to use one of them on all of our clients servers... for some reason. I have heard a lot of people saying that Sophos is good so perhaps that might be worth a look.
I assume you are going to have a decent firewall setup to protect this web server as that is probably more important than the AV in a lot of cases..

[Krenshau]

Thank you, Chris.

I assume you are going to have a decent firewall setup to protect this web server as that is probably more important than the AV in a lot of cases..

Yep, absolutely.

I haven't found anything specifically for web servers. I found one that interacts with ISA, but I won't be using ISA so I don't think that is necessary.

I think I will just go with file server antivirus.

Thank you all for your input. I appreciate it.