new work laptop for home use - Sophos anti-virus?

system · 2006-12-22T13:51:20.000Z

it has sophos antivirus already installed, but thats all. Is that enough to protect this pc? It is a brand new Toshiba. On my old one I ran Zonealarm and avast! but nothing else.

Also the sophos is not auto-updating because they have the settings set to :\srv1\InterChk\ESXP\

(which i guess is the network at my workplace).

so presumably it’ll become outdated pretty quickly? On my old one avast used to update frequently which i liked as you know you’re protected. I think this sophos will out of date PDQ. I can’t redirect it to update from somewhere else as although i have administrator rights so i can put new programmes / software etc on, it won’t let me adjust the update settings (greyed out) as this was installed by the overall administrators, IYSWIM. I won’t be using this laptop at work at all, so it will never be updated as far as i can see.

any advice? And if I do download avast! (which i liked) will I have to unistall this first to prevent any problems?

Chris

ps i use firefox

Lisandro · 2006-12-22T14:26:32.000Z

coolhands post:1:

And if I do download avast! (which i liked) will I have to uninstall this first to prevent any problems?

Sure… Two antivirus will conflict 8)

system · 2006-12-22T14:28:43.000Z

ok. Do i need a seperate firewall like zonealarlm or does avast cover everything?

DavidR · 2006-12-22T14:43:32.000Z

avast isn’t a firewall so you will need a third party firewall, although the Network Shield provides very limited protection to common attack ports. If you are using XP SP2 there is also the windows firewall although that provides no outbound protection.

When you mention ‘New Work Laptop’ in your topic title, if this is to be used for work purposes at home you wouldn’t qualify for the free home version (home, non-commercial use) you would need avast pro.

Lisandro · 2006-12-22T17:12:38.000Z

coolhands post:3:

ok. Do i need a seperate firewall like zonealarlm or does avast cover everything?

You need a separate firewall.
A freeware one will be good
http://www.firewallleaktester.com/tests_overview.php
http://www.thefreecountry.com/security/firewalls.shtml
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=22742.0;topicseen

system · 2006-12-23T01:22:45.000Z

Hi Chris,

Just quickly, there are two things re: Sophos that you might find helpful.

Firstly, Sophos is SUPER sensitive about other AVs. You may be able to install avast! after installing Sophos but don’t hold out any hope of either of them working.

It is likely that should you get avast! (or any other AV) to install, it will conflict with Sohpos and need to be removed. Sophos may also then need to be reinstalled. Sophos has 3 components (updater, remote management and the actual AV) which need to be uninstalled seperately. It is also possible that the other AV will have left some small remnant of itself in the registry - perhaps an orphaned unistall key - which will prevent Sohpos from re-installing properly and have to be identified and removed.

The short version is that it will not make your Sys Admin like you very much

Secondly, the Sophos client will be using a central configuration from the Sophos Enterprise Console or Control Centre (SBE 2.0). This configuration will most likely list your server as the normal update point, but if that is unavailable, the configuration directs the client to connect to the Sophos servers. So, even when away from your network you should be still recieveing updates on whatever schedule your Systems Admin has chosen.

Hope that’s been of some use!

system · 2006-12-23T02:56:44.000Z

Thanks. As it happens i just did the grc.com shields up test and it came out fantastically - all ports not visible etc etc so i feel a lot better now. The only thing i might download is jetico firewall which looks good.

however it is definately not auto-updating. in fact it has a symbol saying update failed, and is not re-directing to update at all. I will probably wait until i go back after Crimbo to work, and see if they can sort out the updating feature and leave it at that.

thanks for all replies though - there’s loads of interesting threads and advice on this site.
:-*

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