avast! Server Edition

Antivirus Kernel

The latest version of avast! antivirus kernel features world-class detection abilities together with high performance (data throughput). You can expect 100% detection of In-the-Wild viruses and Trojan horses.

The kernel is certified by ICSA and the product frequently takes part in the tests of Virus Bulletin magazine, yielding multiple VB100% awards.

Direct Cluster and Terminal Services support

avast! Server Edition is ready to work and even supports large cluster and terminal servers. It contains direct support for cluster setup, including a special wizard that makes the installation on cluster easier.

To set up avast! on terminal environment, you can use another wizard that guides you through the reconfiguration of avast! system for the work in terminal mode. Such a reconfigured avast! system looks (and behaves) to the terminal users as the standard avast! would for workstations.

The support for the terminals is not limited to the terminal services by Microsoft; it is fully functional with Citrix MetaFrame system as well.

Integration with the Operating System

avast! Server Edition has been fully tested with all editions of Windows Servers (starting with NT 4.0 and up to Windows Server 2008, including Windows Storage Server 2003 and Windows Datacenter Server 2008). It is fully optimized to take advantage of multiple CPUs and has been stress-tested even on machines with a large number of processors to verify exceptional robustness and scalability of its technology.

Special care has been taken to ensure 100% compatibility with advanced server components such as the VSS (volume shadow copy) and FRS (file replication services), guaranteeing that your server will run flawlessly under all circumstances.

64-bit support

avast! 4 Server Edition works perfectly even on IA-64 and AMD-64 based machines. It is one of the very few AV solutions on the market that covers this fast-emerging platform that is likely to gain more and more importance in the upcoming years.

Resident Protection

Resident protection which is the real-time protection on the computer, is one of the most important parts of an antivirus program today. avast! features a powerful resident module that is able to detect the virus before it has any chance to infect your computer.

The file system protection ensures that no virus will be executed on startup, and no virus will be even uploaded to it. The default settings of the resident protection are accommodated to the server environment - it provides thorough scanning. It is possible to adjust the settings to your requirements; you can specify to scan the copied files, or just files with given set of extensions, etc.

An important new feature is so-called "semi-silent" mode of operation. The purpose is to correctly display virus warnings on a server system. It works like this: if a request to load an infected file comes from a network, an automatic action is taken and nothing is displayed. On the other hand, when the request comes from a local or terminal session, the usual interactive mode is used - as in desktop antivirus.

The resident module is highly optimized for speed and tested even in heavy load. It fully utilizes the possibilities of today's powerful servers, such as multiple CPUs (the scanning can be parallelized).

Developed especially to use on Terminal Server, avast! 4 Server Edition contains additional resident modules for e-mail protection (Outlook/Exchange, Internet Mail) and browser protection (Script Blocker).

User Interface

Even though the Server Edition contains both the user environments of avast! - simple and enhanced - in server usage usually the enhanced user interface will be employed (except for the terminal server). The enhanced user interface gives you access to all the settings of avast!, thus making it possible to fully configure it for extensive scanning.

The main principle is so called "antivirus task" based scanning. First, you define the tasks used to scan for viruses, including the common parameters. Then, you run these tasks (probably periodically). Every task generates some results; of course, you can work with these results afterwards. Resident protection is also a special type of task.

Another feature, closely connected with tasks, is the Scheduler. It makes it possible to schedule the start of a particular task, both one-time and periodically.

Notification Manager

To make work easier, Server Edition contains a special notification manager. Here, you can define notification objects and associate them with antivirus tasks (both resident and on-demand). Those notification objects are used in the case when a virus is found.

The new version supports a number of notification objects, such as sending e-mail messages using SMTP or MAPI (Outlook) Also supported are; SMS as well, notification using the Windows popup mechanism (network message), printing the message on a network printer, SNMP traps, or even sending IM messages using MSN/Windows Messenger.

Automatic Updates

Automatic updates are another key point in virus protection, both the virus database and the program itself can be updated automatically. The updates are incremental, and only new data is downloaded, thus reducing the transfer time. The typical size of a virus database update is approximately of 20-80kb, the program update usually has approximately 200-500kb.

If your Internet connection is persistent, the updates are performed completely automatically in fixed time intervals. If you connect to the Internet only occasionally, avast! watches your connection and tries to perform the update when you are online.

Push Updates

A special feature of the Server Edition is PUSH updates. It is a dramatic change in the philosophy of updates, usually every installed program checks periodically and when a new version is available downloads it. PUSH updates however are initialized by our servers; they result in your computer quickly responding and performing the necessary update. The system is based on the SMTP protocol. The updates themselves are controlled by the avast! resident e-mail providers (MS Outlook and Internet Mail).

The whole system is protected by asymmetric ciphers and is resistant to unauthorized misuse.

Virus Chest

The Chest can be thought of as a Quarantine area on your disk having special properties that make it a safe isolated place suitable for storing certain files. You can work with the files in the Chest with security restrictions.

The main properties of the Virus Chest are complete isolation from the rest of the operating system.

Boot-time scan

A special avast! feature is the boot-time scan. It is important in the case of suspect that there might be an active virus on the computer. The boot-time scan is performed during the start of the operating system, before the virus can get loaded/activated - thus preventing the virus from spreading or taking actions to avoid being detected.

Command-line Scanner

Experienced users may like another Server Edition feature which is the command-line scanner. The scanning can be controlled by many arguments and switches; it can be used as a pipe filter, also a special STDIN/STDOUT mode is available.

The module is intended to be used in BATCH programs. Its output is the same as the output from the Enhanced User Interface tasks (including the report files).

Anti-spyware built-in

Spyware is software installed on a computer that is designed to collect information about the computer user, often without their knowledge or consent. This can result in so called identity theft, or theft of valuable information (e.g. bank or credit card details) or proprietary business data. Spyware is often developed by organized crime rings rather than lone individuals and may be installed by a virus.

Certified by West Coast Lab's Checkmark process, avast! has full anti-spyware capabilities built-in, to make your protection even more complete.

Anti-rootkit built-in

Rootkits are programs that install on your computer while keeping themselves and their activities hidden to remain invisible to the use. They represent a significant security risk on both home computers and company networks and are notoriously difficult to find and remove. Rootkits themselves are normally installed by a virus or other type of malware infection and it is therefore highly recommended that computer users have up to date antivirus/anti-spyware software installed and running on their computer. One such system is avast! antivirus.

Based on the class-leading GMER technology, avast! can now scan your live system for rootkit infections; no boots disks are required. If a rootkit is discovered, it is initially disabled and then if it can be safely removed without affecting the performance of the computer, it is removed. avast! antivirus includes a virus database which can be automatically updated to provide continuous protection against rootkits.

Strong self-protection

Some viruses may attempt to switch off a computer's antivirus software. To help keep your protection working, even against the latest threats that may try to disable your security protection, avast! has best-in-class strong self-protection built in, to make sure, no matter what you face, avast! carries on protecting your valuable data and programs. This is based on the multi-award winning avast! antivirus technology and provides an extra layer of security to ensure your data and programs are always protected.

Web Shield

Web Shield is a unique feature of avast! that enables it to monitor and filter all HTTP traffic coming from Web sites on the Internet. Since an increasing number of viruses (and other malware, such as adware, spyware and dialers) are being distributed via the World Wide Web, the need for effective countermeasures has also increased. Web Shield acts as a transparent HTTP proxy and is compatible with all major web browsers, including Microsoft Internet Explorer, FireFox, Mozilla and Opera.

Unlike most competitive solutions, Web Shield's impact on browsing speed is almost negligible. This is because of a unique feature called "Intelligent Stream Scan" that lets the Web Shield module scan objects on-the-fly, without the need of caching. Stream scanning is performed in operating memory only (without the necessity to flush the contents to disk), providing maximum possible throughput.

These products work as a plug-ins for avast! Server Edition. Therefore, it uses the same high-performance, award-winning, ICSA-certified engine as the Server Edition itself, providing you with maximal protection.

avast! Exchange Server Edition

antivirus for Mail & SMTP Servers

Protection for Microsoft Exchange 2000, 2003 and 2007 Servers. Features high-performance scanning, superior scalability and support for clustering (even in Active-Active mode). Perfectly integrates with Exchange via Microsoft's own Virus Scanning APIs.

avast! Exchange Server Edition provides optimal protection for Microsoft Exchange 2000, 2003 and 2007 Servers. Its main features include high-performance scanning, superior scalability and support for clustering (even in active-active mode). Perfectly integrates with Exchange via Microsoft's own Virus Scanning APIs.

This product makes use of a related product avast! SMTP Server Edition. That is, avast! SMTP Server Edition is part of avast! Exchange Server Edition used to scan all SMTP traffic on Exchange servers.

avast! ISA Server Server Edition

avast! ISA Server Edition provides effective protection for Microsoft ISA 2000 Servers or higher (and also works with MS Proxy Server 2.x). Its main features include high-performance scanning, superior scalability and strong reporting capabilities. It perfectly integrates with ISA Servers via Microsoft's own "ISAPI" interface. Provides real-time scanning of HTTP and FTP traffic at the gateway, greatly reducing the risk of infection from the World Wide Web (including web-based mails etc.).

avast! SharePoint Server Edition

avast! SharePoint Server Edition represents top-notch antivirus protection for your Microsoft SharePoint Servers. According to Microsoft, SharePoint is primarily meant as a smart replacement for traditional file servers. However, the SharePoint data are stored in a database instead of files, requiring a custom-tailored antivirus solutions. Main features of avast! SharePoint Server Edition include high-performance real-time scanning of all SharePoint content and strong reporting capabilities. Tightly integrates with SharePoint 2001/2003/2007 Servers via Microsoft's own AV interfaces.

avast! SMTP Server Edition

avast! SMTP Server Edition works as a plug-in to the Microsoft SMTP Service (part of the IIS). It can be deployed on a machine that acts as a universal gateway (or border server) for scanning purposes only - no matter which mail server you actually use.

avast! Lotus Domino Server Edition

avast! Lotus Domino Edition works as a plug-in to Lotus Domino Servers (Windows platform only). It provides on-access scanning of Domino mail traffic as well as on-demand scanning of Lotus Notes/Domino databases (.NSF files).

avast! Server Edition

For a computer with Windows NT 4 Server:
486 processor, 64 MB RAM, 80 MB of free hard disk space, Service Pack 3 or higher installed

For a computer running Windows 2000/2003 Server:
Pentium class processor, 128 MB RAM (256 MB recommended), 80 MB of free hard disk space

For a computer running Windows Server 2008:
Minimum 1 GHz (x86 processor) or 1.4 GHz (x64 processor), 512 MB RAM (2 GB recommended), 10 GB of free hard disk space

All editions of Windows server-based operating systems are supported, including Windows NT Terminal Server Edition, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, Windows 2003 Server Web Edition, Windows 2003 Server Enterprise Edition, Windows 2003 Server Datacenter Edition, Windows Storage Server 2003 and the latest Windows Server 2008 Standard, Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and Windows Server 2008 Datacenter.

This product cannot be installed on a workstation (desktop) operating system.

Note: The operating system Windows NT4 will be supported until the end of 2009.

Server Edition Plugins

avast! Exchange Server Edition

Microsoft Exchange 2000 with SP2 or higher
Microsoft Exchange 2003
Microsoft Exchange 2007

avast! ISA Server Edition

Microsoft Proxy Server 2.x
Microsoft ISA Server 2000
Microsoft ISA Server 2004

avast! SMTP Server Edition

Functional MS SMTP Service (part of the IIS) required.

avast! SharePoint Server Edition

Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2001
Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 2003
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Please contact us for prices at: avast@frankmayer.net