Trend ServerProtect

This anti-virus package from Trend Micro protects NT and NetWare servers on your network. It’s available on Intel and DEC Alpha platforms. We look at ServerProtect for Win NT on Intel. 

ServerProtect requires about 15 MB of free hard disk space. Installation is easy, as a wizard guides you through each step. You have to reboot the server after installation. 

ServerProtect runs in the background by default, scanning files in real time. You can disable this feature, but it’s recommended that you don’t do so. You can scan files by direction (incoming, outgoing or both) and type. It can also detect viruses in compressed and archived files. A special option called Virus Behavior Monitor detects virus-like behavior to look for unknown or potential viruses. If a virus is detected, you can choose to delete, clean, rename, move, or leave alone the infected file. 

A very important feature of ServerProtect is that you can group servers into domains, and configure and scan them together. These domains are different from Win NT domains. One server in a domain acts as the Information server, which stores the configuration of all domain members. It validates the usernames and passwords of all its members, and any settings done on a domain apply to all its members. This makes it easy to configure and scan specific servers together, thereby saving time.

ServerProtect can also be scheduled to automatically scan specific servers and domains. Besides selecting the type of files and action to be taken, you can also set the frequency and timing of scans to daily, weekly or monthly. 

ServerProtect can be scheduled to update virus patterns automatically via the Internet, a BBS, or from another server. You can specify the day, time, and frequency of these updates. Once downloaded, you can choose to share these patterns with others in your domain. This means that only one server per domain needs to download the updates. 

ServerProtect retains a detailed log file of all virus incidents, virus scanning activities, and virus pattern update information. Each domain has its own log file, which also contains information about all servers in that domain. This makes it easy to track and manage virus incidents. 

It has a variety of notification methods to enable prompt action by the system administrator. The methods available are SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), e-mail, pager, printer or Win Popup. You have to specify the servers where you want alerts to be sent.

ServerProtect contains a huge encyclopedia of viruses, which provides a detailed description of each virus, in case you want to find out more about them.

Trend Micro has a whole range of anti-virus products. Which of these you choose depends on your company size and requirements. These include OfficeScan for desktops; ScanMail for Lotus Notes, MS Exchange, cc:Mail and Open Mail; InterScan for both servers and clients to scan viruses that spread over the Internet. Trend Virus Control Center (VCS) integrates and manages all these different packages from a central location.