Trend Micro--AntiVirus
Installation of the Trend Micro product is reasonably demanding and was not as automated and straightforward as the other vendors' products tested. We should note, however, that we did not receive a retail version of the product and the supplied CD-R had a collection of patches and rollouts that probably do not appear in the retail pack. The product also consists of three applications--ServerProtect, OfficeProtect Corporate Edition, and Trend Micro Control Management for centralised control.
The desktop AV interface is quite standard so it's easy to understand and navigate. The ability to unmark certain folders so they are not targeted by the AV scanner is very useful. (It stops our precious virus collections being nuked by the AV scanner.)
The scanner can be configured to run real-time scans on POP3 mail and also scan outlook mail folders. Users who sync their PDAs to the desktop are not ignored and are catered for with the Wireless Protection Manager. The AV scanner also employs its own form of heuristics in an attempt to detect new threats.
Actually pushing OfficeScan onto a remote client PC could not be simpler using the Admin servers OfficeScan NT Remote Install (see Figure 4). Simply select the domain or workgroup, then the relevant PCs and click on "apply"--if you have authorisation for the selected PCs, OfficeScan is pushed down onto each desktop.
This is all performed via your browser so you can remotely administer the server as well as clients.
The great news for administrators is that you are in control of every facet of the client's AV, right down to scheduling and scan settings.
You can lock the AV down so the client has absolutely no control, or you can free up various aspects of the AV to give your users some degree of freedom.
The window that handles the default settings is pretty draconian and sadly we can think of some users we would leave with the default settings.
The OfficeScan general interface is very easy to navigate, as is Control Manager for that matter--so simple that nary a glance at the manuals was needed to remotely deploy and configure the AV software.
The only confusion that does arise is which application do you use to manage various aspects--OfficeScan Corporate Edition or Control Manager--as the names and the relevant tasks may be a tad misleading.
In general, a great deal of the administration and management is performed by the former while the latter provides reporting, overarching deployment plans, product updates, alerts, and an extensive "Outbreak Commander".
Control Manager has simple point and click policies for half a dozen of the most common and annoying virus and worms and these can be added to as they arise from Trend's web site. When we performed the update the policies jumped to almost 40 in number and included the latest variations of Sobig, for example.
The administrator has the ability to perform emergency "manual" outbreak management but this is found in OfficeScan not Control Manager and simply offers the options to block selectable shared folders and ports and deny write access to files or folders for a selectable time period.
| Product | Trend Micro—AntiVirus |
| Price | $67.98 per user for 51 to 100 users |
| Vendor | Trend Micro Australia |
| Phone | 1800 642 421 |
| Web | www.trendmicro.com.au |
| Interoperability |  ½ |
| Very easy to use and configure, the simplest of all the packages tested with a good range of OS and platform support. | |
| Futureproofing |  ½ |
| Wide array of features. | |
| ROI |  |
| Moderate pricing on a per seat basis. | |
| Service |  |
| Comprehensive standard service and support policies with the option of a fee for Premium services. | |
| Rating |  |
