VIRUS SOFTWARE

[jenm]

Does everyone pay annually for virus software? Who do you recommend? Right now, it's costing around $300.00 per year. Is that the norm??? This protection is through McAfee. Any suggestions or ideas?

[Matt Parsons]

How many devices (PC's) are you needing to cover? Are you looking for a product (service) that just does Virus protection and you have to apply updates or are you looking to 'outsource' this service?

[jenm]

WE CURRENTLY HAVE 17 PC'S. THE SERVICE WE HAVE ONLY PROTECTS US FROM 'OLD' VIRUS', NOT ANY 'NEW' VIRUS'. DOES THAT SOUND RIGHT?? HOW OFTEN HAVE ANY OF YOU SEEN VIRUS' ON DEALERSHIP PC'S??

[pjpeery]

jenm

i know you need anti viruis protection .. but .. we use a product called mailwasher pro.. you read your e mail on the server and do not download anything .. if from an unknown delete .. i know that you do have to download at times but since we started using this we have not had any viruis attacks

paul


edit

we also use a product called rollback rx
which will and does protect from virus .. we also backuo regularly too

buy you still need anti virus program

[This message has been edited by pjpeery (edited 04-22-2006).]

[LIFESENTENCE]

I would recommend going to www.grisoft.com I can't give you cost figures, I only use them at home. But, they are regarded as one of the best anti-virus softwares. They also have packages that include several features, including firewall. Plus, they update the virus database regularly.

[JKcars]

Hey if you are only paying $300 per year for 17 devices that is only about $1.50 per month per device - very reasonable. McAfee is a very good product, but the concern is are your PC's being constantly scanned to see if they have the latest and greatest version of virus protection or are you relying on someone at the store to go out and get the updates and apply them? If you aren't constantly updating then you are probably not protected to anywhere near the level you think you are.

We use a product from ADP called EverDream. This is pretty inexpensive, I think $6 per device per month, and the service basically is constantly looking at our PC's and monitoring the level of virus protection and updates it automatically. If we do get a virus, the quarantine the device and scrub it and get it back operational. Pretty cool stuff, works really well, and gives us piece of mind. I know this works with any DMS as we use it with both our EDS and R+R systems. I think you can find out more about this on the dealersuite site. They call it web desktop services.

Good Luck.

[jazdale]

JK is absolutely correct.

Whatever you get, it MUST automatically keep itself updated. Rarely will an employee put any concern into their pc's preventive maintenance. Some will even dis-able it because "I think it made my system slower".

While we're on the subject of preventive maintenance --
When was your last data backup of your important documents?
Or put another way - How bad would it hurt if you lost everything on your PC?

Dale

[This message has been edited by jazdale (edited 05-02-2006).]

[JKcars]

Great question about the data back-up. This item really concerned us, especially with items like the GM Financial statement now being on a PC. The same package we bought from ADP (the everdream stuff) has an offering that does a back-up of PC's on a regular basis (for example once per day, or everytime you shut down, etc.). We installed this on about 8 critical PC's (Controller, Dealer, GSM, etc.). it is slick. Once it does the initial data pull it then just looks for changed data. I have this on my PC and gives me a real piece of mind becuase I don't have to remember to do it. I think this costs us $25 per month per device. A small fee for this level of comfort.