NAV For Notes Deserves A Medal Of Honor

By Rich Neves our customizable newsletter, sends you security alerts, product updates and software patches on the products you use. Sign up now at www.networkcomputing.com /express/  In a world where communication is key, da ta flies across the Internet, everyone has e-mail and viruses thrive, Symantec Corp., a veteran of the war on viruses, is marshaling its troops to protect one of the remaining weak fronts: Lotus Notes. The company's Norton AntiVirus (NAV) for Lotus Notes extends its line of antivirus software to one of the leading groupware and messaging platforms. I tested a beta version of Norton AntiVirus for Lotus Notes in Network Computing's Manhasset, N.Y., lab, and it demonstrated all the promise of Symantec's previous entries into the antivirus arena. The inclusion of Bloodhound Technology, which sniffs out new viruses that are not in the signature files, gives it the strength of a platoon of Army Rangers, protecting your messaging flank from the onslaught of viruses. This, combined with simplified installation, an intuitive setup and flawless performance that squashed nasty viruses, puts NAV for Notes high on the list of candidates for a medal of honor. Carrying the Troops Through Battle NAV for Notes runs on any Windows NT-based Lotus Domino Release 4.5 or later server. The now-common Windows-based installation prompts you to answer a few standard questions, such as your name, organization and where you want to install the software. You must shut down the Notes server before installing, which may require scheduling a short downtime in a production environment. I was impressed when the installation routine noticed that the included signature files were outdated, and NAV offered to update them using the LiveUpdate feature. LiveUpdate asks from where would you like to retrieve the latest signature files. The choices included a server on the corporate network or from Symantec via modem or the Internet. The entire installation, including LiveUpdate, took less than 10 minutes. When the Notes server started, I noticed messages regarding the creation of a log database and settings database for NAV for Notes. (The settings database is where you can m odify the global settings and various scan settings.) NAV for Notes performs all standard scanning--scheduled, on demand and autoprotect (in real time)--as documents move through the system. The default settings are adequate for the majority of environments. The key configuration settings are controlled in the Global Options screen, where you can set the type of file attachments to scan based on extension, the databases to exclude from the scan, whether NAV should back up documents before trying to repair them, who is notified when a virus is found, what type of logging is done and the level of Bloodhound Technology you want to implement. An additional setting that impressed me was the ability to tell NAV for Notes to ignore certain Notes server processes. This is important, because Lotus Notes does a tremendous amount of housekeeping (usually at night) to ensure the integrity of the databases on the server and to update the templates. By default, it will ignore the Compact, Updall, Fixup and Update cap abilities. Each of these programs reads and writes to all of the databases on the server, so the ability to ignore them means that NAV will not slow them. In the Scheduled Scans section of the database, you are given complete control over the scanning process. The default scanning job created during the installation is decent; you just have to enable it. By default, scheduled scanning is not turned on. Autoprotect scans all documents and mail, based on settings in the Global Options screen, that move through the system in real time. During testing, there was no noticeable strain on the server because of this type of scanning. Once I installed and configured NAV for Notes, it sat quietly on the server, scanning every piece of mail that was routed through it. It notified the administrator, sender and recipient if a virus is detected. If you install NAV on a Notes server running the SMTP MTA (message transfer agent), it will scan all Internet mail traffic. Notification is done by e-mail and can be customi zed to report specific details. In addition to scanning all Notes e-mail messages, NAV for Notes performs real-time scanning and cleaning of Notes replication, POP3, IMAP4, SMTP and HTTP traffic. It also manually scans and cleans NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) data. For installations with multiple Notes servers--and you know you can't have just one--Notes replication assists with management, as long as you want to maintain all servers with the same settings. Simply install NAV for Notes on each server and replicate the settings database from the primary server to the others. Depending on how Notes replication is set up, changes made in any database will replicate to others. To test the product's prowess, I sent messages from the Internet with file attachments containing viruses. These attachments included ZIP files, .EXE files and documents with macro viruses. I sent a total of 123 different viruses through the Notes SMTP MTA, and NAV for Notes identified all of them. It didn't clean any of the compressed files, but it did quarantine every message that it could not fix and sent out the proper notifications based on the settings in the Global Options. NAV for Notes complements Symantec's other antivirus offerings and uses the same signature files. This lets you use the LiveUpdate feature to keep your desktop, server and messaging antivirus programs armed with the latest and greatest weapons in this never-ending war. Rich Neves is a senior LAN engineer with CMP Media. He can be reached at rneves@cmp.com.

Other Sneak Previews Sequel Rutes Nets With Iron Fist By Dan Backman NetFRAME Server Enforces Church and State By Stephen J. Ricks New Oak Server Turns Over a New VPN Leaf By Mike Fratto