Well I finally got a product that didn’t start with a “V” but they managed to sneak one in the middle! This month I want to share my thoughts on AVG, an anti-virus and malware product suite offered by Grisoft. Initially a European company, Grisoft has enjoyed significant growth and now also has a US headquarters.

I’ve personally been using AVG for a number of years on both my home PCs and in corporate environments. It was interesting to look at other reviews before writing this blog as they were all over the board on whether they liked it or had problems. In general I’ve been very happy with AVG although I do have a few pet peeves that I’ll share later on.

I was actually using some of the bigger names like Symantec and McAfee (why do they insist on pronouncing it MacAfee?) which drove me to look for alternative products. Symantec seemed to cause a number of problems, particularly when upgrading. McAfee was always losing track of the fact that you had a current license making it necessary to constantly validate licenses or worse causing me to mistakenly order a new copy.

At AVG’s core is it’s anti-virus product. The software is extremely easy to install and offers an aggressive update service. It is even compatible with all my existing software. My biggest issue has been the update pop-ups that open up in the middle of the screen and sometimes override the program I’m working with. I’m sure AVG would like us to know its working but hey, how about a small message balloon from the toolbar instead?

AVG also offers a full suite of additional services such as firewalls, anti-spam, and anti-spyware. These additional products are where most of the other reviews found fault. I have not had a lot of experience with them except for the firewall product. It seemed to work well until we upgraded to release 7.5 where we found it to interfere with a VPN and Exchange server. It took a bit of detective work and trial & error testing to finally straighten it all out.

As for anti-spam and anti-spyware, we have typically relied on other products for this protection. However, AVG offers a complete bundle for the individual, SMB or enterprise environment. Their licensing model is in two year increments making the per-seat pricing very attractive. On average about $7/year per PC for anti-virus and $20 to $25 for the full suite at 100 computers. I wasn’t sure why the Server Suite for the SMB was higher than the same enterprise product though.

The only other gripe I have, if you want to call it that, is with the scheduled scanner. The default is 8:00 am or when the user first turns on their PC. On older machines this can really slow things down so we typically found that changing the time to the user’s lunch hour helped considerably, though I didn’t notice much of a slowdown on my new duo-core.

Want to try it at home? AVG offers a free version. Especially great if you have kids in school and are tired of paying a fee for some of the other programs out there. This bit of advice is likely worth every penny you are paying for this blog!

The other anti-virus product that I consider in this same class is Trend Micro but I have never actively purchased it. It usually came pre-packaged on new PCs. It appears to have a decent following but a remote network support company I worked with flip flopped back and forth on the products until eventually settling on AVG as its bundled anti-virus product. Not sure of the exact reasoning but they had to run a number of additional clients on the desktop for their service and I believe the AVG ran a little smoother.

What’s your experience been? Please let us know. We look forward to your comments.

Mark

Resources

www.grisoft.com  - AVG home site.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2060862,00.asp               AVG review on PC Magazine

http://bizsecurity.about.com/od/securityproductreviews/fr/avgreview.htm      About.com AVG review

Filed under: Business Articles on July 30th, 2007 | No Comments »

This week I got the opportunity to review AVG free, a free virus protection program.  I have used this
software for quite some time now and I do think it is pretty solid.  Fast and easy installation, automatic
internet updates and a friendly user interface are just some of the reasons why I like this product.  As
you read further, you too will see the benefits that AVG can provide for you.

This software is produced by Grisoft, but it can be downloaded at many locations (download.com,
filehippo.com, etc).  There are several versions; I will be discussing the free version, AVG Free 7.5.  The free version is just
anti-virus protection; other versions (which are not free) do include malware and spyware protection.  This is compatible with
Windows 98 and onward, as well as a Linux version.  There is a version for everyone, well except our Apple friends.

What do you need?

This product will be compatible with most of the computers in use today.  The resources required are low; you will need 16MB
of RAM and 20MB of free disk space.  The enhanced versions of the product can require up to 64MB of RAM.

Installation

This is one of the easiest programs I have installed, just follow the on-screen display and you are set to go.  First, you will need
to download the installation file.  My favorite is at http://www.filehippo.com/download_ewido/.  Just double click the file and off
you go, here is what my install looked like:

 

 

After you hit next, accept the license agreement.

 

Select what kind of install you want to do, I will choose Custom.

 

Select where you want to install the program.

 

Select what components you like; plugins for email and Microsoft Office.

 

View your installation summary and make sure it is to your liking.

 

Now, watch it install.

 

Good job, you are all set.

 

Now, we can check for the most recent updates on the Internet.

 

You can decide if you would like daily scanning.

 

After that, everything is up to date and you are secure.

 

Here is what the Test Center looks like, you can go through and see the current state of each component.

The installation is a breeze and now you are protected.  The feature that I like the most is probably the scheduled scanning.  Once you have this configured to your liking, it is a great tool to have.  Instead of being interrupted with a scan while you are in the middle of important work, you can schedule a scan when you are not around.  The biggest downfall of this free version (in my opinion) is that there is not any malware or spyware protection offered.  You will need to get another program for that, if you want total protection.

All in all I would definitely recommend this program.  If your budget is tight and you want great protection, this is the way to go.  There are many features to fool around with and i’m sure you will not be disappointed.  See for yourself, the links listed below should help in your decision.

 

Info from Grisoft
http://free.grisoft.com/ 

Link to download
http://www.filehippo.com/

Program review
http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/avg-review.html

Link to download
http://www.download.com/3000-2239_4-10703202.html

CNET review
http://reviews.cnet.com/antivirus-and-filtering/avg-anti-virus-7/4505-3681_7-32153594.html?tag=prod.txt.1

Wikipedia explanation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVG_Anti-Virus

Filed under: Technical Articles on July 30th, 2007 | No Comments »

For this week’s newsletter we take a look into the exciting world of collaboration via a new product called Collanos Workplace. Personally I was excited to test this product because I feel workplace communication and collaboration is weak in most companies. I know we have had trouble here in the past making important information about projects readily available and easy to work with, and finding a product to help the process without adding extra work has been a challenge, until now..

Basically Collanos Workplace is a software application that runs on users’ local machines and offers an easy way to create projects and collaborate with regards to documents, files, discussions, tasks notes and websites. It needs to be installed locally on users’ computers and therefore cannot be accessed via a browser, but honestly I found the interoperability via a client much better than most online collaboration tools I have used. Creating new workspaces (projects) is extremely easy, and adding, changing and deleting files is simple.  As well, I found the overall interface well thought out and enjoyable to use.

Some Testing

To get a better understanding of the maturity of the product (keeping in mind it is a 1.1 release), I created a number of sample workplaces and invited a few different groups here at AWH to join in. You do need to register online to create a user and all members of your team or company will have to do the same, which overall is understandable and fairly painless. It would be nice however, if Collanos released a server side to the environment allowing for this process to remain internal for more sensitive clients. They are good at pointing out all communications are encrypted though which is good enough for now.

The first project I created was for sales and marketing collateral materials. I created the basic workplace structure to mirror a few sample sales initiatives and grouped the collateral material and working documents into my newly created structure. At this point I invited the sales team to join my workplace and had the team interact with the material through a series of real-world tasks. Generally uploading and maintaining files and documents was extremely easy though initially it took me a few minutes to figure out how the updating process worked. Basically, when you open an existing document through Collanos it opens it in a temporary location, so just make any changes you want, hit save (not save as) and close the document. When you go back to your workplace it (Collanos) will notice the changes and ask you if you would like to update the document - just say yes. An easy process once you do it. Overall the team liked the application in regards to both the usability and the functionality.

Second, I wanted to test the Collanos system with a little bit of sensitive data. I created a technical project for my engineers and added my structure and a sample network topology diagram. Obviously if you don’t want a particular user to see the data don’t invite them to the workspace, but if you want them to see data there are a few permission levels you can set. After trying this part of the system though it appears to me it needs a little work before it is ready for corporate use. For example the initial team members I invited to the project were invited as managers with full access. I would have liked the ability to set this as I was making the invitation, especially seeing that there is a lag in the effective permissions taking hold once you change them, due to the Collanos server being hosted externally. Another issue during the testing of permissions-changing, booted the user from the project leaving no easily identifiable way to find it again.

Throughout the testing process I noticed a few things I really liked, for example:

• You can move your project data folder to your network drive so items will be backed up (assuming your server is backed up).
• It only takes a few minutes for new users and new workspaces to become available via the Collanos servers.
• The user interface was well thought out and easy to use.
• New files, objects and changes are marked well and easily identified.
• The messaging component works well via static messages and instant messages.
• The fact that everything is encrypted is a must and well accepted.
• The concept of discussions as files stored in the shared workspace is great, especially for remote users and long running projects that aren’t necessarily rush jobs.
• A conflict bin that stores items that have been changed or deleted by other users is a great way to help recover from mistakes.

For all of the pros of the software I still think it has a little bit of maturing to do to be accepted in the enterprise, for example: 

• The permission’s system is very basic, when working.
• You cannot set different permissions on a document/folder basis so you need to create multiple projects (workspaces) to limp around this.
• Administrators should be able to set access while inviting users instead of after they have been created, especially seeing as though there seems to be a lag in the propagation of the permissions once they are set.
• One of our users running Vista could not get the application to install after many attempts which will become more and more of a problem as users continue to move to the new windows operating system.
• It would also be nice in future revisions to have a preview pane system to view documents before opening them.

Overall I say the application is great for small companies and small workgroups but it has a little work to get to the enterprise level.  But considering this is revision 1.1 I would keep a close watch on it!

Online Resources

Jesse’s technical view of Collanos
http://www.awecommwebhosting.com/blog/?p=38 

Collanos’s Website
http://www.collanos.com

Collanos Workplace 1.1 Download
http://www.collanos.com/m1/en/downloads/index

Collanos User Foum
http://community.collanos.com/index.php/board,21.0.html

Filed under: Business Articles on July 17th, 2007 | 5 Comments »

For this installment of my bi-weekly technical take it will be on the P2P (peer-to-peer) java developed product called Collanos. This fairly new product allows you and your co-workers to securely share files in multiple workspaces. Collanos can be installed on pretty much any flavor of Operating System that you’d like. It will run on Microsoft Windows (2000/XP/Vista), OSX (Mac), and many distributions of linux (Red Hat/Suse/Ubuntu/Fedora). All you need to do is install the Collanos client, register a username and away you go. Even though this was a simple install I thought I’d document it for the weak at heart.

Installation

Once you download the Collanos Client, double-click on it and start the install. A word of wisdom though, if you’re using Vista you’ll need to right click on the install icon and select run as administrator. After it runs its progress bar you’ll see this screen below. Click next.

Than after the next screen which is the license agreement click next.
You’ll then see this window below.

Very simple, eh? click next. The window below selects the default location for the installation.

Unless you feel like changing it just click next. Below it is going to be the default location for your workspace.
For this install I let it

 choose the default but you can change
it to be wherever you’d like. Click Next.

 

Click next at this screen.

Click next at this screen also.

And away we go. Installing of course.

All finished! This was very clean and simple. Click finish.

Run the Collanos client and you see this login window.
If you don’t already have a username you’ll
need to register. No big deal, only takes a
minute.

With using Collanos you can simplify and centralize your projects in a workplace.

Some of the features include

• Everything related to your project can be contained in a workplace.
• File Sharing
• Online Discussions
• IM (Instant Messenger)
• Manage tasks and assign them to peers.
• Work online or offline.
• Entire project is transparently synchronized with peers.

In summary, I have found that this can be an important tool in the workplace. This is a way to through projects and tasks to simplify / communicate with my fellow employees. If you’d like your days to go smoother, give Collanos a try. I gave it a try and an applause as well. Thank You.

Additional Resources

Brent’s view on the business side of Collanos

http://www.awecommwebhosting.com/blog/?p=37

Wikipedia Encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collanos

Home Page

http://www.collanos.com/m1/en/index Download

http://www.collanos.com/m1/en/downloads/index

Filed under: Technical Articles on July 17th, 2007 | 1 Comment »

Hmmmm. We seem to revisit topics that start with the letter V once a month, whether we need it or not. Last month is was Vista, this month we investigate virtual servers, specifically VMware. VMware Inc. is an EMC company, the makers of high-end storage devices.

Virtual servers are pretty much what they sound like. You begin with one physical server and then by loading the virtual server software you can have multiple “virtual” servers running on that same machine. Your limitations of course will be a function of memory, CPU and disk.

So what would a business use this technology for?

Run various test environments. This is one of the most common applications. You could have an application you want to test under Windows 2000, XP and Vista. VMware would allow you to set up all three environments simultaneously on the same machine. You can even create checkpoints or Snapshots at various stages of testing that you can easily roll back to in the event of an error. If the virtual server becomes corrupted, simply wipe it out and reload without rebuilding the whole machine.

Re-host legacy applications. You may have an old application that won’t run on the latest hardware and software. VMware can let you run legacy operating systems on newer hardware.

Provide redundant servers for more robust application continuity. Run additional copies of mission critical software on a virtual server to take over if the main copy goes down for some reason.

Consolidate servers. With the right hardware and high-end VMware applications you can control server sprawl by running multiple applications on fewer, highly-scaled servers.

What does this all cost?

Costs range from free to several thousands of dollars depending on how robust of an environment you are trying to create and the range of features you need. VMware Server is available free of charge for simple, small testing environments. At the high end is VMware ESX Server, designed for data center management and optimization and it is – well – not free.

Microsoft offers a similar product simply known as Virtual Server but VMware seems to be more popular, although the Microsoft product should certainly be part of your review.

You can also find virtual desktop environments from both companies but we’ll leave these for a future blog. Unless of course we select another “V” topic next month.

Links:

http://www.vmware.com/overview/

VMware home site. Lots of good product information, white papers and you can order here too.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/

Microsoft’s virtual server home page.

Filed under: Business Articles on July 3rd, 2007 | No Comments »

Running multiple OS’s on the same computer can be extremely useful.  Now, there is a way to do that; and best of all, it is free.  The product is called VMware and it is a tool that runs “Virtual Machines” on a preexisting Windows or Linux computer. 

With VMware, you can create a fully functional Linux partition on a Windows PC; and vice versa.  You can install different versions and mix whatever you like.  This is a great tool when trying to consolidate servers or creating a test environment. 

There are several versions of this product (some require a fee); the one that I will discuss is VMware Server, this is a product that we currently use and it has been great.  With this free version, you can run many versions of Windows, Linux, Novell, and Sun all on the same server.  The installation is a breeze, just follow these steps. 

First, we will need a copy to install.  It can be found at:http://www.vmware.com/products/server/ and is a quick download.  Place it in a server of your choice (running Windows or Linux) and wait for the wizard. 

Here is the first screen

 

After you say yes to license agreement; select Complete or Custom install.  I will select Custom to show what the options are, if you select complete – everything will be installed by default.
 

This next screen gives you the option of what and where you would like to install certain features.  Such as: what drive to install the program, server and client components and other utilities.
 

Select next
 

…and watch it install
 

Select finish and it is installed.  Now, we can open VMware and go through the easy process of installing a ‘virtual machine.’ 

Here is the the home screen.  Select ‘New Virtual Machine’ and a wizard will show you the way.

 

Select next
 

I will do a typical install; which will give us all the options that we need.
 

Now decide which OS you want to install.  Select the OS of choice and hit the drop down menu to pick what version you want.
 

Now, pick a name and where to install.
 

Select what Network Type you want; here I selected bridged which will give the virtual OS access to an external network, it will also have its’ own IP.
 

Decide how big you want the hard drive to be.
 

Watch the progress…
 

…And now you have completed the setup.
 

Start your Virtual Server and now watch the screen as it will start up like a normal server.
 

It will use the CD or DVD ROM of the original server; once the disk for the OS is in place, it will install like a normal OS install.
 

After you have installed the OS, you can use it like a regular server.  Setup remote desktop (Windows) and login; you cannot even tell it is virtual. 

The only issue that I have come across is Memory and Hard Drive space.  Memory will be shared among all active OS’s, including the main server.  There is an option to select how much memory to use for each specific ‘Virtual Machine;’ thus the more you install the less memory you have.  It can appear slow, but depending on what the server will be used for – you can adjust accordingly. 

Since everything will share hard drive space, make sure you give each Virtual Server enough space, as well as the main server.  The hard drive can be taken away quickly; but depending on the size of your hard drive – divvy up the space any way that you see fit. 

All in all, I have had great experiences with VMware.  We have different versions of Windows and Linux running on the same server.  This is great for developmental testing and combining of servers that we are trying to phase out.  Take a look and play around, you will see what VMware can do for you. 

VMware Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware 

VMware Homepage
http://www.vmware.com/ 

Virtual Environments
http://www.run-virtual.com/ 

How to VMware
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Vmware_how_to

Filed under: Technical Articles on July 3rd, 2007 | No Comments »