The Corporate Edition of eScan from MicroWorld Technologies is the Professional Edition combined with a management console to facilitate management within a networked environment. It also includes content filtering and mail scanning.
Installing the software invokes an update session, so the latest signature files are downloaded – a sensible approach that minimizes the chances of infection during the switchover process or if installing on a new machine.
After first installing the server software, we could then push the software out to our remote desktops (for which there are no particular hardware requirements).
One thing we found a little offputting was the sheer number of applications taken up by this product in our system tray. The suite comprises four products – the Management Console, the Server Updater, eScanRAD, and Anti-Virus Monitor.
Real-time background scanning is carried out by the eScan Anti-Virus Monitor program. Whenever a file is accessed, eScan checks it for viruses and takes the appropriate action. Those actions can be set – from reporting only, to disinfecting and deletion. eScanRAD allows the remote administration of the management console through a web browser.
The management console is reasonably straightforward. We liked the simple approach to deploying rule sets and were also impressed by the breadth of rules and functionality on offer – including email attachment rules, inclusion and exclusion lists, pop-up filter technology, notification and scan control.
We were also pleased to see pop-up windows appear when eScan believed that a dangerous situation had arisen – such as, in our case, the Monitor program being stopped.
The reporting functionality in the software is fairly basic, but then there is a limit to how much information administrators can usefully analyze.
It’s a comprehensive product – more of an internet security suite than an anti-virus package – and the management console is one of the easier ones on test. However, it might not be suitable for larger installations.