Avast on Debian ?

[chrbar]

Hello,

I'm looking for an antivirus for my Home NAS server, running Debian 6.0.8 (Squeeze).

Does Avast for Linux can be installed on Debian, without GUI, under text mode?

I would like a solution allowing:
- to define my own quarantine folder path,
- to isolate infected files to quarantine folder (instead of delete them).
Does Avast for Linux offers these settings options?

Does Avast for Linux is always free of charge?

Thanks for your help!
Chris

[Eddy]

Can avast for linux be installed on Debian?
Sure, Debian is a linux version.

Does Avast for Linux is always free of charge?
Who knows. There is no one that can look into the future.

But since you want to protect a server you will need a server edition/version which is not free.

[chrbar]

Thanks Eddy!
Ok, I use Debian as "server" for NAS, but I needn't antivirus server features, because it's for Home use only.
Is it possible to install Avast on Debian workstation, without GUI, under text mode?

Do you know if I'll be able with Avast:
- to define my own quarantine folder path,
- to isolate infected files to quarantine folder (instead of delete them).

Thanks for your help!
Chris

[Eddy]

I'm not a Linux expert so don't take my word for it,
but as far as I know you can download the package and install it from a command line.
http://tuxtweaks.com/2008/09/how-to-install-avast-in-ubuntu/

Don't know if things have changed/added/deleted after posting but I did find this:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=105711.0

I don't know about defining your own folder.
If I have to guess, I would say no.
But I leave that question open for some else to answer.

[tumic]

Thanks Eddy!
Ok, I use Debian as "server" for NAS, but I needn't antivirus server features, because it's for Home use only.
Is it possible to install Avast on Debian workstation, without GUI, under text mode?

Do you know if I'll be able with Avast:
- to define my own quarantine folder path,
- to isolate infected files to quarantine folder (instead of delete them).

Thanks for your help!
Chris

The avast-fss product is designed for NAS solutions and does exactly what you want. You can
find it here http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=145973.0 (actually free for beta testing).

However the avast! linux products will not be free products. There are some ancient avast 4 based
free linux products out there, but in general they are no more supported or maintained and the virus
definitions (VPS) updates for them will be soon dropped.

[chrbar]

Thanks a lot Eddy and tumic for these informations

I saw on some Web sites (ubuntu.com, makeuseof.com) that Avast is free of charge.
But tumic, you told me that is not still true.

In my case it's for a personal "NAS" running under Debian, but it's still for personal use at home, and I needn't all server options like a company.
I thought we can use a free version of Avast under Windows at home (including recent Windows versions), but not for Linux?

Thanks,
Chris

[Abraxas]

Re: Avast for Linux in an organization http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=115968.msg934007#msg934007

antivirus avast! for Linux/Unix Servers
avast! for Linux/Unix Servers is an antivirus solution for the more and more popular Linux and BSD environments. Considering its robust design and mail scanning support, it is primarily intended for Linux (or BSD) based servers and workstations. Thanks to its flexible deamon architecture, avast! for Linux can be used for both filesystem and network traffic scanning, such as real-time monitoring of mail (SMTP).

avast! 4 Linux Server (uses license.dat for activation from B2B):
avast4server - TAR.GZ 3.2.1 (207 KB)                       http://files.avast.com/files/linux/i586-pc-linux-gnu/avast4server-3.2.1-i586.tar.gz
avast4server - DEB 3.2.1 (207 KB)                            http://files.avast.com/files/linux/i586-pc-linux-gnu/avast4server-3.2.1-i586.deb
avast4server - RPM 3.2.1 (210 KB)                            http://files.avast.com/files/linux/i586-pc-linux-gnu/avast4server-3.2.1-1.i586.rpm 

             
The Avast4linuxworkstations IS free, for Home usage. BUT not the Server edition, ...as stated.
.deb version: http://files.avast.com/files/linux/avast4workstation_1.3.0-2_i386.deb

And the free '.rpm' :  http://files.avast.com/files/linux/avast4workstation-1.3.0-1.i586.rpm

Best Regards,

Abraxas

[SirNobody]

Sorry if this is considered a bit necrophiliac but how does Avast draw the distinction between a GNU/Linux Workstation and a Server?

I have several machines at home on my LAN and all the ones able to run Windoze have the Free Avast for that OS installed.  A couple of them are Dual Boot, though one, my main is pretty much Linux full-time; a further machine is purely Linux (since the recovery partition got trashed by accident, and recycled).  Now all of these are for my home use but at least the purely Linux one is a Server to the others.  And that's the question - does Avast count it as a server because I'm accessing it from a from other machines on the LAN or is it a workstation because only I use it?  Given that all *nixes are mulit-user/multi-tasking OSs from the ground up and capable of running many services (by definition a "service" is provided by a "server") surely trying to designate a host as a workstation or as a server is a bit academic.

Must a user sitting at home on a single machine disable ALL software servers (not that that is NOT a good thing to do from a security stand-point anyway) before they can legitimately use the free Workstation version?

[tumic]

Actually there is only the commercial "server edition" of avast! for linux.

The mentioned "avast! for workstation" is an obsolete and unsupported product
from the past, that is not maintained any more and has not all virus definitions
and scan algorithms that the current product has.

[SirNobody]

OK, I get it, if I download something from the 'Net on a host running GNU/Linux for use on a Windows OS I have to rely on the Avast in the latter to detect any problems!

E.g. I'm "recycling" an old Cannon Scanner but it has no GNU OS support so I've grabbed the drivers and related manufacturer software to do a spot of reverse engineering - and although the machine I'm downloading it will be pretty much untroubled by malware if there are any issues I won't find out until I try using it on the second (dual-boot) machine which is too under powered in this day and age to be upgraded from Windows XP.  I guess I must be satisfied that my favourite prophylactic software is still being offered for the latter host/OS at a price I'm willing to pay for an operating system I don't want to have to use... 

As an all embracing marketing policy however, the absence of a product for the discerning home F.O.S.S. user may be leaving an opening for other anti-malware vendors to exploit and I wonder whether user familiarity with a product may offer intangible benefits to a vendor when financial ones do not: "I use this company's free products at home on all my varied machines, I think that it would be a good choice for the company to use - how much will it cost to buy the commercial licences for the whole company Intranet?"