Think Twice About Avast for Server Systems!!!!

[pixelvoodoo]

Just a heads up to anyone who is lucky enough to check out this forum before purchasing Avast. A client purchased this product against my recommendation because of its value for money, ie CHEAP. An installation on a vanilla SBS 2008 machine failed with Sharepoint OnAccess scanner not starting and not scanning any docs. I have submitted a request to Support 8 days ago, and the last response was 4 days ago, asking me to check a setting in Sharepoint Central Administration which i had already done. Apart from that, the only correspondence from support is a request for the log files which was 2 days after i submitted a ticket. This is undoubtedly the worst level of support i have come across in 13 years in IT, and other possible customers should be aware of this before parting any money. If you install this on your server, and you get into trouble, you will undoubtedly be on your own to resolve the matter. The only saving grace for us is that the server has not been put into production until we get the AV issue resolved - imagine if it was in production environment - 8 days and next to zero support - that really would affect a business.

I am recommending to client that they act on the 60day money back guarantee and purchase a product with telephone support, you get what you pay for people, and this is pretty cheap garbage, a solution is not just the code and app, its the support infrastructure behind it when customers require the vendors expertise.

[wpn]

i must agree with you that there is room for improvement for support on the products....
but its just insane to call this software cheap garbage because you dont get it working where other have been succesful.
The detection engine for what it is purposed for is working excelent as shown in the av-comparison.com bi-yearly comparison.

posting a warning like this in the userforums is not the professional level i would expect to see from someone that has apparently 13 years of experience in a professional surrounding. You can resolve this in different way instead of this kind of childish postings, but thats just my opinion besides the fact that support should have supported you better.

[pixelvoodoo]

This is not childish posting, other people should be made aware of the severe lack of a fundamental aspect of their purchase, support - when you need it. My 13 years of experience should highlight to you that i have exhausted every possible avenue in order to resolve this matter prior to posting here and to date the lack of response from Avast has been nothing other than deafening - hence a warning to others, one that i would have appreciated prior to a 1 hour job to install AV has turned into days upon days of cost.

And again, a product is not just about its code or performance, its also about the background infrastructure for support! So regardless of the apps performance or benchmarking, it is a crap product because the support is not there to back it up.

I would seriously fear for a situation where your box got infected and you were left to the mercy of this organisation for support - can your organisation with a SBS server and all eggs in one basket afford to be down for days on end with no response from support?

[wpn]

this is a childish posting, you can make it more professional instead of screaming about how crappy you think it is because of the lack of a part of the product...  its all in the way you bring it...  you probably wrote this while bein totally p*ssed off... understandable....
the 13 years of experience made me expect a more professional reaction then   "they didnt respond to any of my inqueries so its crap"


anyway...
avast also has resellers, go to the reseller you bought avast from and put the complained in with them. They can undoubtedly get in contact with the avast team and point them out to the e-mails and the threads you send and made....



edit: to keep this short, we disagree about the way you display your opinion of this software, nothing we both say will change either opinion....   maybe you can see about what i said with the resellers in the UK, if you want to resolve your issue with the contact, if not then thanks for trying and hope you find a product that does fullfil your expectations

[scythe944]

We've had problems with our 2008 servers too, but working on it in a logical manner, and finding support here when needed has helped me (us) get everything working just fine.

Again, I agree with wpn that support should be a little faster/better, but Avast is in no way "garbage" software.

I believe that a lot of the problems will be fixed (pertaining to the new OSes) with the new version 5 that's hopefully coming out soon, and when it does, support here and by phone and email will increase because they won't be concentrating their efforts towards the software, as they are now.

If you want the product to work, and are willing to give it a chance (once running, I'm sure you'll like it better than the other A/V products out there), post your problems and we'll help you out as best as we can.

Just chill and be patient.  Not all software works immediately, and that's why it's not good to install anything like this in a production environment first.  Once you get the kinks out, then you know what to expect...

Also, once installed, you have 60 days to figure out if it works for you, before purchasing.  That way, if you can't get it to work or don't like it, simply uninstall it and find something else.  Why did you purchase it before trying it out (if that's what you did)?

[Radar]

I'm sorry, I'm with pixelvoodoo on this one. I have been using Avast! on a small network with about 15 clients for about two years. I purchased it directly online from Avast! In fairness, I have to say that the software has been relatively trouble-free and has been easy to manage. However, recently I had a problem with my licence where the Avast! system stopped running even though I had a paid-up licence. I tried to get some assistance from support. My experience was, when I eventually received a reply, it was from someone who either didn't understand or didn't read my problem report. Despite me insisting it was a licence issue, I was requested to send irrelevant data. This I did but it was subsequently ignored. My second attempt was also ignored. My third attempt resulted in more requests for data that was already sent. I eventually gave up and luckily managed to resolve the problem by re-downloading my licence file from Avast! and installing it. I can't help feeling that, if I got the right person in the first place, the problem would have been spotted it five minutes.

My system is up and running again but the 'support' experience has scared me. As stated by pixelvoodoo, what if the problem was disabling the network server? You would be up the proverbial creek. For this reason, I have decided that, at the end of my existing licence period, I will uninstall Avast! and look at other software instead that has better support. This is a pity as it had been working so well but, again as pixelvoodoo says, the quality of the software is the sum of its performance and support.

[wpn]

yes as i agreed the support can be improved.... true... no doubts about that....

but there is a difference in bringing it like you just did and how pixelguy  responded

goodluck with the remaining time, maybe in that time the support is improved and you stay else good luck with finding a new solution

[TeleRiddler]

This may help.  I beat my head bloody and then got it to work.  I documented my steps in my blog.

Notes on installing Avast ADNM on Windows Server 2008 x64 with SQL Server 2008 x64
http://blogs.windwardreports.com/wunder_fodder/2010/03/notes-on-installing-avast-adnm-on-windows-server-2008-x64-with-sql-server-2008-x64.html

Hope this helps

   --TR