Author Topic: Interest in Dr. Web Antivirus?  (Read 4749 times)

David Kiley

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Interest in Dr. Web Antivirus?
« on: May 26, 2021, 12:47:08 pm »
I'm a certified reseller of Dr. Web (first reseller from the USA I think) mostly i'm selling for Linux & Winddows right now.
But when reviewing their products as part as my certification "education" process I noticed they are one of the few companies still offering anti virus protection for os/2 (I assume a command line scanner, but with with modern antivirus databases).
But they currently require you to buy 5 licenses minimum and are obviously just focused on enterprise with that.

But it made me think I could talk to my contact there about if they would consider selling single licenses to the os/2 community.
So just curious if that was an option would people (on the forum) be interested in that - or not.
I see there is ClamAV so maybe not a huge demand for that kind of thing.

If there is any interested I could find out more about the product, features etc.
Just curios.
« Last Edit: May 26, 2021, 12:51:01 pm by David Kiley »

Neil Waldhauer

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Re: Interest in Dr. Web Antivirus?
« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2021, 04:17:25 pm »
As a follow on, would it be interesting to have Dr. Web as an option for ArcaOS pre-loaded systems?
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Dave Yeo

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Re: Interest in Dr. Web Antivirus?
« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2021, 04:36:24 pm »
What's the point of an anti-virus on OS/2? Sure if it is working as a mail server or even file server for other operating systems, it could be handy, but otherwise?

Doug Bissett

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Re: Interest in Dr. Web Antivirus?
« Reply #3 on: May 26, 2021, 08:03:22 pm »
What's the point of an anti-virus on OS/2? Sure if it is working as a mail server or even file server for other operating systems, it could be handy, but otherwise?

It is always good to be sure that you don't, accidentally, pass on a virus to some poor, unsuspecting, unprotected, windows user. It is also possible for some of those XUL things to infect an OS/2 system.

You can also get yourself into trouble if you accidentally send a virus to someone. Some companies check mail, as it is sent, to see if their users are sending viruses. That can get you black listed, but usually the message just disappears into the ether (sometimes it doesn't have to be an actual virus, it just needs to be something that might be a virus). Even worse, is that a receiving server can detect it, and get your whole domain black listed. Somehow, all of these measures can't seem to stop the problem, but they can create problems for legitimate users.

I was using ClamAV, for a long time. A few months ago, it quit updating, and I couldn't be bothered to try to figure it out. It was also not usable, without using CLAMD, which uses HUGE amounts of shared memory space (mostly upper shared space, so that wasn't too much of a problem). I did add a script to PMMail, to run ClamAV as each message was received. That was working okay, but the overhead was pretty high. Over about 10 years, I only trapped about 5 viruses (two of which were false positives). The other problem was that only incoming mail was checked, I had to manually check any other files that needed checking.

As for Dr. Web, I would need a lot more information about exactly how it works, and the cost, to make any decisions. One option would be for somebody to buy 5 (or more) licenses, and sub license them (depends on how that goes over with the owners). It would probably mean that whoever does it, would need to do front end problem resolution. Overall, I can't see that it would be a popular item.

David Kiley

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Re: Interest in Dr. Web Antivirus?
« Reply #4 on: May 27, 2021, 12:23:12 pm »
As for Dr. Web, I would need a lot more information about exactly how it works, and the cost, to make any decisions. One option would be for somebody to buy 5 (or more) licenses, and sub license them (depends on how that goes over with the owners). It would probably mean that whoever does it, would need to do front end problem resolution. Overall, I can't see that it would be a popular item.
Yeah not sure how popular the idea is either :) lol.
It looks like as of now it is just a console scanner. Here is some documentation of the features:
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

If a computer has already been infected and doesn't respond to system calls, Dr.Web Anti-virus scanner for DOS OS/2 could bring the machine back to life. Exceptional resistance to viruses and supported installation in an infected system distinguish Dr.Web products from its competitors. Dr.Web scanners can even be run without installation - from a CD or a removable drive, for instance.
Default settings

By default, the main memory, startup files, boot sectors, archives and packed files, mail programs' files and files in sub-directories of directories set to be checked are scanned. The heuristic analysis is performed as well, unless this option is disabled by a user upon launchingt the scanner. However, the default scanner settings do not contain curing jobs and no actions are specified for infected or suspicious files.
Command line options

Command line keys are used to manage program setting. If no keys are specified, scanning is performed using default settings, unless the latter were changed after the launch. Dr.Web console scanners have a lot of options determining the program performance, which can be divided into several groups: scanning, diagnostics, actions and interface settings. Being run, the scanner can be tuned for the current session with a list of targets to be scanned. All hard discs, one disc only, or files in directories or sub-directories can be scanned.
Flexible configuration

The default settings provided by our developers are optimal, however sometimes they can fail to meet particular user's demands. Dr.Web console scanners allow modifying the settings stored in the configuration file. Some parameters can be specified in the program's configuration file only. If you skip some parameter, which often happens while tuning, the default one will be used.
Scanning statistics

After the scanning is done, a report is generated on all checked, cured, moved, deleted and suspicious objects, as well as on time and speed of the scanning.
Set up options

The default settings designed by our developers are optimal, but they can sometimes fail to meet particular user’s demands. Dr.Web console scanners allow to flexibly modify the settings stored in the configuration file. Some settings can be specified in the program’s configuration file only. If you skip some parameter, which often happens while tuning, the default one will be used.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________
One thing I like about their linux program, even though there are only a few linux viruses in the wild at the moment, is their SpIDer Gate/Guard web filtesr. It scans traffic as you surf and detects bad sites and stops you from going there. So personally that would be a great feature if it could be added at some future time.

Anyways if there was sufficient interest in the community for a product then i'm wondering if they might be willing to develop it further.
Probably it would be up to the community to push that forward by purchasing licenses to the existing product, since otherwise I don't think they would likely invest resources into developing it further.

Another thought I had is maybe it could be bundled with other licenses - like if you could buy 3 seats.. One for Linux, one for Windows, and one for os/2.
In that case your getting more from the "investment" then just the os/2 product.

Anyways just some more thoughts on it.

« Last Edit: May 27, 2021, 12:39:57 pm by David Kiley »