We run Symantec Corporate edition on our Imail server and it catches the viruses when the email spools. No need to invest in a dedicated AV solution just for Imail. We pay $230 a year for 5 servers.
And that is good, if you can accept the consequences.
For example, many people that have tried this find that legitimate E-mails are deleted (if the virus is detected in an .mbx file, all the E-mails waiting to be delivered are deleted). There are also almost certainly many viruses that get through -- for example, do you know if it is just looking for strings within the E-mail (which would prevent it from detecting most viruses), or just decoding base64-encoded MIME segments (which would prevent it from detecting many viruses)? Do you know if it decodes uuencoded files, binhex encoded files, or TNEF encoded files? Does it handle quoted-printable? Do your users complain about the blank E-mails they get (which is what normally happens if the D*.SMD file is removed, but the Q*.SMD file is not)? Do you wish the senders would stop sending viruses? What do you do about viruses that come in before Symantec updates their virus definitions (the link you quoted, http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/columns/executive_tech/article.php/3316511 , shows that Symantec is in next-to-last place out of 23 virus scanners that were tested)? What about mailserver AV vulnerabilities, where the virus scanner definitely cannot detect the virus? Have you noticed web messaging acting very slowly (many people with on-access virus scanners have reported this)? What if you want to use multiple virus scanners, for better protection? Do you know if you are doing this legally (I would be surprised if Norton's license allows for this)?
Those are just some of the questions that you need to ask. There are a lot of people out there that do what you do, and if you know the potential pitfalls and accept them, it's OK.
-Scott
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