Free, web-administered "Avast for Business".

You're welcome.



I don't understand why they don't enable PUP protection as default.

 

I don't see an easy way to enable settings through the portal if a setting is turned off at the client. How often do the portal and client sync?

 

There is a slider, and an 'advanced' tab in the portal to toggle shields and settings. You can enable shields individually from the portal by selecting the appropriate template, and then creating a 'task' to update settings.

 

Maybe I'm not seeing it but I only see 4 possible tasks and updating/enabling shields is not one of them. What am I missing?

And, if an administrator sends a message from the portal to client, how is that message retrieved? Where is it saved?

 

If you push an update process it will update the client with the settings on the template. At least that was what I thought it was doing earlier. I believe it always defaults the client BACK to the template settings you have chosen. Maybe Avast folks can enlighten us.

 

Hi,

Sync times vary from 1 minute up, depending on the action or activity syncing. There are variations by platform also, currently.

A Windows device will sync back to the online policy every minute if changed locally (the client can be locked down locally to prevent this), while a Mac device currently will sync actions and changes also every minute, it will not default back to the online policy until reboot - this is something we will revise down the road.

Critical events such as detections are realtime, to generate alerts as soon as possible.

I've asked Jeff here on the forum to check out all the details around syncing and posting it here as soon as possible as well (probably tomorrow)

Hope this helps.

 

Agreed.

Some additional thoughts/suggestions;

1) An option to turn off the spinning tray icon.
2) PUP/PUA enabled by default - a good idea.
3) Profile devices are using in the device listing area - easier to glance at dozens of systems.
4) Settings to the "General" settings of the client, a mirror of them should be in portal.
5) How about a mirror of all client settings on portal, instead of a cut down version?

Bugs;

1) PUP detection keeps turning off by itself. I have it on, then check each desktop a few hours later, and it's turned back off.
2) Spelling error on premium screen (noted above)
3) Crash when changing browser cleaner settings (noted above)
4) Turning off "Use intelligent stream scanning" results in a 'remarkable' speed improvement on my systems. Any ideas?

One suggestion. Perhaps turn the client in a very very cut back 'dumb client' like Trend does. Essentially you can't do anything with Trend Worry Free Hosted other than check logs and run scans. To do anything else whomever is administering your server/system can do everything else, and change each setting. This makes it easier to deploy/setup, and less likely it's tampered with in any way. Much more admin control/protection/lockdown I believe is needed in this product. That's an opinion based on what our clients want in a large selection of clients we manage. They don't want people tampering, and don't want options, they want the IT to deal with it.

 

I've verified the product turns off PUP scanning randomly. I do not know what conditions cause this yet, but every single machine I had it on, it's off today. This is a deal breaker for me right now considering PUP's are the only thing that gets in my machines anymore. I'd like a way to see, and toggle PUP detection from the management portal! Also, Heuristics dials itself back down to default, the same way PUP unchecks itself.. So you guys may want to investigate this bug.

Also - I see no way to lock down the clients! Unless I am blind, and entirely missed where to do this, it's not an option in the portal, or on the end points.

 

On the lock down query,

Click on Network, Settings, Devices, Default (or your policy name), Toggle Advanced Options on and click on General. You'll see the option to configure what's locked down there. This ONLY works on Windows for now, Mac lock-down support will come in a future release. Screenshot below just in case.



On the PUP comment let's see what we can get done, I hear you loud and clear there on the need.

 

What's 'use parent settings' vs 'default' for templates?

Also I am not seeing the settings propagate to clients, is there a delay?

 

I think there is a major bug right now causing Avast Business to 'reset' it's general settings.

Every single day my PUP Detection is back off. I toggle it back on, and later come back to my machine and it's back off. Same with "Join Avast Community" and Heuristic settings for each shield.

Is there a way to stop this behavior?

 

Mirrored my posting on Avast;

1) On the General Tab, the settings for "Join Avast Community" and "Scan for Potentially Unwanted Programs" both keep UNCHECKING themselves on a daily basis. I've verified this happens over a few days. I will re-check them, and then a day later they will be unchecked. This also happens with heuristic settings, they always go back to default after a day.

2) One of my major complaints with this offering so far is that I do not feel the endpoints are as well integrated with the hosted as they could be. I don't have confidence that I can fully control the settings, or even know what the existing settings are. For example "General" settings are not a setting option in the portal, so I never really know what those are. Same with Heuristics. My suggestion is to make the clients thinner. I REALLY like what Trend does, the endpoint installs are basically a very thin client with no ability for the end user to do anything other than to run scans, and check reports. This is IDEAL in an SMB environment in my opinion (and we deploy thousands of Trend's at my work, clients love it).

3) Second bug. The password protection feature doesn't always work, or works very poorly. I set a password, waited for clients to update. Then went to a client and changed some settings - no password prompt! I went to another client, changed some settings, no prompt.. I looked away for 3-4 minutes, looked back and the prompt appeared. Very odd behaviour in that respect, and as a business owner this would worry me a bit.

Here's all a Worry Free (Trend) Endpoint sees, and can do. Essentially nothing but check reports, versions, and run scans. I do not feel the endpoints need to be able to do anything more than that, as the purpose of a hosted SMB solution is to NOT give control to individual users, and to contain that control within the portal for the administrator. If someone else needs control then they can be added to the portal as an Administrator.

http://i60.tinypic.com/skz4tl.png

 

Thanks for pointing this out. In a nut shell, the PUP function is not yet user configurable in policies. It therefore defaults back to off even if you turn it on as Mayahana has pointed out as well. This isn't the intended outcome, we'll fix it in the near future, by making it user configurable.

Keep the feedback coming

 

Less bug and more intended behavior, as the policy isnt user configurable it defaults back to the template that it knows and is forced to follow in the cloud. So it's working like it should, but you should be able to configure it - we'll fix it.

 

On #2 I agree, frankly. We have to much functionality that needs to move to the cloud, currently in the agent. This will occur in a future release. We're open to your feedback on how you'd like it to look (or is Trend a perfect example?) so keep the feedback coming.

On #3 not sure about this, I'd like to have Jeff at Avast (here on the forum) take a closer look when you have time 1:1.

 

Hi, updating takes place in realtime. This behavior is similar to our consumer products, where if an update is available it is downloaded. If you invoke a manual request, it is sent on the next sync to the device and executed at that time.

Scheduling is lacking at the moment otherwise and will be improved dramatically in a future release. We know it needs improvement and that improvement is coming soon.

 

Hi Mayahana,
Is it possible that we can set up a time to discuss some of the issues you brought up ? Maybe a remote session ?

 

Thanks for the replies. I am SUPER EXCITED about this product, and feel it could gain a tremendous amount of marketshare. There is a big hole right now between SMB and Full Enterprise Offerings. To be frank, the SMB market for cloud hosted solutions is very limited, and uninspiring. Trend Worry Free Hosted is probably the king of the field right now, but it's not cheap, is well behind on development in comparison to the 2015 Consumer version, and has a very dated, 1990's looking interface.

For those that aren't aware, hosted(cloud) SaaS are becoming a pretty big thing. Moving infrastructure to hosted services saves a ton on hardware costs, IT staff, and improves security. These solutions are hosted by these companies (Like Avast) vs you having a dedicated server and server software to host your own security service for deployment of endpoints. Prices are more affordable as well.. SaaS in my experience - for 10 devices runs between $200-$1000 a year depending on company/plan/options. Avast is entering the market with a FREE solution (unprecedented?), and a very economical pricing structure for the premium edition ($220 a year for 10 devices). Placing them soundly in the lower-range of pricing. Trend is $377.00 per year for 10 devices by the way.

Where Avast lacks right now is in configuration, a slightly flawed endpoint, and no mobile platform deployment capability.

 

To be honest, I think this is how the deployed hosted Avast Business 2015 Endpoints should look; Very simple - Scan, Update, Quarantine, check Logs.

No endpoint (deployed hosted) should have anything more than this in my experience. (see screenshot below) It's really not needed, and it's up to the admins to control anything else.

 

Anytime in the evening during the week, or weekend we can setup a meeting. I'd be happy to help. Feel free to PM me, or you have my personal email as well.

 

Mayahana,

What are your thoughts on Trend Micro Internet Security vs. Avast for Business, focusing primarily on protection and usability, but not on provisioning multiple devices? I purchased 5 licenses for Trend Micro ($25 at Amazon, so cheap), and am trying to decide what to go with for one new laptop: Avast or Trend.

Thanks!

 

I assume you will be deploying Trend Micro IS 2015? A very powerful product, and consistently scoring 100% on most tests. However since you don't want me to comment on management and provisioning, which Avast Business 2015 is the clear winner in that respect. I think Avast Business Edition set to maximum heuristics, and PUP detections is probably a comparable product when you get down to it. I do not feel Trend is as good as it should be with default settings, which is why I tell people to enable maximum web settings, and hypersensitive mode. Expect Trend to be LIGHTER on a system unless you want to spend some time tweaking Avast Business (I find turning off intelligent stream scanning to greatly improve it).

Right now my hot-list for AV's is; Trend 2015, Norton 2015, and Avast! Business 2015 (Hosted). I do not think you could go wrong with any of those to be honest. However the 'bugs' in Avast Business may frustrate, as your settings will routinely set themselves back to reduced protection. You may want the business one to marinade for awhile. While I love where they are going with it, having it reset back to default settings is quite troublesome.

 

I was curious about what exactly that Intelligent Stream Scanning feature does and why it might be causing the slight slow down. Here is the description that I was able to find regarding what it does.

 

In avast, I recommend trying hardened mode -> aggressive.

 

WOW! Hardened Mode - Aggressive is GLORIOUS!! It stopped everything I threw at it. Very impressive, now I hope Avast Business 2015 doesn't keep messing with my settings, and turning it off!

Also - no clue why Intelligent Stream Scanning causes slowdowns for me.. Maybe my systems surpass this dated technology? Running 550MB/s SSD drives, 135-200Mbps connection, and also I run my own web caching server. I have 500,000 web pages cached locally on my LAN 1Gbe speed delivery (100% Cat6a as well), and 3 trillion bytes of data cached. So I wonder if my existing infrastructure is simply faster, and it's better for me to disable it? My average cached page loads are under 0.1ms.