By Al West on December 18th, 2009
ClamAV Antivirus Add-In?
A few months back I was tinkering with creating Windows Home Server Add-Ins in Visual Studio. I started work on an Anti-Virus Add-In based around ClamAV, the open source (GPL) anti-virus toolkit. I’m considering continuing the project and I’m interested to know how much interest there would be in such an Add-In. If you would use such an Add-In then please leave a comment below.
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For sure. I’m going commando right now and it’s a bit, um, breezy. Would love an add-in friendly ClamAV to snug things up a bit.
I vote YES on a Clam Addin
)
ClamAV is always a good option. I assume it would only be an on-demand scanner like the ClamAV normally is?
I vote YES !!!
I am pleased to announce the first release. I would say this is beta at the moment though it is safe to use in that it will only scan C: and D:\Shares at the moment.
Please do not post suggestions bugs or feature requests here – this should be done on the sourceforge site.
I hope to *start* a help file / full guide in the next few days but here is a brief guide:
1. Goto http://whsclamav.sourceforge.net/ and select “Download WHSClamAV files” link in the top right of the screen. I did this on Windows IE, I’ve not tested doing this on other OSes, browsers.
2. Save the file in Your WHS Software\Add-Ins path
3. Open the WHS Console, goto Settings->Add-Ins->Available
4. Click Install then reopen the console
5. Now you should have a ClamAV Icon – maybe out of view so scroll the bar. If you don’t, please report this as a problem on the sourceforge site.
6. At this point you have only installed the add-in – you need to install ClamAV :
6a) go to Settings->ClamAV (the WHS Console Settings)
6b) set the proxy if required though it should work with a proxy if you have one set in IE
6c) Click “Download”
if it fails to download or you like your WHS not on the internet you can copy ClamWin (download from the ClamWin sourceforge site) to Software\Add-ins as “clamav.exe”
6d) Click “Install” and wait for the installer to do it’s part. I cancel the update process here in case we are running with out internet access
6e) if you need to save your proxy information then hit “Save”
6f) Close the WHS settings window
7) Now go to the ClamAV Console Tab – do an update and then scan your memory, system disk or folder shares as you please.
Note the following is not supported by ClamWin:
– On Access File Scanning
Note the following is not yet implemented:
– Scanning initiated outside of the WHS Console Add-In – i.e. scheduled tasks, RPC, etc.
– Automatic virus definition file updates
– Configuration of ClamWin options
– Log parsing for virus detections
* Hint anyone who wants to write a guide or get involved in the project is welcome. My aim is to provide configuration of various aspects of the scanning and look into porting the clamav engine into the add-in to speed up file scanning.
** Though this release is early I wanted to get something out there that at leasts scans the memory, system and data drives. All suggestions will be taken onboard – please use the facilities offered from the sourceforge page.
[...] scanning file servers. It has been ported to many different operating systems, and now following this posting here on MSWHS, it has been implemented on Windows Home Server as WHSClamAV courtesy of one of our software [...]
Is here the right place to discuss?
You mentioned it scans
c:\
d:\shares
I’m new to WHS but have been very careful with a few scripts I have (specifically for ssh/rsync based backup using SFU) to only use the UNC paths, ie /net/myserver/share or \\myserver\share, since drive extender manages the sym link etc underneath the covers.
Is it safe to access d:\shares directly. I feel very uncomfortable about that, but perhaps I shouldn’t be?
In short there isn’t a problem with what I am doing with these paths. However, as an extra level of protection it is recommended that in other apps that one uses the UNC paths.
Thanks. I started the scan on “sys” (which seems to include c:\fs\xxx) on my EX490 with 1+1.5Tb, of which 26% is used.
The scan has been running around 18 hours — it is making progress, but very slow. Of course that’s clamwin, not the plugin.
Turns out that my clamscanlog.txt has had no additions since 18:07 yesterday. It’s now 12:09 and clamwin is still running (checked with task manager via RDP) and taking 100% cpu
Have now killed it, although neither of the status/buttons on the clamav plugin are claiming either the updater or scanner is idle
Ran mem test ok, now trying a scan of DATA. (I don’t know WHS well, but with 2 drives what’s the relationship of C:\fs\xxxx (reparse point) to d:\ ?
Having read the original article & screenshots, I think “scan system” should exclude c:\fs ?
You are the MAN. Thank you for taking the time to make this very useful add-in for Windows Home Users. I get to use an Open-Source product I like (ClamWin) and in an easy manner, thanks to you.
I appreciate your work, as I’m sure everyone else here does.
Would be very interested in a free open source option, just starting out with WHS so would like to get it protected without too much further outlay.
Thanks,
Bob
Hi Bob,
There is a Beta available at http://whsclamav.sourceforge.net/ it only provides detection at the moment – which is a start – in the next month I hope to release a version with features to provide Health feedback and virus removal.
Thanks for the support and positive feedback from everyone so far.
Cheers,
Al
Forgot to mention that WHSClamAV-0.1.2.msi now excludes scanning c:\fs
Hi Al,
that is the Add-In I am looking for.
Great Idea !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hope your are able to realize the next version with virus removal soon.
Best regards from Germany
Kurt
Great IDEA!!! I would totally use it!
Hi Al,
This is what i was looking for since a long time.
Keep up the good work.
Best regard from France.
Louis
I think this would be awsome as I cant seem to find any great free options. Thank you for your time spent on this project.
Thanks again!
Excellent from what I have seen so far, keep up the great work …
Mike
Germany
amazingly superb product… keep up the good work. I was about to buy McAfee for WHS that is shipped with EX495… now I’ll donate the same for this project… I encourage others to do the same… support good projects
installing clam now, hope it works, will help me sleep better at night! Looking forward to your next release!