That answers the performance part of my question, but it still leaves me wondering. I'm familiar with NAV as a tool to protect workstations. But, workstations don't listen for SMTP connections on port 25, and then pass than information along unopened. Would a virus even be recognizable to a such software before a message has had it's attachments unpacked by a mail reader? I've seen antivirus software advertised specifically for an Exchange server, but I don't know if this is more of a marketing issue or that mail server protection is conceptually different from workstation protection. = Marc Louis Stober = Systems Manager = The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism = [log in to unmask] = http://www.uscj.org > -----Original Message----- > From: LISTSERV give-and-take forum > [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Jacob Haller > Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2000 9:37 AM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: any virus scanning for LISTSERV / LSMTP ? > > > >Mark: > > > >I'll admit freely that I don't have enough information to answer your > >questions about SMTP vs. LSMTP and how NAV 2000 works procedurally. NAV > >2000 has identified one virus-laden e-mail file in the SMTP/LSMTP system > >since July 1, 2000, and that file was stopped from distribution. > > > >As for performance, we only move about 1 - 1.5 million messages a month, > >usually in batches of a few hundred to a few thousand at a time. So, > >performance isn't really an issue for us; messages are processed quickly > >and the mail server is idle most of the time. > > I don't have any first-hand knowledge of Norton Antivirus and the > portion of their website devoted to the product seems singularly > devoid of information on what it's actually supposed to do, apart > from a vague impression that it has something to do with getting > viruses. (I may just not have looked hard enough.) So I can't speak > specifically as to how NAV works or what effect it would have on > performance. > > Generally speaking, though, I'd say that you'd have to expect that > any antivirus system that is to intercept incoming viruses would have > _some_ effect on performance. It should be possible to minimize that > effect if you can configure the software to only intercept and scan > incoming messages, though. This would leave LSMTP to send outgoing > messages unimpeded, which is really where you see the biggest > performance gains when you use LSMTP. From a virus security > standpoint this shouldn't be a problem, either, as in order for > LISTSERV to distribute a message containing a virus it first has to > receive a message with a virus. > > I'm speaking fairly theoretically here so some testing of any system > you are thinking about using is in order, but the above seems correct > to me. Does anyone else have any experience with this? > > Thanks, > -- > Jacob Haller, Technical Support > L-Soft international, Inc > http://www.lsoft.com/