Central AntiVirus Server Protects Your Computer from Viruses
Introduction
If you have a CCI IBM laptop, then you already have Symantec AntiVirus (SAV) software installed on your computer. This is the software that keeps your computer protected from malware (viruses, etc). Even if you didn't purchase a computer through UNC, Symantec AntiVirus software is available for free to all UNC students and to University-owned computers used by faculty and staff through UNC Shareware Distribution. This client can access a campus server to look for virus definition updates hourly when your machine is online. Connecting to this on-campus server for your updates is advantageous in case UNC's connection to the Internet is having problems. This way, you can get updates even if you can't get to the Internet itself. Conversely, the client is also configured to connect to Symantec directly whenever the definitions get more than 1 day old, if your machine is unable to get to our campus server.
Current Configuration
ITS Desktop Infrastructure offers a campus-wide "parent" servers which seek the latest Intelligent Updater virus definition updates from Symantec's ftp server every 15 minutes. When they find a new update, these parent servers will install it immediately and then distribute the update automatically to all the clients that they can reach online.
At the same time, clients are set to check with their parent server hourly for updates. This hour is relative depending on when the user turns on the client machine. If the client cannot reach its parent server, the client will do "Continuous LiveUpdate" in the background, which means that if your virus definitions are more than 1 day out-of-date, it will check for new LiveUpdate definitions directly from Symantec every 2 hours. (In addition, clients are set to use LiveUpdate randomly on a day between Sunday and Saturday within 480 minutes of 5 pm.)
If your definitions become more than 30 days overdue, a message will pop up on your computer that says, "The program 'Symantec AntiVirus Client' has virus definitions that may be out of date. Open the program and check the Virus Definitions File version date. If it is more than 30 days old, please run Live Update. If you need assistance, please contact the ITRC at 962-HELP."
