IT dept has Norton Corp Antivirus scan all files, Bad?

We have Norton Corp Antivirus running on all the computers here, and it
scans all file types. There is no way for me to disable it, or to stop
it from scanning SW files. Are we taking a big performance hit by
letting the AV scan all files?

If anyone knows a goood benchmark I can run, please post. I would love
to benchmark different computers we have to see which is faster, and
also compare them to other SW users. Is there such a thing?

 

You're taking a huge performance hit. I've seen speed for just opening
files more than double by turning this off. Is it scanning local files or
just network files?

Of course SW files can contain viruses. I've never seen it done, but it's
theoretically possible and just a matter of time until someone with nothing
better to do tries it. There's nothing to worry about if you create all
your own files. but if you take files from others, there's that risk.

 

matt, i guess its scanning network and local files. We use Smarteam,
so it first copies all the files from a server to your c: drive. After
this is complete, it opens the files in SolidWorks. I wonder if its
scanning the files twice?

I guess Ill try to convince someone in ITS to exclude Solidworks files
from the "real-time scanning" list.

 

A good way to handle it is to approach it as a test. Once the IT folks see
what a difference it makes, sometimes they will relent. Maybe they could
incorporate the AV scan as part of the ST check in.

 

Are you sure you can't turn it off? Most AV has a file extension
exclusion list for example with Symantec AntiVirus for solidworks files
you add exclude "SLD?" to the list. We did this and saw about 40%
increase in network transfers and we leave all files on the network
drive.

Corey

 

Well, that was shot down pretty quick. I talked to our IT dept, and
they said they cant do it. It is possible to exclude certain filetypes
with Norton AV, but they dont want to do this. They said since the
files are going back and fourth from my computer to the network, they
dont want to risk possibly infecting the network if my computer was
infected.

That being said, I figured this would happen. Its next to impossible
to get stuff like this changed.

Can anyone point me to a list of "performance improvements" for
SolidWorks? Im trying to figure out the best options/settings to work
with (arent we all...)

 

Did you try doing a performance comparison. 40 to 50% improvement on
assemblies that take minutes to load is quite a difference. Figure out
how much extra time you spend in a week a month a year because of a
200% increase due to AV software unnecessarily scanning files that have
a next to nill chance of ever getting a virus Do a week study on how
long you are waiting on saves and Opening files then get IT to do a
side by side comparison with a larger assembly one with the AV scanning
the files and one without then submit the findings to upper management.
Besides if your AV software is up to date with the AV software of the
server you have just as much chance of infecting the files with or
without it. A virus can't inffect a file if it isn't running. Though
you might have to be careful with downloads and e-mail files.

 

If they are worried, get them to just scan, when the files are written, not
read.
This will improve the time , when getting your files from the server.
If there is a virus in a file, it is too late, once it is on ther server,
lol, no need to scan when reading your files from the server.

 

A non-executable file is not worth much worry.
Part files are not executables.

Any virus that might get in them would just
produce corrupt part files I'd think (unless perhaps
in the last, unused space, in the last block in the file
and I doubt that a 511 byte virus is very clever
[assuming 512 byte blocks]).

Suggest protected file system .... scan as part
of moving files in & out of it if needed .... batch
system scan on timed basis at night ..... do all work
in protected file system .... OOPS ... probably MS OS ....

 

I understand 100% what you are saying. Its probably almost impossible
to get a virus spread thru a sldxxx file, but its not easy to convince
our IT dept. For one thing, I feel like they think they know it all
(which is probably a common thing). All of the options on the AV are
disabled (greyed out), so its probably a network admin only function to
change them. Anyone know a way I could shutdown the entire program,
since doing a "end task" on it will not work.

If I can do this, and do a time trial like CS stated, then I would have
something to show to my manager, otherwise im working on a "I think it
might help".

Thanks for the responses, but everything we do here gets the question
"Will it make us money?" Which is a good thing. So I have to have
some type of proof to get it done.

 

We attempted to turn our scans off, but our IT dept has "locked" all
settings from us the users. We had them before exclude all part, assy,
and drawing files from the scans. The AV was set up to scan on open,
and close....why... I do not know! When we went to 2005, our IT dept
reformatted all HD's. I was noticing a major slow down from
2004......who didnt!?! I got to poking around looking at what "Godware"
had been put on, and stumbled into the AV settings, which, had been
reverted back to scanning all file types, on open and close! Our IT
locked all the settings down so they cant be changed! Wonderful!! I am
in the process of trying to get him to let his thumb up off us a little
and to stop scanning our solidworks files!

mrcswp at gmail dot com

 

We are having a similar problem, only with McAfee and Solid Edge. It is
causing assemblies to take anywhere from 2-3 times longer to open because it
is scanning all the component parts. The setting is "Scan all files for
macro viruses". Like you, our settings are set corporately by IT and they
will not turn it off, however if we could exclude them, they would, but this
particular option does not use the exclusion list.

Ken

 

From somewhere else that uses Norton AV Corp( small business addition
to be exact, virtually the same AFAIK) I can tell you that not
scanning the Solidworks files will make big difference. I never timed
it, but you don't need to, opening a large assembly you can see the
difference.

The files could also be getting scanned twice if you are working off a
network drive. The server can also be set to run Auto-Protect.

Good luck with you IT Dept.

AC

To reply via email remove all numbers from address

 

Start, settings, remove program, this will close it down for good, lol

You might be able to start in safe mode, and disable it from there, don't
forget to restart, for solidworks.
Another way, is to stop all running processes, (in windows task manager),
that relate to the antivirus program.

 

Not that anyone ever provides clues ..... I usually do a Google
search to try to find out what they are. One by one ...

 

sieg heil, asshole!