Anti Virus software on RipNAS?

[Owen Smith]

Does anyone run anti virus software on their RipNAS? I'm considering Microsoft Security Essentials, I run that on my Vista laptop. I guess the question is how much is the RipNAS at risk?

[Spoon]

I do not think the ripnas is at much risk if it is sat behind a router, as it does not browse the internet or open emails.

[ServerBaboon]

There is a lot of truth in Spoon's comments about Ripnas about not using it for web browsing (it is possible but should not be done unless requested by spoon) or opening emails ( these are the primary methods of trojan and virus infection ). The inbuilt firewall with Windows Home Server will also offer some protection against infection from a network scanning trojan and this combination of best practice and defence should prevent any issues.

That said you may feel better with some AV on there box just in case they get an aggressive network scanning trojan on your home network. I am running Microsoft's Forefront client which has quite a heavy foot print on a dual atom motherboard with 2GB memory and Ripnas essentials with no percieved ill affect.

The only issue is cost, Ripnas is as far as I know based on Widows Home Server (Windows SBS 2003 based) which is a server os and therefore difficult to find a free or cost effective av program for. I am using the above because I have a Technet licence with a bunch of other servers running on a vmware esxi box because I work in IT.