Hey i'm testing this program, could it be enhanced so that it had real time protection like some of the other antivirus programs on the web?

Yes, ClamWin could/should be enhanced for real-time protection, but it would need a lot of work from an experienced programmer who has the time to do so. The user interface (menu) probably needs to be reworked, the current old Python dependencies need to be removed, and it needs the addition of at least some basic heuristics to detect viruses without depending upon a virus signature database. The current developers do not have much time for this--ClamWin is a free project, and they have to earn a living. If you are an experienced C++ programmer with some free time, you can contact them via the information on the main page to offer some help.

ClamWin is primarily a port over to Windows of the open source Clam Antivirus program (C++) for Linux. This keeps development costs/effort very low, but the problem is that Clam AV is primarily written for Linux email servers (that get Windows viruses via email attachments for users) and is not designed for specific use in a Windows environment.

Work is actually progressing on a new ClamWin 1.0 version, but it is slow going. It will probably not have real-time protection but will offer some protection against malware that tries to take advantage of the user's browser. There is actually a current free, open source project--the Clam Sentinel project, that uses ClamWin as a resident scanner and also includes some heuristic detection. It is available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/clamsentinel/ on the web.

Regards,

Why not using Clam Sentinel into ClamWin antivirus? ..at least as a first step, so there would be a complete solution

and then if nessesary fix a proper real time scanner which works better than this intergration

ClamWin doesn't have the money, staff, or resources to built one from scratch. I have been asking around if anyone would be willing to develop a module, but so far no luck. I haven't received any contact from JL since last week when they said they would be willing to merge. C++ is a difficult language to understand but python is far easier. There was a registered user here who was building one a long time ago, but I think that project has been abandon as it's been only half way done for the past 5 years. Clam Sentinel is written in D6 (Delphi), an easier language then C++. I think the developers had ideas of a merge with that, but there's no guarantee what their plans are in the future. Who knows, perhaps someone will build one for us eventually or maybe someone would like to merge projects.

We shall see what happens. In the meantime, anyone that can help with coding for ClamWin should contact the ClamWin developers via the contact information on the main ClamWin web page. I think some scripts that extend the functionality of ClamWin would be welcome provided they could be used with the current version of ClamWin.

Regards,

In a month or so I'll have a lot of free time, and I can help out with designing real-time protection.

That is great! I suggest that you contact head developer Alch via the contact link on the ClamWin main web page. I am sure he can use the help.

Regards,

A simple filesystem scanner that scans every file that is added, modified/changed, moved, or renamed would be good enough for ClamWin for now. Maybe later on, when ClamWin gets more popular, we can add more stuff to it, like network scanning for corporate environments, web scanning for downloads and emailing, etc.

I am of the opinion that corporations/organizations with networks should pay something for development. All of the commercial AVs restrict the use of their free products to individuals. Corporate/organizational use is a special case--they need an AV that is robust, well-tested, with good/quick support. That should cost money in my book.

Cisco used Clam AV on several hundred computers but never paid anything for it. Perhaps if they had paid a fair amount, the Clam AV project would still be self-owned and would not have had to sell out to Sourcefire. Now Cisco owns it all! Anyway, at least Clam AV/ClamWin are still around.

Regards,

I didn't mean a large corperation, but maybe you guys can distrubute license for small business (10-30 pcs). Nobody with that few pcs would pay for security. It wouldn't be worth it then. Comodo distrubutes licenses for free for small businesses and endpoint users.

zqrzd:

If you are available to help with ClamWin development now, please contact Alch via the contact link on the main ClamWin web page.

Regards,

Would be nice to see that. OT: When will the next ClamWin version be out and will it have OpenSSL, aswell?

I'll contact alch.
@ROCKNROLLKID
ClamWin will definitely have OpenSSL.

Clam AV came out with version .98.3 a couple of weeks ago, but shortly after that, they issued a release candidate .98.4 to fix some bugs, so the ClamWin team opted to wait until they are fixed before doing anything. I'm not sure, but I think that Clam AV now has a dependency upon Open SSL--probably involves some future functionality.

Regards,

Any news on the real-time protection module? Has production started atleast?