Stupidest Thing Ever

[ProfessorOhki]

My school will not give anyone wireless  access unless they have anti-virus software.  I tried to expalin that it is a PDA and that a virus (especially for the zaurus) was very unlikely.  "We're sorry, but I'm sure that someone makes it and until you have it, you will not be permitted wireless access."

So, is there such a thing?  And if there isn't.  Anyone know any articles or Sharp press releases or anything that go "you are an idiot, viruses?"

P.S. This really sucks

Actually, can any of you make something that looks like anti-virus software?  Given there level of expertise, it would probably work fine >.<

[kopsis]

This site has Zaurus IPKs of the clamav Linux anti-virus software. I haven't actually tried them, but it might be worth checking out. Clamav itself is widely used on Linux mail servers to filter wintel viruses, so it should be sufficient to placate your network admins.

[vputz]

Well, I'd say that being a unix system and all, ClamAV should be appropriate, and I know it's been compiled at least once for a Z:

see here.

The actual ClamAV page is here.

It seems pretty industrial-strength.  I don't think they could complain too much if you actually got it running.

-->VPutz

[lardman]

"We're sorry, but I'm sure that someone makes it and until you have it, you will not be permitted wireless access."

How will they ever know? You could just say "I have Norton" (or "I have the great, and well know, Linux virus scanner made by Acme..."), and although that's obviously not a good thing to do, I'm just wondering whether they have someone with the know-how to check, and if so why they don't specify a specific product which they know to be good?


Si

[technojunkie]

That's funny.  What about Palm Pilots?  I don't think I've ever heard of Palm Pilot viruses.

Hmm..

ARM processor(I think this makes your virus chances about .5%)
linux PDA(Shrinks the virus field enormously)
Opera browser(no spyware/malware)

not to mention the fact that only a few thousand people actually use a ARM/linux combo, so a virus for said platform would have a hard time propagating.

That being said. It is possible for you to forward infected wintel files that you may receive in email. But your recipient should have virus scanners anyway

[raduga]

My school will not give anyone wireless  access unless they have anti-virus software.  I tried to expalin that it is a PDA and that a virus (especially for the zaurus) was very unlikely.  "We're sorry, but I'm sure that someone makes it and until you have it, you will not be permitted wireless access."

So, is there such a thing?  And if there isn't.  Anyone know any articles or Sharp press releases or anything that go "you are an idiot, viruses?"

P.S. This really sucks

Actually, can any of you make something that looks like anti-virus software?  Given there level of expertise, it would probably work fine >.<

unfortunate.

Our school recently implemented new requirements for network connectivity:
All Windows and MacOS machines must have antivirus protection,
as well as Unix systems that serve files or email for Windows/MacOS systems,
or are used as a "desktop workstation".

They've made some effort to locate and identify antivirus products for a wide
array of systems:

http://www-no.ucsd.edu/security/minstds/matrix.html
(yes, *many* PDA OSes have antivirus products available. Probably more of these
 than there are actual viruses.  Zaurus isn't listed, except possibly for using ClamAV)

But they also have a catch-all, in that legitimate systems with no such product
can be registered as exceptions.  They're more concerned that exceptions are noted
and documented, than that they're kept off the net.

If your school has a written policy document, there may be a similar path you can take to get the Zaurus accepted.

My C760 neither serves email nor files to Windows, (or other non-unix)
so it's compliant.

[doc]

Hmmm.  Do you have any Windows systems?  A laptop or desktop?  Perhaps you could just show them a Windows wireless laptop with a piece of free virus software like: Avast! http://www.avast.com/

Then setup the IP address on your palm to be the same as the "approved" laptop and then you can have at it?