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Endpoint Security and Control: installing software manually on networked computers

In most situations, Sophos Anti-Virus for Windows 2000+ and Sophos Client Firewall can be installed automatically on all Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows 2003 computers, and Sophos Anti-Virus for Windows NT current version can be installed automatically on all Windows NT computers on the network. However, it is occasionally necessary to run an installation manually.

Sophos Anti-Virus must be installed manually on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me and Macintosh OS X computers on the network, or a script must be used. When you perform a manual installation, Windows will probably require you to reboot your computer.

Note: This article only applies to computers on which you are installing Sophos Anti-Virus or Sophos Client Firewall for the first time. It does not apply to computers where you are upgrading Sophos Anti-Virus.

What to do

On operating systems where you must install Sophos Anti-Virus and Sophos Client Firewall manually, you can either

Before installing Sophos Anti-Virus on Windows 95 computers, you must run the Windows Socket 2 Update on them. For details, see the Microsoft website.

Contents

  1. Manual installation
  2. Scripted and automated installation
  3. Computers not always on the network
  4. DFS and non-Microsoft file systems

1. Manual installation

You can protect computers by running the installation program manually from the central installation directory (CID) where EM Library places Sophos updates.

  1. Checking the location of the CID
    • In Enterprise Console select the group the computers are in and click 'Updating policy'.
    • Select the operating system and click 'Configure'.
    • Make a note of the address shown. The default central installation directory for each operating system is

      Windows 2000/XP/2003:  //Servername/InterChk/ESXP
      Windows NT:  //Servername/InterChk/ESNT
      Windows 95/98/Me:  //Servername/InterChk/ES9X
      Mac OS X 10.2 and later:  //Servername/InterChk/ESOSX
  2. Installing
    Go to each computer in turn:
    • Log on with local administrator rights.
    • Browse to the CID.
    • For a Windows computer, double-click setup.exe.
    • For a Mac OS X 10.2+ computer, copy the Sophos Anti-Virus.mpkg file from the central installation directory and double-click it.
  3. Further steps on Windows computers
    When installing on Windows computers, you may be prompted to enter user credentials. The account must
    • be able to log on to (browse to) the computers you want to protect
    • have read access to CIDs.
  4. Further steps on Mac OS X computers
    After installation:
    • go into 'System Preferences'
    • open the Sophos Anti-Virus preferences pages
    • click the AutoUpdate tab
    • enter the user credentials.

2. Scripted and automated installation

Several knowledgebase articles describe some specialised installation scenarios in more detail:

3. Computers not always on the network

Where computers are not always on the network, e.g. laptops that are sometimes used away from the office, you can configure them to update from an alternative source when they are away.

The alternative source can be an updates folder on a website maintained by your company, or it can be a Sophos website.

  1. In Enterprise Console, select the group that contains the computers you want to protect.
  2. On the toolbar, click 'Updating policy'.
  3. In the 'Set updating policy for computers in the ... group' dialog, select an operating system used by computers in that group, e.g. Windows 2000/2003/XP.
  4. Click 'Configure'.
  5. Click the 'Secondary server' tab.
  6. Enter the Address (UNC path or web address) from which Sophos Anti-Virus will fetch updates if the Primary server cannot be contacted.
  7. If necessary, enter the User name and Password for an account that
    • can log on to the computers in the group
    • has read access to (can browse to) the secondary server location.
  8. If the User name needs to be qualified to indicate the domain, use the form domain\username.

If you access the internet via a proxy server:

  1. Click 'Proxy details'.
  2. In the 'Proxy details' dialog box, select 'Access the server via a proxy'.
  3. Enter the proxy server Address and Port number.
  4. Enter a User name and Password that give access to the proxy server.
  5. If the user name needs to be qualified to indicate the domain, use the form domain\username.
  6. Click OK.

4. DFS and non-Microsoft file systems

After installation, Windows computers must be restarted to scan files accessed by DFS (Windows 2000/XP) or via non-Microsoft file systems (Windows 2000).

If you need more information or guidance, then please contact technical support.