My Vendor Said to Uninstall Antivirus and Turn Off Firewall

[Jono]

Hello -

The vendor that we used to install 3CX and gave us support for the first year told us that we shouldn't have anti-virus installed on the 3CX server. He also said to turn off the Windows firewall. As a security-conscious SysAdmin, I'm very uncomfortable with leaving our 3CX server exposed like that.

Is it true that 3CX will not run correctly with anti-virus installed and the firewall on? It seems like that computer is very exposed to malware and hacking. It's behind our hardware firewall, but it still seems dangerous to have no anti-virus or firewall protection on the computer itself.

We are using a Windows 7 Pro SP1 machine as the 3CX server. That computer is not used for anything else but 3CX.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

Jono

 

[tsukraw]

Re: My Vendor Said to Uninstall Antivirus and Turn Off Firew

It is a very common practice in our installs to leave the windows firewall off and to not have AV installed.

I always relate this to other phone systems. If you have say a shoretel that is running a flavor of Linux as its base OS would you be concerned about having a firewall on it or AV on it?

Or back in the in the day with 3COM and there VCX which is running a flavor of linux. Again no firewall or AV.

As long as the phone system has a password and is dedicated to ONLY being a phone system i don't see a issue with running it without AV or a firewall because nothing besides phone activities will be happening.

Malware/viruses are not going to get installed on the system since you are not using it on the internet for anything other then phone system activates, and the odds of a virus on your local LAN being able to remotely access the system, figure out the password, and install themselves is highly unlikely.

That all being said i have had customer who absolutely refuse to not have AV on the system.
In those cases we still do require the windows firewall to be off, AV ONLY installed, NON of the network intrusion prevention or firewalls pieces can be installed. And then exclude the 3CX directories from scanning. Never seen a issue with AV being loaded as long as you follow that practice of exclusion and AV only.

 

[gschwab]

Re: My Vendor Said to Uninstall Antivirus and Turn Off Firew

I have 3CX running on a Windows 7 Pro machine with Trend Micro anti virus running AND the Windows firewall on, works without any problems at all. You might have to change the firewall settings to allow 3CX to pass through and most anti virus products allow you to change settings for your programs to run, if in doubt contact the products tech support.
I did however disable anti virus and firewall before installing 3CX, then turn them back on and make the necessary changes to them.

 

[complex1]

Re: My Vendor Said to Uninstall Antivirus and Turn Off Firew

It is a very common practice in our installs to leave the windows firewall off and to not have AV installed.

As long as the phone system has a password and is dedicated to ONLY being a phone system i don't see a issue with running it without AV or a firewall because nothing besides phone activities will be happening.

I do totally agreed with tsukraw.

 

[Jono]

Re: My Vendor Said to Uninstall Antivirus and Turn Off Firew

Thanks everyone!

 

[leejor]

Re: My Vendor Said to Uninstall Antivirus and Turn Off Firew

I run the Windows Firewall/Defender, but don't run an anti-virus program as nothing else gets downloaded or installed on the machine. I do keep a recent clone of the hard-drive handy along with even more recent 3CX backups.

 

[bardissi]

Re: My Vendor Said to Uninstall Antivirus and Turn Off Firew

I agree.

Windows without the firewall and av .... i wouldnt feel comfortable with any scenario with that

 

[NicholasP_3CX]

Re: My Vendor Said to Uninstall Antivirus and Turn Off Firew

Hi Jono,

As long as the PC/Server running the PBX is not used for anything else, you shouldnt have a problem.

Make sure your firewall policy is only allowing the relevant ports to go to the PBX.
Dont use the PBX for anything else, other than being a PBX. If you need to research something, use another PC.
be wary of any USB Sticks/Drives you insert (for backups)