I'm a IT professional who is evaluating Server 2012 at work, but also have installed Server 2012 Essentials at home to run my 2 workstation home network. Probably a bit of overkill for a small home network, but my Windows Home Server (WHS) 2011 appliance (HP MediaSmart 470) recently stopped working and since Microsoft has decided to stop further development, I decided to give 2012 Essentials a try at home. For those of you unfamiliar with WHS, it was basically Windows Server 2003 with a pretty front end - really a fantastic product, but never caught on with the mainstream. It was a great backup solution - I'm hoping 2012 Essentials is the logical migration path - so far, I've found it fairly easy to use.
AntiVirus provider Avast created an inexpensive antivirus product for Windows Home Server, but many thought it was unecessary given that since it's only use was as a media / backup server (no web surfing), that antivirus wasn't needed. Given that Essentials 2012 appears to be the logical transistion for people like me moving from WHS, I'm interested in an expensive antivirus product for this server only. I know that Microsoft offers System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection, but that's total overkill for my simple needs. My 2 workstations are running anti-virus already - I just need basic protection (other than the built-in firewall) for the server. Because I might use it to surf the web for a few things, I think it's necessary.
I've spent several hours researching this and haven't come up with much. Sophos has a version for 2012, but it's more of an enterprise product - and priced that way. Norton, AVG, McAfee - none of these offer a compatible product (yet). And Windows Defender isn't supported on Essentials 2012.
Any ideas? There are several threads already in this forum, but my question / need is limited to a simple home user - not a small business. I would guess that in less than a year, there will be lots of other home users like me trying to figure this out.....