Is it possible to block Viruses using SPI (Stateful packet inspection) using Linux box

Instead of installing Symantic firewall on each and very PC in the
corporate LAN, will it be possible to block all Virus e-mails using
SPI (Stateful packet inspection) using Linux Box as external VPN
Router, this Linux box is like VPN firewall with all these value added
functionalities, we need to use this Linux box instead of
Sonicwall/cyberguard/safenet boxes for lower price for small and medium
businesses, is it possible to implement SPI in Linux,

also appreciated if somebody give a comment on this Linux based VPN
firewall box, how it is useful for small and medium businesses for
nominal price, also this box can be managed remotely.

Thanks,
GS.

GS wrote:
> Instead of installing Symantic firewall on each and very PC in the
> corporate LAN, will it be possible to block all Virus e-mails using
> SPI (Stateful packet inspection) using Linux Box as external VPN
> Router, this Linux box is like VPN firewall with all these value added
> functionalities, we need to use this Linux box instead of
> Sonicwall/cyberguard/safenet boxes for lower price for small and medium
> businesses, is it possible to implement SPI in Linux,
>
> also appreciated if somebody give a comment on this Linux based VPN
> firewall box, how it is useful for small and medium businesses for
> nominal price, also this box can be managed remotely.
>
> Thanks,
> GS.

It takes more than a firewall to block Virus emails; a program has to
scan all the emails and compare them with known viruses.

The usual way of doing it with Linux is to run spamassassin to scan for
spam and ClamAV (which is free) or F-Prot (which is not but has a
version at no charge) in conjunction with your MTA (sendmail/postfix/exim).

There are other solutions: if you use IPCop <www.ipcop.org> as your
firewall, then you can use Copfilter to call mail scanners (which I
haven't tried myself).

Robert