The developers suggest to run the application directly from within the web browser which is a possibility. Users with SuperAntiSpyware installed cannot run the online scanner at the same time as the core program (killing the process helps).

The program, offered as a .com file, leaves no traces on the system and does not need to be installed. Before you think about copying the program to an USB device or tools DVD, you should consider that there is no option to update the program database. The check for updates button and automatic updates option are grayed out and not selectable. This leaves on demand scans but only on systems with a working Internet connection (to download the portable program).

The program is limited to scanning and repairing the computer. Several features like scheduled scanning or automatic updates are grayed out and not selectable. The same is true for most of the program options which are also grayed out.

A click on scan your computer runs the selected scan. Available for selection are quick, complete, critical point, custom and rescue scans with complete scans being selected by default.

SuperAntiSpyware Online Safe Scan can remove threats found on the computer. This is an advantage of pure online scanners who usually cannot perform those operations.

The Repairs section can also be handy in cases to fix issues caused by malware. This includes reseting the browser homepage, enabling the task manager and system tray, resetting url prefixes or repairing broken network connections.

Those features alone make it a nice to have program. The downside is quite obvious: You need to re-download the program every time you want to scan a computer. If you do not you may not be using the latest program version.

Windows users who want to try out SuperAntiSpyare’s Online Safe Scan application can download it from the official website. (via)

Users who want a little bit of comfort can install one of the available browser extensions instead to submit sites and files directly from an Internet browser to Virus Total. We already reviewed the Virus Total Firefox and Virus Total Chrome extensions previously. This time, we take a look at the Internet Explorer version of Virus Total.

The Internet Explorer version of Virus Total is limited in comparison to the Chrome or Firefox version. Unlike those versions that integrate not only into the browser’s right-click context menu but also into the file download dialog, the Internet Explorer version only integrates into the context menu.

When you install the Internet Explorer add-on, you will notice afterwards that a Send URL to VirusTotal entry has been added to the context menu of Internet Explorer. This option is only displayed on right-clicks on links, and not if the user right-clicks on other page elements. This basically means that you cannot really check the site you are on currently, unless it links to itself somewhere on the page.

Another issue that users may come across is that the context menu entry will always submit the url to the Virus Total url analyzer, even if a file is the link target. It is possible to switch to the antivirus report in that report, but it takes another click to load it.

The add-on definitely has its flaws, from the context menu limitations to the fact that it is always the page that gets scanned even if the link is pointing directly to a file. The Explorer add-on is however still handy and faster than having to submit file links or urls directly on the Virus Total website.

Virus Total Explorer is compatible with all recent versions of Microsoft’s Internet browser. downloads are provided at the Virus Total website. There is unfortunately no option to directly link to the page where the download is offered. Open the Browser Addons page and switch to Internet Explorer in the menu below to find information and downloads. (via)

The popularity of the service on the other hand means that you sometimes have to wait in queue before your file gets scanned by Virus Total. Another limitation is the 20 Megabyte file size limit which is a bit on the low side of things.

Metascan Online is a new service that is an alternative to Virus Total. The online virus scanning service supports 19 different engines from companies such as Eset, Bitdefender, F-Secure, Clamwin, Symantec or McAfee. While that’s less than half the engines of Virus Total, it should still be enough to judge a file’s damaging potential.

The developers have increased the file size limit to 40 Megabytes so that even die hard Virus Total users can utilize the new search engine (for files larger than 20 Megabytes).

The antivirus scans work similar to the Virus Total scan. Just click the Browse button on the scan form to display a file browser window. Pick a file on the local system that you want scanned and click the Scan button afterwards.

The online scanner displays general file information at the top which include file size, type and md5 and sha1 hashes. Results are shown as graphics on the right after all scans have finished.

The individual engines and their results on the other hand are shown directly on the page. One interesting feature here is that the scan time of each individual engine is displayed here as well. Some scan times on the other hand do not feel right at this point in time, the 1ms of Quick Heal Scan Engine for instance or the 2189ms of Avira AntiVir Premium. Still, it is a nice feature in theory.

A search on the site can be used to look up md5 or sha1 checksums, which can be handy to find out more about a file without having it scanned first by the service.

There is however one aspect of the site that I’d like to criticize. If you visit the site with Chrome Dev or Firefox Aurora, you get a browser not supported page. That page does however list the browser version as supported.

The developers should take a look at their browser identification script and optimize it accordingly.

Metascan Online is a great alternative to Virus Total or No Virus Thanks despite that issue. It is definitely a site to bookmark. It would be nice if the developers would add missing features, like the ability to scan an online file, to the site.

Most users will probably use the on-demand scanner to verify that their operating system is clean of viruses and other forms of malware. The major benefit of this approach is twofold. First, they can run Microsoft Safety Scanner next to any installed antivirus or security software on the system. This is obviously better than having to uninstall one antivirus program to run another, as there are often incompatibilities or problems involved when running multiple virus scanners on a system.

The second is the ability to scan the system for malicious software without thinking about configuration of the program, or making sure that it is up to date. The software is using virus information from Microsoft’s Malware Protection center.

Microsoft Safety Scanner has been designed with simplicity in mind. The program can be started right after downloading or transferring it to a Windows PC. Only the depths of the scan needs to be selected, everything else is handled automatically by the application.

You can run a quick scan, full scan or customized scan. A quick scan will check the most likely areas on the system for malicious code like viruses, spyware or computer worms. A full scan on the other hand will scan every single file plus the memory and the Registry. A custom scan finally scans a user selected folder or drive.

There are a few things that you need to know before you download and run the application.

Microsoft Safety Scanner is an on-demand scanner, which means that it is no replacement for active virus protection on the system. It’s aim is to provide additional means to scan a system, nothing more, nothing less.

The scanner has a size of about 70 Megabytes which includes all definition files. It is not auto-updating and will automatically expire after ten days. That’s a serious restriction that makes the program more or less unsuitable for tech support purposes as it would have to be downloaded every ten days anew.

The program does not seem to require the Microsoft .NET Framework, nothing’s mentioned about that on the system requirements page.

You can download Microsoft’s Safety Scanner from the official website over at Microsoft.com.

No Virus Thanks is a similar service that supports 20 different antivirus engines (Virus Total supports 42). The most important engines on the other hand are supported like those from Kaspersky, F-Prot, Trend Micro, Dr. Web, Panda or AVG. The limitations are also similar. Files up to a size of 20 Megabytes can be uploaded directly on the No Virus Thanks website.

The No Virus Thanks Uploader can be installed to send files directly from the Windows operating system to the online service. The tool limits the size of the files that can be uploaded to 5 Megabytes. It is not really clear why the developers have made the decision to reduce the allowed file size. Files larger than 5 Megabytes need to be uploaded manually on the website.

The uploader displays a file browser, the running processes, Registry startups and options to search old files, display the list of drivers and loaded dlls; all of which can be uploaded to No Virus Thanks for the antivirus check. (The drivers list and loaded dlls tab did not display results on our Windows 7 64-bit bit operating system).

The No Virus Thanks Uploader contains a downloader as well that can be used to scan remote files with the antivirus scanner.

No Virus Thanks is a viable alternative to Virus Total that comes in handy if the Virus Total service is busy or unreachable.

The Avira company offers a number of different solutions. Scan through their product overview to find out which solution is best for you.  But for this article we are looking at the Avira Antivir workstation solution for linux. In this article I will show you how to install and use this outstanding product.

Before you begin

There is one pre-requisite for installation. If you want to use the real-time scanner you have to have Dazuko installed. This is a fairly complex installation which requires either building your own kernel or compiling Dazuko against your kernel source. We will deal with this in a later article, so skip the AvGuard installation for now.

Once this is finished you are ready to install Antivir.

Unpacking and installing

Hopefully you have already downloaded the source from the link above (see Avira Antivir workstation solution for Linux). Open up a terminal and change to the directory holding that file.  The first step is to unpack the tar with the command:

1. tar xvzf antivir-workstation-pers.tar.gz
2. Once you’ve done that change into the new created directory. If you do a listing of this directory you will find an executable install script. This is the way to install. Issue the command sudo ./install and enter your sudo password.
3. Here are the steps you will have to walk through:
4. View the license (space bar to view, Enter for accepting).
5. Enter the path to your license key (the key will be hbedv.key that you need to purchase from the site).  For evaluation purposes just hit Enter here.
6. Install the internet daemon. If you want to install the auto updater, hit enter.
7. Create a link for avupdater. (You will want this).
8. Would you like the update daemon to start automatically? (You will want this).
9. Do you want to install AvGuard (real-time scanner). For now we will skip this, until I have addressed the installation of Dazuko. The installation of Antivir can be rerun and AvGuarded added to it.
10. Configure AntiVir updater. Hit enter to configure.
11. Would you like to be notified about updates. This is up to you.
12. Would you like the updater to log to  a custom file? You will want this.
13. Accept the default location for the updater log.
14. How often should AntiVir check for updates (the default is every 2 hours – you might change that to once a day (d).
15. What time should updates be done. The default is RANDOM.
16. Does this machine use a proxy server? y/n
17. Save configuration settings? Hit Enter.
18. Would you like to apply the configuration? Hit Enter.
19. Hit Enter to complete, but take note of the common commands listed.

Usage

Using AntiVir is actually quite simple.  Here are some of the commands you will want to know:

• Configure the updater: /usr/lib/AntiVir/configantivir
• Start update daemon: /usr/lib/AntiVir/avupdater start
• Stop update deamon: /usr/lib/AntiVir/avupdater stop
• Update daemon status: /usr/lib/AntiVir/avupdater status
• Running a manual, recursive scan: antivir -s –update –scan-mode=all

NOTE: With only a trial license, the –update argument (used to check for updated virus signatures) will not work. For more arguments to use with the antivir command issue the command antivir -h (as you will not find a man page for this command).

Final thoughts

Avira’s Antivir is a powerful tool for the fight against viruses. And just because you are using a Linux workstation, does not mean you should snub anti-virus solutions. You get files from people that you pass on to others (others who may not be using Linux as their workstation). You will want to make sure those files are virus-free.

Norton’s Security Scan (via JK Web Talks) is such a software. While it has been primarily designed to sell a Norton antivirus product like Norton 360 it can be used to scan the system without interfering with the current antivirus solution. What makes it interesting is that it uses the latest virus definition files that are also used in Norton retail antivirus software products. It does however perform only a partial scan of the computer system by default but this option can be changed in the settings on the main page.

The antivirus software program will check the virus definition file and initiate a download of the latest if it is outdated. The antivirus software will then either perform a quick or full scan of the computer system. A quick scan will only check the most common locations where viruses and other malicious programs are found while the full system scan will check all files located on connected hard drives.

The interface will display banner advertisement during the scan; Most users will probably minimize the program interface or move other applications into the foreground to prevent those distracting advertisements from appearing on the computer screen. Norton Security Scan will list all discovered threads in a table on the main page providing information about the type of threat (e.g. tracking cookie) including a description, the threat name and target name.

The antivirus program is only a scanner which means it is not possible to clean the files directly. Possibilities include research on the Internet to find a free antivirus software that can clean it or to contact the developer of the installed antivirus solution about the problem. It should be obvious by now that the program is great for users who want to perform additional security scans of their computer system but not for those who are looking for a complete security solution.