Norton Virus Protection

By admin * 2006

.. for free anti virus scan and trial security software

Symantec.com is a long-established global provider of security software, from the small home PC to enterprise networks. One product in their range is Norton Virus Protection.

As do the majority of security software providers, Symantec offers you the option of a free anti virus scan.

Run The Security Scan

In order to run the scan on your own home PC - -

go to the home page of Symantec.com;
take the link to the heading Home & Home
Office;
in the right hand column, and under the heading THINGS TO DO, click on ‘Free Scan for Viruses’;
you are expected to permit ActiveX controls, not a good thing normally, however Symantec have been around a while and it’s worth the risk;
we are now expected to permit spyware, however as we intend to allow Symantec to run software on our machine let’s continue;
we are taken to the Symantec Security Check screen, and have the choice of running a Security Scan, or Virus Detection;
let’s continue with the Security Scan by pressing ‘Start’;
you will need to read and accept the ‘End-User License Agreement’;
the download takes very little time, the scan only a minute or two;
a list is displayed - Hacker Exposure Check; Windows Vulnerability Check; Trojan Horse Check; Antivirus Product Check; you can click for further details;
click on the links for more ‘Show Details’. They give you a wealth of educational technical information;
we took ‘Show Details’ for Trojan Horses, and on clicking ‘Back’ to return, the Internet Browser crashed, so we will rerun the whole thing to get back to this point (we did not investigate further so the fault may be our’s not Symantec’s);
(back again !) the ‘Antivirus Product Check’ showed “FAILED”, the analysis informing me that we do not have a commonly-used AV product installed.
In fact we do.

At this point we chose to take the tab link ‘Security Scan Statistics’, where you can inspect the stats, taken from a worldwide sample of those who have taken the scan and agreed to participate. Today, end May 2006, the size of the sample is nigh on 6 million and 18% of respondents were open to hacking exploits.

Run The Virus Detection Scan

Now let’s return to the ‘Symantec Security Check screen (click on ‘Home’) -

this time take the option for Virus Detection by pressing ‘Start’;
you are taken to the ‘Security Policy’ screen. You can decline to have personal details recorded;
note, for Virus Detection you need your anti-spyware disabled, ActiveX controls permitted, and scripting permitted in your browser.

At this moment, and considering we have very recently lost nearly a week because of virus problems, I am loath to also permit scripting.

We will have another look at this as soon as possible.

Conclusion

Seems promising. Having sampled the Security Scan we are confident that the Virus Detection scan would be just as efficient, educational and thorough.

It does not offer the option to have your PC continually monitored for viruses, so obviously it is not, and does not claim to be, a full anti virus product.

TRADEMARKS. ‘Norton’, ‘Symantec’, are not the property of allfreeantivirus.com but pertain to, or are owned by Symantec.com