EScan is an easy to use anti-virus software that provides real time
protection to the system and does not take much time for installation. The
software works on MicroWorld's Winsock Technology, wherein, the Winsock layer
acts as an interface between the system application and the Internet. The
software acts on this layer and analyzes the traffic between the system and the
Internet before it hits the Application layer and goes into the inbox. So all
attachments, e-mails and downloads are scanned early enough to provide
protection against known threats. There are four modules in the software. These
include the main anti-virus engine, or eScan for Windows, which provides
protection against viruses, Trojans and other malwares. Then there's the eScan
Updater to keep the software's virus database updated against new threats.
There's a Content Administrator module that allows a user to grant/refuse access
to specific type of content, and finally there's the eScan Management Console,
which enables a user to configure and monitor the eScan network incase this
software is installed on multiple machines. These modules change depending upon
the version of the software being used. The software has an easy to use
interface which is intuitive and self guiding. It has a scheduler which enables
you to schedule anti-virus checks automatically. The On Demand scan feature
gives you the flexibility to select types of files that need or need not be
scanned.
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The software does not have any inbuilt firewall but has an inbuilt network
monitoring tool. This tool examines the TCP/IP activity on the system and lists
all TCP and UDP endpoints on the system including the remote address and state
of TCP connections. We tested the software on a Windows XP machine. The
anti-virus was able to detect most of the viruses in our database. The average
RAM consumption during scans was 60% while average RAM consumption for idle time
was 37%. The average CPU consumption during scan was 55%. This anti-virus
consumes lesser system resources then the McAfee's latest version (also reviewed
in this issue, but it takes longer than Norton's latest anti-virus). Checking
email for viruses is a standard feature in most anti-virus packages, but one
thing we were surprised about was that it didnt't detect viruses in zipped
folders. Only after we unzipped them did thes software start raising alarms
about discovered viruses. action.
Bottomline: Overall, it's a good choice for
anti-virus protection, given its ease of use and quick virus detection
capabilities.