McAfee’s VirusScan

This latest version comes with an integrated firewall, and also provides protection from wireless devices apart from the regular features of an anti-virus package. It supports all desktop versions of Windows, including the latest Windows XP.

During installation, you can create an emergency disk, which you can use to boot into your computer and scan for viruses in case of a virus attack. Once installed the VShield component of McAfee will run in the background and perform real-time scanning. It monitors all files entering your computer from network drives, floppies, e-mail, Internet downloads and also protects your system from harmful Java and ActiveX components. VShield can be configured according to your needs, so you can set things like which files to scan, what to do when a virus is found, websites to block, or the alerting method to use. We e-mailed a few viruses and even compressed the infected file, but McAfee was able to catch them as soon as we clicked on the infected attachment. It was also able to detect infected files, which we tried copying from floppies and hard drives.

You can enable HAWK, which will monitor Outlook for suspicious activities MCAFEE VIRUSSCAN VERSION 6 Price: Rs 1,400 Meant for: Home/office PC Features: Supports Windows 95/98/Me/NT workstation/2000 Pro/XP Home/XP Pro; protection from wireless devices like Palm, Compaq iPAQ, Handspring Visor; real-time monitoring, integrated firewall, blocks Java and ActiveX, e-mail scanning, and file backup Pros: Easy to use, lots of features Cons: None Contact: Annette Castelino, Network Associates. Tel: 022-6935278 Fax: 6147078. 4th floor, Emgeen Chambers, 10, Vidyanagari Marg, Kalina, Santacruz(East), Mumbai 400098. E-mail: annette_castelino@nai.com

A special feature here is ‘HAWK for Outlook’ (Hostile Activity Watch Kernel), which when enabled, monitors for suspicious activities like attempts to forward e-mail to a large portion of your address book, or e-mail attachments containing program files (EXE files).

Another point of virus entry could be when you transfer data from your wireless devices, such as the Palm, or iPAQ. McAfee monitors all data transferred to and from your wireless devices, and warns you of infected files. The manual contains a complete list of devices McAfee VirusScan supports. The McAfee Instant updater allows you to connect to the Net and download the latest virus signatures and product updates. You can also set it to automatically download the updates as and when they become available. Another component of VirusScan is Safe and Sound, which lets you create a backup set of important files on your computer.

Integrated firewall

An added feature of McAfee is its integrated firewall, which protects your system from outside attacks and Trojans. It gives you a list of programs, which access the Internet and you can specify rules for each of them. These rules include things like the protocols and port numbers, which each application is allowed to use. The firewall also has an Intrusion Detection System, which looks for specific attack patterns and warns you if any such activity is taking place on your system. You can also create list of IPs you want to block. Overall it’s a very easy to use and pretty customizable firewall, and really adds value to the whole package. At a price tag of Rs 1,400, it is definitely worth a

buy.

Sachin Makhija at PCQ Labs