PCTips3000 » VirusTotal http://www.pctips3000.com pc tips & tricks blog Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:27:56 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Best Antivirus Software… 40X!!! http://www.pctips3000.com/best-antivirus-software-40x/ http://www.pctips3000.com/best-antivirus-software-40x/#comments Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:55:40 +0000 Codrut Nistor http://www.pctips3000.com/?p=146 “Best antivirus program” is a label as good as “best husband” or “best car in the world,” and if you’re not one of those fanatics who can be found here and there, I am sure you will agree with me that there’s no such thing, because each computer user has different needs, so what’s great for me won’t be that great for my mother. I’ve been through this countless times, so I know what I say here!
Best Antivirus Software

The idea of this article came to me a few hours ago, when I got through Raymond’s Blog and I found his article about how to Scan Files With 22 Antivirus Without Downloading to Computer. When I saw the title, I was almost sure he’s going to write about VirusTotal, but since he didn’t… here I am!

VirusTotal is a great Web-based antivirus service (OK, that may sound a bit strange, yo can also call it “online antivirus scanner” and you can’t go wrong) that will scan anything you throw at it using no less than 40 antiviruses, including a bunch of programs I never heard of, like Fortinet, Ikarus, Prevx, or… believe it or not, some antiviral piece of code simply called TheHacker! ;)

The notorious names in the list include NOD32, Panda, PCTools, BitDefender, AVG, Avast, TrendMicro, as well as a bunch of others. I won’t give you the entire list here, since there’s a very easy way to take a look at it… because all you need to do is scan a file!

Best Antivirus Software

To scan a file with VirusTotal, you don’t need any special skills, and you can even recommend it to people who don’t have a clue about the English language, since this service is available in over 25 languages, including French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and so on.

First, you have to upload a file (SSL upload option also available), then wait for it to arrive on the remote server, get scanned all the way up and down, and finally check the result.

Sometimes, the same file could have been scanned already, and when this happens, you are given the choice to check the scan results available, or scan the file once again.

At last, you will get to see the result of each individual scan, including the version of the database and the date of last update for each antivirus in the list, as you can see in the screenshot below.

Best Antivirus Software

I guess you know now why did I choose this title, and I will conclude by saying two things: the best antivirus software isn’t actually a software, but the user and his/her actions, and while VirusTotal may be a nice package of 40 antiviral pieces of code, there’s only one thing keeping viruses away from any smart user, that being KNOWLEDGE!

This is it, folks, I hope you enjoyed finding out about this great online antivirus scanner, so please drop a comment below and let me know what else would you like to know. Even if you hated this article, drop a comment and tell me why. After all, it’s not about writing the perfect stuff, it’s all about getting better and better with each new article… ;)

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