Automated VirusScan Updates

By Wil Clark, ACS General Access Lab Manager and Campus Virus Guru

Last month we examined how virus detection software must be kept up to date to fully guard against new virus threats. Our current virus protection software McAfee VirusScan has a mechanism to automate the updating and upgrading of the software. Using these features you can set your software to automatically update and feel confident that you are being protected from the latest viruses.

Remember these features are discussed here primarily to help you with your home computer. You should check with your network administrator before making any changes to your UNT computer as your administrator may have a different mechanism in place for updating it.

You will need to have McAfee VirusScan installed on your computer to use these features. UNT students and employees can download a copy of McAfee VirusScan from http://www.unt.edu/virus/Distribution. Please note that you must be on the UNT network or connected through UNT's dial-up access to download these files.

We will configure VirusScan to update its virus definition (dat) files. You may recall that this is the information that VirusScan uses to identify viruses. McAfee releases new datfiles weekly. We will use McAfee VirusScan Scheduler. Perform the following steps:

1. Launch McAfee VirusScan Scheduler (Start -> Programs -> McAfee VirusScan -> McAfee VirusScan Scheduler).
   
2. Open AutoUpdate properties (Right-click on AutoUpdate then click on Properties).
   
3. Click Configure… button.
   
4. Delete existing Update sites (Click on a site then click Delete button; repeat for each site).
   
5. Add UNT update site (Click Add… button).
   
6. Type UNT for Site Name.
   
7. Enable site (click on and ensure a check mark appears in the Enabled box).
   
8. Choose FTP for Select Transfer Method (click on and ensure a dot appears in the FTP circle).
   
9. Type ftp.unt.edu/pub/antivirus/datfiles/4.x for the FTP computer name and directory field.
   
10. Enable Anonymous FTP Login (click on and ensure and check mark appears in the Use anonymous FTP login box).
    
11. Click OK on the Automatic Update Properties dialog box.
    
12. Click OK on the Automatic Update dialog box.
    
13. Click the Schedule tab on the Task Properties dialog box.
    
14. Enable the automatic update (click on and ensure a check mark appears in the Enable box).
    
15. Choose a frequency for the update to run (click on one of the choices in the Run section). Note: your computer must be on and connected to the Internet for this to work. It might be useful to choose a more frequent update period to ensure that you get weekly updates.
    
16. Choose an appropriate Start at time for the frequency you selected.

Once this is configured your computer will automatically look for updates to the Datfiles. Your virus scanning software will be updated and you don't have to remember to update it. Each time your dat files are updated you will be prompted to reboot your computer. This must occur to begin using the new dat files.

Now that is one less thing you have to remember to do. Are you forgetting anything else?