Free Virus Protection Software

By Mike Williams, Network Computing Services, Desktop Support,
Antivirus Coordinator, Symantec Ghost Support

UNT is now offering free antivirus software for all its faculty, staff, and students to use on their home computers. Good deal? No, it's Great! By installing McAfee's VirusScan Enterprise 7 on your home PC, you can have the security of knowing that you have taken an important step to protect yourself from malicious viral attacks that plague the internet.

Availability

You can download the software for free at http://ncs.unt.edu/virus/dist.html Remember to have your EUID and password handy: If you're not sure about your EUID or password there are links on the download page to help you. The file is 20 MB in size, so it'll take a few hours to download over a 56k modem. If you have high speed Internet access the download will go quickly. Either way, it is well worth it. Alternatively, you can purchase the McAfee Enterprise 7 CD at the UNT Student Union Bookstore (book and software section across the hall) for only $3.00.

Operating Systems?

In order to install the free McAfee Enterprise 7 antivirus software, you must be running one of the following operating systems: Windows NT4 with service pack 6a, Windows 2000, Windows 2000 Server, Windows XP or Windows 2003 server. McAfee Enterprise 7 will not run on computers running Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows ME.

If you have Windows 95/98/ME you can purchase the McAfee 7 Home version from any company that sells antivirus software or from McAfee's Website.

McAfee Enterprise 7 Features

VirusScan Console. The Console is the control point that allows you to
create, configure, and run VirusScan Enterprise tasks. A task can include
anything from running a scan operation on a set of drives at a specific
time or interval, to running an update operation. You can also enable or
disable the on-access scanner from the Console.

On-access scanner. This feature gives you continuous anti-virus protection
from viruses that arrive on floppy disks, from your network, or from
various sources on the Internet. The on-access scanner starts when you
start your computer, and stays in memory until you shut down. A flexible
set of property pages lets you tell the scanner which parts of your system
to examine, what to look for, which parts to leave alone, and how to
respond to any infected files it finds. In addition, the scanner can alert
you when it finds a virus, and can generate reports that summarize each of
its actions.

E-mail scanner. This feature allows you to scan your Microsoft Outlook
messages, attachments, or public folders to which you have access, directly
on the computer. If Outlook is running, E-mail is scanned on-delivery. You
can also perform an on-demand E-mail scan at any time. This allows you to
find potential infections before they make their way to your desktop.

AutoUpdate. This feature allows you to update virus definition (DAT) files
and the scanning engine automatically. You can also use this feature to
download HotFixes and product upgrades.

Any way you look at it $3.00 for a CD or a free download is a deal that can't be beat. So get your software today and protect your valuable data from viruses, worms and trojan programs.

Questions?