How do you test an anti-virus??

[offamychain]

Does anyone know of a "fake virus" or something like that, which I can download to see if my AV prog. catches it?
I'm using Panda Titanium & I guess I'm satisfied with it, cause it has just been setting in the tray, behaving properly, for a couple weeks.
I ran a FULL check a day or so ago, & it found nothing, which is what I'd like it to do. It DID find 1 the day I loaded Panda that got past Avast, I think that was it's name.
I run a firewall & have most of my ports stealthed because I average about 14-18 hrs a day on-line. I have downloaded virus's in the past, but either i've been real lucky lately, or Panda is doing exactly what it's supposed to do, find them & kill them quietly!!
But I would like to test it, just not with a live one!!
Anybody got any ideas?? THX in advance.

The Dog

[G Smith]

I know in my antivirus read me file they give you a string of code to copy into a file. Once you save that code into a file and scan, it should find it as a virus.

[DigitalDD]

its called the EICAR antivirus test file and its a standard among antivirus software companies for testing puposes.

brab one here if you are too lazy to copy/paste.

http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm

[asklepios]

well no offence to anyone but that imo EICAR is a POS now.
its been so obsolete that you can't really trust it.
the first thing every AV company would do is to add support for EICAR...why u might ask and the answer would be that its been so popularised now.
almost every AV software talks about it in their knowledge bases and i guess that there are very remote chances that you will find an AV not catching it correctly. it was good thing to test a few years ago ie. when it was launched; but NOW...:thumbs do

i would suggest that you be happy with the AV you've got and go for an online scan once in a month so that you are sure about being clean.

[offamychain]

Itried it & it done what it was supposed 2 do. The site had the virus in 4 different forms & it worked on all of them. I feel a little more at ease now. THX ya'll.

[Mr. C]

A couple of pretty good online scanners;

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

http://www.pandasoftware.com/

One of the favorite AV softwares around her is AVG;

http://www.grisoft.com/

[offamychain]

THX C. I'll check it out. Panda seems OK, but it's only been a few days, so I might change in the future. A few years ago, I had excellent luck with the free version of INoculateIT, but they don't support it anymore.

[Wiggo]

I've used the free version of AVG for a few years now and have never been let down yet. :devil win

[amd_man2005]

I also use AVG, never had a problem

[offamychain]

I downloaded the free version last nite & most likely will install it in a few days. I liked what I saw.

[Mr. C]

I think you will find it not only effective, but also easy on precious system resources when compared to other anti-virus solutions.

Of course, if you are not satisfied, you can always try another:)

[Desktop_pilot]

A definate Candidate for AVG, and run that alongside a Zone Alarm Firewall, which also has an inbuilt AV, and you can't go too far wrong :smokin:

[offamychain]

THX ya'll.

[minibubba]

another fan of AVG here as well...but I like to run online AV scans from time to time too

Symantec Security Check

Trend Micro Housecall

[meow]

At a LAN once there was a case of a Nimo Codec pack that had been infected and distributed containing many virii, I had this and installed it unknowingly, Norton, McAfee and Panda wouldn't pick it up, yet AVG and PC Cillin 2003 did. I know which one I trust :cheers: