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This article provides information about Online Tests. Quite recently, many websites have setup new online scan services where you can check your computer for viruses, check your computer for trojans, check that your firewall is doing its job correctly or check your computer for spyware, we take a look at some of these online services. On the Scan Online page, we offer a few links to online tests and an Online Virus Scan provided by Trend Micro. Online Firewall Checks Online Firewall checks are very useful because they let you know if your firewall is doing its job, allow people like us to test firewalls for reviews and a range of other useful things. We use these tests very often to check whether our firewall is doing its job and we are pleased say it always is. These tests use a port scanner that malicious hackers may use to find computers with open ports so that they can get inside. The tests will scan your computer and the aim is that your computer doesn’t reply to the scanner at all, either with Echo Requests or to tell the scanner that the ports are closed. If your computer doesn’t reply this is known as Stealth or on some tests Blocked. If you get Closed, then somethings going wrong. If you get Open then theres something seriously going wrong with your firewall. Below are a list of tests and a bit about them. The best scanners are marked with a Shields Up- Shields Up is one of the most popular tests on the internet and the most accurate. It provides a Common Ports Probe to test the most vulnerable ports and a Service Ports Probe to test the first 1056 ports on your computer. We highly rate Sheilds Up and its very easy to use. PC Flank- We stumbled across PC Flank recently and we are glad that we did. PC Flank have quite a lot of tests available and we have found them to be very accurate. Hackercheck- Hacker Check is a fairly new online test that tests the most vulnerable ports on your computer. This scanner was created by Trend Micro, a maker of security software. Hackerwatch- Hackerwatch is an online Anti Hacker community according to the site. This site has 2 scanners available which are quite good. This scanner was created by Mcafee Security, a highly respected maker of security software. Sygate Online Scan- This online scanning service was created by the makers of the popular Sygate Personal Firewall. There are quite a few different scanners available and all of them are quite accurate. Symantec Security Check- This Security Check does the usual tests like all the others but it also does a few other checks such as checking up that you have an Antivirus program installed and if the definitions are up-to-date. We don’t totally trust this check because the main purpose of this check is to get you to buy Symantec products. It tells users of AVG Free Edition that they have not got a “Commonly Used” Antivirus program installed. Preventon Security Scanner- This scanner requires you to download and run a small file. The file attempts to connect to the internet first to test your firewalls outbound filtering and then launches your web browser and performs a port scan. This scanner is provided by the makers of Preventon Personal Firewall. Online Virus Scans Online Virus Scans are tools on the internet used for scanning your computer for viruses like Antivirus programs do. These Online Scans are very useful to test if you Antivirus program is doing its job correctly or to scan your computer if you don’t have an antivirus program installed. There is a list of Online Virus Scanners below with brief descriptions next to them. NOTE: An Online Virus Scan does not replace your antivirus program. Housecall- Probably one of the most well known and most respected Online Scans around. This Online Scanner is the only Scanner certified by ICSA Labs. Housecall can remove and clean virus infections. Symantec Security Check- We haven’t used this scanner yet so we can’t really comment on its performance. Mcafee Freescan- This Online Scanner is quite good, but it doesn’t remove any viruses. If it detects a virus it trys to get you to buy their products. Online Trojan Scans All of the online virus scans we have mentioned scan for trojans, but a dedicated trojan scan will do the job a lot better. Antivirus programs do pick up trojans but they still don’t do the job as well as a dedicated Trojan scan. Most antivirus programs provide adequate protection though. We only know of one online Trojan Scan and its the best by far. GFI Trojan Scan- This is a comprehensive online Trojan Scan, that scans and removes Trojans from your system. You choose whether you want it to prompt you to remove trojans, automatically remove them or generate a report. Online Spyware Scans Spyware is one of the main threats we face in the Internet age, so its suprising to find that there aren’t many online spyware scans. Who needs Online Scans for spyware when you have brilliant freeware programs such as Ad-aware or Spybot S&D. Below are two scans that we have found a description of each one. Pest Scan- Pest Scan is a free online scan provided by the makers of Pest Patrol. The scan is basically a marketing tool for Pest Patrol because it only lists the spyware installed and doesn’t remove anything. X Block Online Scan- Quite a few Antispyware sites have the X Block Online Scan. This will either run as an Online Scan or you can download a small program which will detect and remove any spyware. The program isn’t as comprehensive as programs such as Spybot and Ad-aware, but it does detect almost everything. There you have it! an Online Scan for almost everything you need. There are plenty more out there, but we’ve only listed ones that we think are good and ones that we’ve actually tried. One of the most important online scans that we haven’t mentioned is Windows Update, go there regularly to scan for updates for your operating system. Happy Scanning!
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