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Dr. Solomon’s Anti-Virus Toolkit Windows 95/98
by by Randy Waters—Alamo PC Organization http://www.alamopc.org - January 14, 2000 at 15:17:52:
According to the manufacturer, nearly 3 million PC users around the world rely on Dr. Solomon’s Anti-Virus Toolkit to keep their systems virus-free.Independent testers and editors have consistently placed Toolkit in the top three anti-virus products. Every copy of Dr. Solomon’s Anti-Virus Toolkit comes complete with the reassurance that your updates will be delivered to your desk automatically on permanently write-protected disks. If you have a virus problem, their technical support team is just a toll-free call away, day or night, all year round, for the lifetime of the product.
Requirements—Any PC running Windows 95/98 with 5 MB of hard drive space available.
Documentation—An installation card with all the instruction found in the book documentation is a very handy way to get started. There are five diskettes, two for DOS and three for Windows 95/98. An Anti-Virus Toolkit book comes for both Windows & DOS and Windows 95/98 systems. Both of them cover the use the product very thoroughly. The only difference seems to be that the Windows 95/98 one has a section on a scheduler program whereas the DOS one does not. Also included is a Virus Encyclopedia with 13 pages about viruses, three pages on virus prevention, a two page history of viruses, 16 pages on the mechanisms of stealth and five pages on polymorphic viruses and three pages on naming and removing viruses. The next 222 pages hold virus descriptions.
There is also a seven-page index. All the virus names are those “standardized by the European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research (EICAR) and the Computer Anti-virus Research Organization (CARO).” It should be evident by some of the word spellings that S&S International PLC is based in the United Kingdom. As you will see from the various figures, the menus and icons are very understandable, not requiring use of the documentation for normal use of the program. Also, the online help seems identical to the written documentation, making me wonder why both are both provided. The Encyclopedia is available online also.
Installation—The first is to start the computer with a clean (virus free), write-protected DOS system disk. The second is to scan the system for viruses (program files only unless you are quick enough to stop this scan and restart using the all files option) using the findviru.exe file on the second DOS diskette. Once the computer is found to be virus free, reboot it and install the antivirus software. There were no problems with any of these steps.
Operation—If all the installation options were accepted (i.e., the defaults), the first thing that appears is the WinGuard starting, with its icon in the time box of the Task Bar. By clicking on this icon, the WinGuard Configuration and Help are available. Using the Configure Menu and the WinGuard selection is where the options for scanning can be set. Scanning all files, plus inside compressed files is recommended. To access the other programs installed click on the Start button, select Programs and then Dr. Solomon’s AVTK.
Selecting Dr. Solomon’s Toolkit brings up the main program. There are five menus that are fairly self explanatory when viewed. They are File, Scan, Repair, Advanced and Help Menus. By selecting a drive and clicking on Scan, viruses can be looked for, but, even if the configuration set for all files, it only checked program files. The report of the scan can be sent to a file or the printer. A fairly descriptive listing is displayed after the scan is complete. Repair is used if a virus infected file is found. The Check for Changes button allows a comparative signature file to be set up for the computer. The Virus Encyclopedia button gives access to this online version of the virus.
The Toolkit Help is, also, accessible from the Dr. Solomon’s AVTK selection. Scheduler brings that function up so that automatic virus checking can be set up. Scheduler and WinGuard Help are just specialized views of Toolkit Help.. Schedule Editor and Virus Encyclopedia previous accesses, as is WinGuard.
All in all, there were no difficulties experience in operating this program. It seemed very complete and thorough.
Support—24 hours a day, 365 days a year by toll calls to their telephone, facsimile and bulletin board system in Burlington, Massachusetts; CompuServe and the Internet by electronic mail and World Wide Web.
Updating—Monthly and quarterly updates are available by subscription for registered users. Since this was an evaluation copy, no registration card or pricing for these updates was available. Both the virus signatures and programs are updated through this process. No information could be found on pricing on their WWW site except by sending them electronic mail and giving them information about your computer system.
Other Operating Systems Supported:
• Novell Netware
• OS/2
• Windows NT
• SCO UNIX
• Apple Macintosh
Recommendation—The only hesitation regarding use of this program to protect a computer is whether it operates during BBS and Internet file transfers (test computer’s modem capability was inoperative) and not being able to learn its costs (initial and program/antivirus update service), even on the company’s World Wide Web pages. All in all, Dr. Solomon’s Anti-Virus Toolkit is a very professional program.
Randy Waters chairs the Home Help Committee, is a co-chairman of the MS Office/Word SIG and writes a monthly column on.
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