Ctrl-Alt-Del@cup.portal.com (06/17/88)
[NOTE: I wrote this before seeing Ted Shapin's entry here. I have downloaded it, but haven't read it yet. Thank you, Ted. I sure would like to see a flurry of activity here in the days ahead! S.D.] I have recently acquired several shareware anti-virus programs. This is a question for people who are familiar with them, and may provide information for those who (like me until a few days ago) know very little about them, but realize that they really *should* get to it some day. What follows is a brief description of the programs I've acquired. I haven't run any of them yet; I hope to see some responses from all of you knowledgeable people out there. Here are the questions: Are they really anti-viruses or viruses in cheap disguise? I.e, do the sizes and dates match yours? Have you used them? (There is one in particular I am *very* suspicious of...please read on.) Which function the best? I have too many to use them all. Which are the good ones? Which ones can I throw away because a better one has made it obsolete? Thank you all in advance for your input. I will post a summary of the emailed information I receive if I get useful email stuff which we should all see. Scott Dalrymple (on Portal; not sure of the address syntax: Columbia, MD !cup.portal.com!scott dalrymple, or something?) Following is information on these programs: BOMBSQAD, CHK4BOMB, CRCDOS, DPROTECT, FLUSHOT3, HDSENTRY, NOHARD, NOVIRUS, TRAPDISK, VACINE, WPHD BOMBSQAD COM 3072 1-01-80 2:18a Andy Hopkins, Wilmington, DE. Docs list no date, version 1.2. TSR Disk protector. Can be switched off. Specify any combo of Read, Write, Format, & Verify protection. Can't specify drives, apparently protects ALL. If protected operation is attempted, pop-up message displays drive, head, track, sector, # of sectors and address. User can allow or prevent the attempted operation. CHK4BOMB EXE 12032 11-14-85 8:21a Andy Hopkins, Wilmington, DE. Docs say 10/29/85, version 1.0 Check an unknown program before it runs. Displays all ASCII strings in the program and checks for dangerous disk activity (write to absolute sectors, format disk, use of ROM BIOS for direct disk access). DPROTECT COM 793 10-11-85 11:10a Gee Wong, GEE WIZ S/W, E. Brunswick, NJ. Docs say 10/11/85, ver. 101. TSR Disk protector. Must reboot to remove. Monitors interrupt 13h for any destructive disk activity on one drive or all drives (not clear whether x (>1, <all) drives can be protected. When a call that modifies disk is attempted, message is displayed. Hit any key and system is rebooted (to clear RAM and I/O Ports). HDSENTRY COM 438 7-11-87 4:31p Andrew Fried, Titusville, FL. Docs say 1987, no version. TSR Disk protector. Must reboot to remove. Monitors interrupt 13h and effectively removes interrupt 26h (absolute disk write). Can't specify drives, protects hard drive(s). (All reference to hard drive is *singular*, not plural.) Disallows writes and formats, allows reads and resets. Warning is displayed. No option to allow a write or format. Caller thinks he got to the hard drive. NOHARD COM 368 1-04-86 9:20a Rob King, Springfield, VA. Docs give no date, no version. Admittedly very crude. Removes hard disk interrupt. Reboot to restore. Documentation is about 10 lines--which is somewhat suspicious, although the author does give his (or a) name. NOVIRUS EXE 9050 1-24-88 7:26p Yan Seiner, Princeton, NJ. Docs say 1988, no version number. Compares command.com with another copy on any drive:\path and corrects if necessary. No description of any output to screen. TRAPDISK COM 3915 9-13-83 12:51p No author listed. Docs give no date, version 1.0. A modification of BOMBSQAD, with due credit given to Andy Hopkins. Even the documentation is shamelessly replicated almost verbatim. Fixes bug in BOMDSQAD that incorrectly reports hard drive letters and provides a third option (in addition to 'allow' and 'deny') when protected operation is attempted: 'allow and disable TRAPDISK' which stops any further checking. VACINE EXE 14560 2-23-88 7:23p Art Hill, LaGrange, IL. Docs give no date, version 1.2. Checks your system files to be sure they haven't been tampered with. Documentation is brief and states, "Copy it [VACINE] to the root directory of your hard disk and type VACINE for instructions." Art, forgive me if you are legitimate, but I'm not gonna touch this one with a ten foot pole. At least not on my hard drive. Maybe on a floppy after CHK4BOMBing it, with one of these other TSR disk protectors engaged. Maybe. (Funny that vaccine is spelled wrong....) WPHD DOC 1280 10-23-85 1:52p No author listed. Docs say 10/21/85, no version number. TSR Disk protector. Can be switched off. Write and format- protects the hard drive (*singular*, not plural). If format is run, it appears to be reformatting but actually it is only verifying. (Why sit through all that verification?) CRCDOS EXE 18740 1-11-88 10:02p R. E. Faith, no address. Docs say 1/11/88, version 1.0. Builds a CRC table for any list of files. They you run it later (every day recommended) to compare all CRCs with table. FLUSHOT3 COM 2363 2-10-88 Ross Greenberg, New York, NY. Docs say 1/26/88, version 3. TSR disk protector. Monitors either or both 13h and 26h. Protects against harmful operations on COMMAND.COM and the two hidden files. It also detects and corrects any changes to CMOS ROM. Thanks again for your input. Scott