Virus Scan Question

[JD]

For several years I ran NAV and it always showed around 160,000 files
scanned. I recently changed to Consumer Associates' EZ Antivirus. Its
counter shows only 80,000 files scanned. Does this mean what it appears to
mean, and is this cause for concern?

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "JD" <[email protected]>

| For several years I ran NAV and it always showed around 160,000 files
| scanned. I recently changed to Consumer Associates' EZ Antivirus. Its
| counter shows only 80,000 files scanned. Does this mean what it appears to
| mean, and is this cause for concern?
|

There are anti virus News Groups specifically for this type of discussion.

microsoft.public.security.virus
alt.comp.virus
alt.comp.anti-virus

What types of files and the number of subsequent files scanned are dependaent upon the
settings of the AV software. Have you set to scan a specific series of file type or all
files ? Is "archive" files scanning enabled ?

If you scan a ZIP, CHM, RAR, TAR, CAB, etc, archive file then that one file may represent
many files. For exmple there may be 40 HTML files in one CGHM file. Thus scanning just one
CHM file will result in the 40 files being scanned.

In short, the total number of files scanned is totally dependant upon the settings of the AV
software. It is highly suggested the "scan archive files" (or whatever terminology is used)
be enabled.

 

[JD]

Thanks for the thoughful reply. The only option my AV program offers is to
list specific folders or files NOT TO scan. It is apparently scanning all
files on "C." There are some .CAB and .ZIP files, but I don't know how to
account for 80,000 files. BTW, the time of the scan (about 20 minutes) is
identical on both AV programs.