Uncharted Waters

Many of us like to download software from the Internet. The Internet is like the uncharted waters. Filled with unknown dangers. Any software that we download into our PC might be infected with virus. How do you know if a program that you have downloaded is really free of virus? How do you know if a software that you downloaded does not come with any “freebies”?

Peter Pan of the Internet?

Enter the kind folks at VirusTotal.com. They provide a free service that allows you to upload any software to their server (as long as it is not more than 20 megabytes in file size) and 39 anti-virus software (and still growing) will be deployed to scan your file for any unwanted friends.

Wait…

Before you even want to upload a file to VirusTotal for scanning, someone else could have already done so. It is always faster to do a search using their  ”Hash Search” feature to check.

What this “Hash Search” feature does is that you will need to obtain the hash (md5, sha1, sha256) value of the file that you would like to scan, and enter that into the search box. Hit search and if it already exist, the report of the file will be returned. This saves you plenty of time and you will not have to overload the server at VirusTotal end.

You can obtain a free md5 checksum software from: http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/winmd5sum_portable

Bon Voyage!

Wish you have a safe ride when you download any software from the Internet.

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