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Sophos | Installing, updating and upgrading Sophos
How Sophos works | If you think you have a virus
In order to protect against viruses on your PC it is essential
that you have an anti-virus package installed and kept up to date. This
page provides information on the package preferred by the University - Sophos -
and how to install it.
Further information about viruses is
available on our main virus page or from Sophos
themselves.
The preferred anti-virus package at Essex is Sophos Anti-Virus. The University has a licence which covers all desktop PCs on campus, and the personal PCs of staff and students. Sophos is available for Windows 7, Vista and XP, Mac's running OSX 10.2 + and also for Linux and most other flavours of Unix. Sophos is not available for earlier versions of Windows, but in any case these are no longer supported by the Computing Service.
Under the terms of the University's licence, Sophos is available for University-owned machines and for the privately-owned machines of current staff and students. By installing or upgrading Sophos on your PC, using the procedures described below, you agree to be bound by the terms of the University's licence. In particular, if you have Sophos installed on a privately-owned machine under this licence, and you subsequently leave the University, you must at that point remove the software from your PC.
The procedures for installing, updating and maintaining Sophos, depend on the status of the PC in question. If you feel that your PC is not covered by any of the cases outlined below, please contact the Computing Service Help Desk (tel. 2345, email desk@essex.ac.uk)
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Operating |
Connected to the main Campus network AND registered with Computing Service. |
Not connected to the main Campus network OR not registered with Computing Service. (Includes machines on the Accommodation Network.) |
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Windows 7/ Vista / XP |
Sophos is installed and managed centrally. Contact the Computing Service Help Desk or your departmental advisor if you need assistance. |
You will need to install and update Sophos yourself. You can get details on how to do this and a current copy of Sophos on our download page or by using the Open Access CD-Rom writing facility in Lab C. |
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Older versions of Windows |
Support for these versions of Windows has now been withdrawn and Computing Service is unable to provide any anti-virus monitoring software such as Sophos Anti-Virus. It is essential that you have anti-virus software installed and so you will need to buy a commercial program or try a freeware program such as AVG (http://free.grisoft.com). |
Computing Service is unable to provide any anti-virus monitoring software such as Sophos Anti-Virus. It is essential that you have anti-virus software installed and so you will need to buy a commercial program or try a freeware program such as AVG (http://free.grisoft.com). |
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Mac OS X 10.2 and above |
Sophos is installed and managed centrally. Contact the Computing Service Help Desk or your departmental advisor if you need assistance. |
You will need to install and update Sophos yourself. You can get details on how to do this and a current copy of Sophos on our download page or by using the Open Access CD-Rom writing facility in Lab C. |
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Unix |
To access Sophos for all versions of Unix you will need to create a copy of the Sophos CD using the Open Access CD-Rom writing facility in Lab C and then install Sophos following the instructions on the CD. |
To access Sophos for all versions of Unix you will need to create a copy of the Sophos CD using the Open Access CD-Rom writing facility in Lab C and then install Sophos following the instructions on the CD. |
Please note that Computing Service can provide only limited support for off site and non-Windows installations of Sophos.
There are two parts to Sophos, the computer program itself running on your PC, and the "virus identity files" ("ide" files), which contain up-to-date details of the viruses known to Sophos.
The Computing Service automatically checks with Sophos on a regular basis and, if there are new virus identity files, pulls them down and installs them on a central server. In turn, PCs running Sophos check the central server every hour, and if there are new virus identify files reads them in. This process, known as updating, ensures that virus protection on PCs is fully current.
In addition each month a new version of the Sophos program is issued by the suppliers, this has the ide files from the previous month embedded in it. The process of changing to a new version of the program on a PC is known as upgrading. Any particular version of the program will continue to run for three months, so the program on a PC needs to be upgraded at least every three months.
For most University PCs the update and upgrade procedures will be done automatically. Other users will need to do this procedure manually (see the table above).
The program itself also has two parts: the InterCheck Monitor which runs continuously in the background, checking files as they arrive on the machine or are accessed ("on-access scanning"); and the on-demand scanner, which is normally configured to do a full check twice a week, and which can also be used to check individual files or directories — more information on how to do a manual scan.
Update Sophos and then run a full scan of the drive concerned.
If running the scan does not resolve the problem then please contact the Computing Service Help Desk for further support - phone on 2345 or mail desk@essex.ac.uk.
If you want to find out further information about different viruses or the latest virus news please check the Sophos Web Site.
The content of this page is the responsibility of David Constable.