Running a technology blog like mine for example require me to test and run various type of software on my computer. Before I’m going to install a new Windows application on my machine, I will first scan them for viruses and malicious codes. This is crucial because you can’t guarantee that all the files that you’ve downloaded from the internet are 100% virus free. Well, most of the time one Anti-virus application can’t completely protect your computer from viruses. But then you can’t installed more than one Anti-virus software on your machine either because this can make your computer unstable.
How can you ensure a particular file are safe from viruses? While you cannot run multiple Anti-virus software on your PC, but there are such virus scan services that are using multiple Anti-virus engines to scan your file for virus online.
There are three free online virus scan services that scan files with multiple Anti-virus engines. Well, let’s us check out these online virus scan services.
1. VirusTotal
VirusTotal is free online virus scan service that analyzes suspicious files and facilitates the quick detection of viruses, worms, Trojans and all kinds of malware detected by antivirus engines consisting of a huge number of 37 engines!
There are three methods to scan file using VirusTotal, you can scan file directly from the website, you can also email the file for virus scanning to scan@virustotal.com or directly send files for virus scanning from your system using the right-click context menu where you will need to first install VirusTotal Uploader on your system. For more security and to protect your privacy, you can checked the “Send it over SSL” option when you scan files directly from the website, so that the file will not be distributed to the antivirus companies if a virus is found.
2. NoVirusThanks
NoVirusThanks is another free online virus scan service that scan suspicious files for possible presence of virus, worms, trojans and any other kind of malware using multiple Anti-Virus engines, consisting of 24 engines. You can scan file directly from the NoVirusThanks’s website or using the NoVirusThanks Uploader software where you can directly send files from your system, using Graphical Interface or using the Windows “Send To” context menu, to NoVirusThanks’s Online Malware Scanner. There is a maximum of 20 MB size limit for the file that you can send for virus scanning. If you don’t want your file to be distributed, you can checked the “Do not distribute the sample” option under the Advanced options.
3. FilterBit
Filterbit is a free online virus scan service where you can upload files for scanning, analysis and identification by multiple antivirus engines, consisting of 8 engines. In many cases, Filterbit can also scan, analyze and individually identify multiple files contained within a file archive such as Winzip, WinRar, PKZip and other types. Filterbit also analyzes the types of each uploaded file such as Microsoft Word, PDF, TXT and other types and reports this in a human readable format. There is a maximum size limit of 20 MB for the file that you can send for virus scanning.
Antivirus Engine List
Here is the antivirus engines list for the three online virus scan services.
| Antivirus Engine | VirusTotal | NoVirusThanks | FilterBit |
| AhnLab(V3) | Yes | No | No |
| Aladdin (eSafe) | Yes | No | No |
| ALWIL (Avast! Antivirus) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Authentium (Command Antivirus) | Yes | No | No |
| AVG Technologies (AVG) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Avira (AntiVir) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Bit9 (FileAdvisor) | Yes | No | No |
| Cat Computer Services (Quick Heal) | Yes | Yes | No |
| ClamAV (ClamAV) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CA Inc.(Vet) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Doctor Web, Ltd. (DrWeb) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Eset Software (ESET NOD32) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ewido networks (ewido anti-malware) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Fortinet (Fortinet) | Yes | No | No |
| FRISK Software (F-Prot) | Yes | Yes | No |
| F-Secure (F-Secure) | Yes | No | No |
| G DATA Software (GData) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Hacksoft (The Hacker) | Yes | No | No |
| Hauri (ViRobot) | Yes | No | No |
| Ikarus Software (Ikarus) | Yes | Yes | No |
| K7 Computing (K7AntiVirus) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Kaspersky Lab (AVP) | Yes | No | No |
| McAfee (VirusScan) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Microsoft (Malware Protection) | Yes | No | No |
| Norman (Norman Antivirus) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Panda Security (Panda Platinum) | Yes | Yes | No |
| PC Tools (PCTools) | Yes | No | No |
| Prevx (Prevx1) | Yes | No | No |
| Rising Antivirus (Rising) | Yes | No | No |
| Secure Computing (SecureWeb) | Yes | No | No |
| BitDefender GmbH (BitDefender) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Sophos (SAV) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Sunbelt Software (Antivirus) | Yes | No | No |
| Symantec (Norton Antivirus) | Yes | No | No |
| VirusBlokAda (VBA32) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Trend Micro (TrendMicro) | Yes | Yes | No |
| VirusBuster (VirusBuster) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SRN Micro Systems (Solo Antivirus) | No | Yes | No |
| Comodo Group (Comodo) | No | Yes | No |
| Emsi Software (a-aquared) | No | Yes | No |
| Malware Hash Registry (MHR) | No | Yes | No |
Online virus scanning service is very useful when you are using a public computer or in a cyber café. You might need to run virus scan on the file and attachments that you have downloaded from internet before you are transferring them to your external devices e.g. pen drive and external harddisk. Even though the file gets scanned by multiple search engines, but this doesn’t guarantee that the file does not contain a virus. However, using multiple Anti-virus engines is a better way to scan a file for virus and malicious code that using a single Anti-virus software.
