UPDATE AUGUST 12, 2006: I’ve re-evaluated a clamwin/winpooch combination. From my understanding, Winpooch has to be installed on a PC to work (correct me if I’m wrong). I’m currently evaluating Avira AntiVir which seems to be portable and it has integrated real-time protection. Results to follow…
Having a good portable antivirus on your flash drive that runs in real-time is a must if you connect to computers you are unsure of. As you probably know, your flash drive can get infected the moment you plug it into an infected computer, whether you have a portable antivirus software (like ClamWin Antivirus) on it or not. The reason for that is that antivirus software currently available does not work in real-time unless you couple it with additional software (like Winpooch, for example).
Switching your write-protection switch to read-only is a good safe-guard if you plug into a computer you don’t trust. While some flash drives have a write-protection switch, others, like my SanDisk Cruzer Micro, does not. So, real-time virus protection is the only other solution (aside from not plugging it into a computer you don’t trust!). Portable Clamwin Antivirus is an excellent open-source version of the Clamwin Antivirus, made portable by John Haller. As mentioned on his site, however, it doesn’t offer real-time support.
In Part II of this post, I’ll be outlining how to install and use WinPooch with ClamWin to protect your flash drive in real-time.
Software referred to in today’s post:
August 8th, 2006 at 7:58 pm
I’m looking forward to your Winpooch tutorial! I’ve been setting up a USB flash drive as well and the real-time virus scanner is the last piece of the puzzle. Thanks for your site!
August 8th, 2006 at 8:08 pm
thanks for the encouragment! My test machine has crashed, I believe it was due to Clamwin doing a scan in the background when I tried to do a shutdown. Once I fix this, I’ll attempt to test out the Winpooch/Clamwin combo, hopefully soon!
August 12th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
Hello,
Would really like to read your report about live protection of USB drives. Regards.
August 12th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
working on it….the more research I do, the more I’m doubting using Winpooch as a solution, testing other scanners at the moment.
September 15th, 2006 at 6:51 pm
Any updates on this one? I think it’s a stumbling block for everyone at this point.
September 15th, 2006 at 6:54 pm
I’m afraid I don’t have any solutions at the moment…but I heard that the makers of ClamWin are working having real-time protection in coming versions (you can see this on their website). Maybe this will solve the problem…
April 9th, 2007 at 3:27 am
Thanking for giving these informations!!!