Sophos Anti-Virus

Sophos Anti-Virus is provided free to Northland College students, faculty, and staff. You must have a Northland College user logon and password to use this service. If you need assistance, please come to the IT office (Brownell 001) or contact the IT HelpDesk at ext. 1855. 

Uninstall any previous versions of anti-virus software

This includes any previous versions of Symantec, Norton, McAffee, AVG, or others. To uninstall previous versions, select Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs, then remove any anti-virus software as well as any LiveUpdate components. (You do not need to remove programs like Spybot Search & Destroy—they serve a slightly different purpose.

Installing Sophos Anti-Virus

A download of Sophos Anti-Virus is provided free to Northland College students, faculty, and staff. You must have a Northland College user logon and password to do this. At the prompt type Domain\username (i.e. domain\smithj01) and your password and click OK.

Once you have gained access to the NC-Secure server, you should choose either:

• Sophos Anti-Virus 9.7 – Standalone WIN 2000 and Above.exe
• Sophos Anti-Virus 7.3 – Standalone Mac OS X 10.4+.dmg

1. Double-click on the correct option; click Save.
2. The file will be downloaded to your computer. (Note: Be sure to check where the file is being downloaded to.)
3. At the "Download Complete" window, click Run.
4. If prompted, click Run again.
5. At the WinZip Self-Extractor window, click Unzip. Click OK. (Note: Be sure to remember where the file is being unzipped to!)
6. Open the newly unzipped folder. There are two important files:
   • Sophos Anti-Virus 9.0- Firewall 1.5.exe is the installer file.
   • Username and Password for Installation to download updates—Students-Faculty-Staff home use.txt contains the username and password required to fully install SophosUpdating Sophos Anti-Virus.
7. Open the Username and Password document, then double-click on the installer.
8. The "Sophos Endpoint Security and Control" window will appear. Click Install.
9. When the files have been extracted a new installation wizard will open. Click Next.
10. Click Next.
11. When the Update Source screen appears, set the Address to Sophos. Enter the licensing username and password from the text document, then enter the password again. You do not need to check either of the boxes. Click Next.
12. Unselect the box to "Install Sophos Client Firewall."  Click Next.
13. Check the box to "Remove third-party security software."  Even though you already removed other anti-virus programs from your computer, this will assure that all the components were removed. Click Next.
14. Sophos is now ready to install. Click Next. The installation process will take a few minutes—be patient!
15. When the screen says "You have successfully installed Sophos Endpoint Security and Control," click Finish. Sophos should now be ready to use on your computer!

Updating Sophos Anti-Virus

With other anti-virus programs, you need to manually search for definition updates, or set the program to automatically search for them. Sophos is already set up to check for and download updates whenever your computer is on the Internet. By default, the program will search for updates every 60 minutes. If the update fails for some reason, you will see a little red x over the shield in the system tray—double click on the shield and it will attempt to download the updates again. If you want to change the automatic settings, do the following:

1. Open Sophos by right-clicking the blue shield in the system tray (by the clock) and selecting Open Sophos Anti-Virus. Alternatively, click Start > All Programs > Sophos > Sophos Anti-Virus.
2. When Sophos opens, click on Configure Sophos Anti-Virus in the main screen.
3. At the bottom of the page, click on Update options.
4. Navigate to the Schedule tab and adjust the frequency at which Sophos checks for updates. Click OK to save your settings.

Scanning your computer with Sophos Anti-Virus

It is good to scan your computer for viruses at least once a week. Follow these steps to scan your computer with Sophos:

1. Open Sophos by right-clicking the blue shield in the system tray (by the clock) and selecting Open Sophos Anti-Virus. Alternatively, click Start > All Programs > Sophos > Sophos Anti-Virus.
2. When Sophos opens, click on Scan my computer.
3. A new window will open displaying the scan's progress. When Sophos detects a problem it is automatically moved to the Quarantine.
4. When the scan is complete, close the small scan window.

When the scan is finished, be sure to go into the Quarantine and delete any viruses and spyware picked up by the scan.

1. With Sophos open, click on Manage quarantine items in the main screen.
2. You will see a list of items detected by the scan. Scroll to the right side of the window and click delete next to each virus or spyware item.
3. Occasionally Sophos requires that your computer is restarted, and sometimes rescanned, to fully remove a particularly bad virus. If prompted to restart or rescan your computer, do so to make sure that everything malicious is completely removed.

Note: the procedure above scans select, high risk files on your computer, not the whole thing. For the most part, this simple scan is sufficient; however, if you have reason to believe that your computer has a serious infection, follow these steps to create a full system scan.

1. With Sophos open, click Set up a new scan.
2. Enter a name for your new scan in the Scan Name: box.
3. You can choose which locations on your computer you want to scan. To scan the whole computer, simply check the box next to My Computer—all the other boxes (except My Network Places) will automatically be checked as well.
4. At the bottom of the window, click Configure this scan.
5. Under the Options tab, select Scan all files. Click OK to save your settings.
6. If you want your new scan to run on a schedule (i.e. every Monday at 3:30pm), click on Schedule this scan at the bottom of the window.
7. Check the box next to Enable schedule then select the day(s) and time(s) you want your scan to run. It is often convenient to schedule scans to run at a time when you won't be using your computer—this way it won't interfere with your work. Click OK to save your settings.
8. If you want the scan to run right now, click the Save and start button. If you would like to wait and scan your computer later, just click Save.
9. When you want to use your scan again, just open Sophos and find the scan you want to run under Available Scans.