Antivirus Information
Available To:
- Departments and Offices at UT Arlington
- Faculty (currently appointed) and Staff
- Students Admitted to UT Arlington
System requirements: Windows, MAC, None
Description:
Virus and other malicious attacks are a costly and undesirable nuisance that are a part of our computing experience. The risk of being a target of one of these is real. It is the intent of OIT to assist all of our computer clients in the management of these risks and the implementation of steps to help control the damage they may cause to our computing resources.
It is the collective effort and is the responsibility of both the University and the individual users of computing resources. As a part of this maintenance, it is the responsibility of each person to assure that they have antivirus software installed and operating properly. This includes program updates and current virus definition files downloaded and installed properly on each computer. The risk of virus infection and the danger of file loss must be assessed by the individual user. Users are encouraged to become informed and to take adequate steps to maintain their computers.
To best protect your Windows computer from viruses, you should use the latest version of protection software available for your computer. At UTA, Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) and Symantec AntiVirus (SAV) Corporate Edition are freely available to students, faculty, and staff via on the web and by contacting the Help Desk.
Symantec Endpoint Protection is a suite of security tools. This software package is fully supported by OIT and includes the following features:
- Antivirus and Antispyware
- Personal Firewall
- Intrusion Prevention
- Proactive Threat Scanning
- Device and Application Control
More on the new features of Symantec Endpoint Protection is available at both Symantec's What's New page and the SEP main page.
How to Get:
The Office of Information Technology (OIT) supports the following software for use on UTA Assets and personally owned computing devices of UTA Faculty, Staff, and Students.
- UTA Asset - SEP11
- Personal/Home PC
- UTA Asset Apple Mac OS 10.4 / 10.5 - Symantec Antivirus version 10.2
- Personal/Home Mac
UTA Asset refers to any equipment that has UTA inventory (asset) tag on it regardless of the physical location of the equipment.
Personal/Home Use refers to any equipment that does not have UTA inventory (asset) tag regardless of the physical location of the equipment.
How to Use:
Pre-installation Steps
- Please familiarize yourself with some of the steps you need to take before installing Symantec software on your computer.
- Make a backup of your system and files before installing new software to avoid loosing any important data should the system crash during installation.
- SEP 11 can be installed directly over SAV versions 8.0, 9.0, and 10.x. If your current version is 7.x or lower, you must uninstall your antivirus software before installing version the latest version.
- If you have any other antivirus software, you must remove it first. If there is no uninstall utility for that program, you can go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, and use the Add/Remove Programs feature to uninstall the program.
- Windows XP Security Center checks your computer's antivirus protection among other things. Antivirus security is determined by whether the antivirus software is installed and whether the definitions are up to date. Older versions of antivirus software may not register with the security center and you may receive a message that your computer is at risk.
Uninstalling Symantec on UTA Asset
If your machine is a UTA asset, more than likely you have a managed installation of Symantec. You will not be allowed to uninstall the software and will be prompted for a password. This will require an assistance of a technician and you will need to contact our Help Desk.
Uninstalling Symantec on Personal Machine
You should be able to uninstall Symantec by going to Start > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs. If you have installed the wrong version of Symantec software, you will be prompted for a password. If so, please contact our Help Desk.
For any other issues, please consult the Symantec website - Symantec.com. Symantec has instructions for manual removal of the older versions of software.
Checking your Virus Definition Dates
Virus definitions are released as often as once a day and if the definitions are more than a month out of date please contact the Helpdesk. Older managed installations of SAV may not notify you that the definition is out of date. In this case you have an out of date managed installation and your antivirus software must be reinstalled. If the LiveUpdate button is grayed out, you have an out of date managed installation and your antivirus software must be reinstalled.
Schedule a Scan in SEP11
To schedule a recurring virus scan in Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP):
- From within SEP, click Scan for threats and then Create a New Scan.
- In the Create a New Scan - What To Scan dialog box, select one of the following types of scan to schedule:
- Active: Scans the areas of the computer that viruses and security risks most commonly infect. (Completes in 1-2 minutes) Click Next.
- Full: Scans the entire computer for viruses and security risks. (Includes network drives; this may take an hour or longer to complete.) Click Next.
- Custom: Scans the selected areas of the computer for viruses and security risks. (Allows you to select which drives, folders, or files are scanned.) If you select this option, click Next and select the locations that you wish to scan
- Click Next twice.
- Choose from among the scheduling options. OIT recommends weekly scans. Click Next.
- Name your scan, type a description, and then click Finish.
Known Issues:
*BE AWARE* SEP 11 has a firewall called Network Threat Protection, and it is possible to run both Windows and SEP11's firewall at the same time. Inbound network traffic to the local machine will traverse the Symantec firewall first, then the Windows firewall. One way that SEP11 differs from the Windows firewall is that SEP11 also restricts the outbound traffic.
Related Information: