Because the e-mail client is so vulnerable to viruses and malicious code, the use of a client-side anti-virus application is absolutely crucial. In this chapter we discussed the three most popular anti-virus applications: McAfee VirusScan 5, Norton AntiVirus 2000, and Trend Micro PC-cillin 2000. One of the most important factors in choosing one of these applications is how updates to the applications are provided.

McAfee VirusScan 5 has the ability to scan for viruses in e-mails when using MAPI-based or POP3-based e-mail clients. It can scan for viruses while downloading files from the Internet, block malicious Java applets and ActiveX controls, as well as restricting access to specific Web sites. Trend Micro PC-cillin 2000 has these same functionalities, only it cannot real-time scan MAPI-based e-mail clients, and it uses a POP3 proxy to scan the e-mails. Norton AntiVirus 2000 uses the same technique to scan for viruses in e-mails, but lacks the functionality for explicitly scanning for malicious Java applets and ActiveX controls and blocking access to specific Web sites.

On the whole, the three are highly comparable and are the top choices of all available anti-virus applications. They can all efficiently scan all POP3 traffic, guarding us from taking in viruses using the Internet s most popular application. None of the three is preferable above the others just try them and then make your own choice!