Sophos Anti-Virus OS X
About Sophos Anti-Virus
Sarah Lawrence College has recently deployed the latest version of Sophos Anti-Virus. This program is free to install and update for all current SLC students, faculty, and staff.
These instructions apply only to OS X.
Installing Sophos on OS X
First, uninstall any other antivirus software currently on your computer, for example: Norton, McAfee, AVG. If prompted to reboot the computer, do so.
If you have a previous version of Sophos Anti-Virus, you do not need to uninstall it before proceeding. The old version will be removed and replaced with the new version. Follow these steps.
- In a web browser, go to: http://weir-03c2.slc.edu:82/sophos/deploy/esosx.img
- Enter your SLC network username and password (the password you use to log in to campus PCs and access your H: drive). If you do not know this password, please see Academic Computing.
- OS X will mount the drive “Sophos Anti-Virus”.
- Open this “Sophos Anti-Virus” then double click on the file “Sophos Anti-Virus.mpkg”.
- Click Continue, continue, continue, continue, select the destination drive, click install, type in your OS X password. This will install the needed files for Sophos. Click close after the software is successfully installed. Once Sophos is installed, a blue shield will appear next to the clock.
- Click on the sophos icon at the top of your screen then click on Open Preferences.
- Select the AutoUpdate tab. Click on the lock (lower left corner) to unlock the options with your OS X password.
- Select “Company web server and paste the following:
http://weir-03c2.slc.edu:82/sophos/remoteosx - Enter your SLC network username and password (the information you use to log in to campus PCs and access your H: drive) in the User name & password fields.
- Click Set to confirm the selected options.
- Sophos will then begin the update process on its own. It will take a few minutes. If you wish to force Sophos to update click on the Sophos shield then click on Update Now.
Periodically, Sophos will update itself in the background. The blue shield icon in the taskbar will flash green while the update is occuring: You must be connected to the internet in order to recieve updates.
Sophos will run a full virus scan at 9 AM and 9 PM daily. The scan runs in the background, and will only give a report if any viruses are found.
Running a full virus scan
- To run a full system virus scan, first open Sophos by going to the Applications, then Sophos Anti-Virus.
- The Sophos control panel will open. Select Scan Local Disks.
- Sophos will scan your computer for viruses.
At the conclusion of the scan, Sophos will report on what it finds.
Some errors may be reported when Sophos cannot read certain files. Those errors are generally nothing to worry about.
Sophos may report that it has shredded, quarantined, or deleted a file. This is good, it has been able to successfully clear you system of that virus.
If you recieve the message that Sophos was unable to deal with a certain file where it found a virus, try restarting the computer and running another scan. If the virus is still unable to be eliminated, contact Help Desk for assistance.
Tags: antivirus, faculty, fix, learn, sophos, staff, student