Here are a couple of free online tools to help you check if your anti-virus software is working to prevent havoc in your life. Both pointers have been brought to you by Sean Wallbridge, a vice president of special operations at QuoVadis in Bermuda. QuoVadis provides a digital certificate service.

You do have a virus checker don't you? Check if it is working with Clearswift, which produces corporate e-mail checking and security tools. Clearswift allows you to send a fake virus to your e-mail box. If your anti-virus software picks it up then it is working. If not, you either have not been updating your virus lists or it is useless. Send an email to virus.echomimesweeper.com. Clearswift will respond with an e-mail containing enough "false positive" information of the "Eicar" virus that it should trigger your antivirus to inform you of its arrival or when you click to launch the attachment. Yet the file isn't harmful if your antivirus software doesn't detect and remove it. You can also register at the Clearswift site and to access sample template e-mail policies for a business.

"Content security threats include the circulation of inappropriate images and text, spam and oversize files, loss and corruption of data, breaches of confidentiality, as well as viruses and malicious code," Clearswift states. Meanwhile Trend Micro provides HouseCall, a free online virus scanner that will check your computer, and what's more, remove the offending file.

HouseCall is frequently updated according to the Trend Micro site. Go to Housecall http://housecall.antivirus.com. HouseCall users can register online before scanning their computer from the site. By registering, you receive virus alerts via e-mail. However users can also perform the scan without registering. Once you get past the registration page a few components are set up on your computer automatically. You then click on the Internet page to select the drives you want to scan, then leave the site to do its job. Trend Micro also offers free security software for Palm, Pocket PC and EPOC device users at http://www.trendmicro.com/pc-cillin/products/wireless/wireless.htm. PC-cillin provides automatic real-time launch scanning to prevent viruses that enter the device from every possible entry point beaming, synching, e-mail and Internet downloading, according to the site. Real-time launch scanning activates whenever applications on the device are launched and prevents viruses from activating on the device.

By the way, McAfee also offers SecurityCentre, a free online service that provides alerts and a tool to warn you about your computer's security vulnerabilities. Expect some plugs for McAfee's products when dealing with this site. I've been signed up to the service for a couple years now. The "Security Index" summarises your computers vulnerability as a set of graphic and numeric scales indicating how protected or unprotected your machine is on a scale of one to ten. The index combines four sub-indices: an anti-virus index, an anti-hacker index, an anti-abuse index and an anti-spam index. You also gain access to a worldwide virus map, an information library, and a hacker scanner. And of course you get security alerts on virus outbreaks and security related messages sent to your e-mail box.

I also find Symantec's "Security Response" site useful for keeping up-to-date. Symantec makes Norton Anti-Virus software. The Security Response site (http://securityresponse.symantec.com/) also gives you a free online virus scan, and can scan for security risks on your computer. Wallbridge also points readers to the Security Metrics site, which offers a free port scan. Internet connections to your computer are made through ports, which are commonly used by standard applications that are designed to communicate over the Internet.

Certain ports, or gateways from your computer, must be open so that you can send and receive information across the Internet. Ports you don't use should be closed, as leaving them open can give access to hackers. An open port is potentially dangerous as your computer could respond to port probes by hackers. When hackers using a port scanner find an open port, they can then use that as an easy means of computer entry. A properly configured personal firewall, such as ZoneAlarm, can protect your ports by warning you about potential probes sent to your computer and software that seems to react without input from you. Go to http://www.securitylogics.com/portscan.adp to get your ports tested. I like this port scanner. It lists all the names of various ports such as familiar ones - FTP, Telnet, SMTP, HTTP - and explains what they do. My NetBios port was listed as open.

"NetBIOS is used by Microsoft Windows and some UNIX/Linux programs to share files," according to the site. "If your hard disk is shared improperly (write access to everyone without authentication) you may be giving the world access to your hard disk. (Trojan files can be copied to your computer.) Make sure this port is closed and your hard drive shares are configured properly." Security Metrics provides an e-mail service, which advised me on how to close down the port. You can also click on a link at the bottom of the results page to access a service allowing you to check whether your anti-virus software is working.