PCSIX.RVW 950911 Comparison Review Company and product: Company: Zen Works Address: P. O. Box 528, Houlton, ME 04730 Contact: R. Wallace Hale Email: halew@nbnet.nb.ca Other: BBS +1-506-325-9002 Product: SIX, BRECT Summary: system and memory change detection Cost free for non-commercial, non-governmental use Rating (1-4, 1 = poor, 4 = very good) "Friendliness" Installation 3 Ease of use 2 Help systems 1 Compatibility 3 Company Stability 3 Support 2 Documentation 2 Hardware required 4 Performance 2 Availability 2 Local Support 1 General Description: SIX is a small and specialized change detection program designed to check system and memory after the boot process has completed. It will detect changes to itself, memory and certain interrupts. (BRECT is an advanced utility to patch floppy diskettes in order to remove infections.) Comparison of features and specifications User Friendliness Installation SIX is distributed as shareware. The program is a single small file. Installation could be as simple as copying the SIX.COM file to an appropriate place on the disk and adding the program to the end of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. SIX will take a snapshot of memory on first invocation, and check it on each invocation thereafter. Ease of use SIX and BRECT are meant as simple, single purpose tools. They require an understanding of what you are doing, but have no complexities in operation. Help systems None provided. Compatibility SIX may report and alert if run after programs which make significant changes to memory or interrupts. It should be easily network compatible, but only if used from the same station each time. BRECT will write a non-bootable boot sector to floppy disks, and so will remove the boot capability if used on bootable disks. Company Stability Wallace is a nice guy with interesting ideas but if he goes under a bus you can kiss your support goodbye. Also, if the programs mess you up (or, more likely, you mess up), the warranty is limited to what you paid. (See above.) Company Support Postal, email or BBS only. Documentation The text files clearly explain the operation of the programs, but assume you are familiar with viral operations and do not go into tutorial details. System Requirements Basically, anything that runs DOS. Performance Within the limits, good. Local Support None provided. Support Requirements SIX would be a good add-on to a supported environment. As the author states, it is not intended as a full antiviral package, but only as an additional, quick level of checking. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 PCSIX.RVW 950911 ====================== roberts@decus.ca rslade@cln.etc.bc.ca Rob.Slade@f733.n153.z1.fidonet.org Crossbows don't kill people, quarrels kill people Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" 0-387-94311-0/3-540-94311-0