It goes without saying that antivirus protection is of vital importance nowadays as the risk of being infected by a dangerous virus is very high. And companies who develop antivirus programs do their best to get the best position on the market. Still not all antivirus programs are effective and useful, in this online antivirus programs review I will try to analyze online antivirus applications which can help you to protect your computer and find viruses or spyware programs if your PC is infected. IT companies organize various advertising campaigns to attract customers (sales, bonuses, access to online versions of their new products). Here I provide you with the list of these online antivirus programs which are available nowadays.

Before starting this review I should mention that all listed below online antivirus scanners use Microsoft ActiveX and tested to work with Internet Explorer. If you use Firefox or Opera you’d better install this plagin http://www.meadco.com/neptune/ which will help your browser to work correctly with these online antivirus applications.

The fist online anitivirus is Panda Nanoscan
This online antivirus scanner is available here http://nanoscan.com

Panda Nanoscan is an antivirus scanner without any manual settings. It starts a scanning module (400 kb) and scans your system for about one minute. After scanning you will see the verdict of Panda Nanoscan right on the screen without any delay. But you will get no scanning report or any settings.

If Panda Nanoscan find an infected object it won’t do anything to cure it. It will advice you to use TotalScan antivirus to deal with this problem. TotalScan is also an online antivirus.

The second online antivirus program is BitDefender Online Scanner
This online antivirus scanner is available here http://bitdefender.com

It is one of the best antivirus tools which can cure infected files, it makes detailed reports and it can scan system boot disk sectors. The only thing you should know that this programs sends reports to its developers but they promise that it is done to make their antivirus base up-to-date and no personal information is stored.
The eighth version of online antivirus scanner BitDefender has a new interface, it can work now with proxy servers and it is more user-friendly. The developers made the program more secure and now you can uninstall it easily (just go to the menu Tools in your Internet Explorer). So I can say for sure that developers do their bets to make the work with this program more comfortable for their clients.

Let’s continue with eTrust Antivirus Web Scanner
This online antivirus scanner is available here http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx

This online web scanner works without any problems in Internet Explorer. It can easily find infected objects and cure them. But there is no settings for this online antivirus and the user can only choose the disk for scanning, delete infected files or send them to antivirus laboratory where they will be analyzed by specialists. There is no need to worry about the antivirus base as eTrust Antivirus Web Scanner will update it automatically.
But I can not say that this antivirus program is trusty. When I tested it, eTrust Antivirus Web Scanner ignored a file with Trojan. Of course, any program can make a mistake but it is not a good thing when your antivirus program do not find viruses which can kill your file system.

Another antivirus scanner in my review is Symantec Virus Detection
This online antivirus scanner is available here http://security.symantec.com

As you can guess from the name of this program it can only detect infected files and it is impossible for Symantec Virus Detection to cure them. There is also no setting for this online version and it scans all disks automatically. This process lasts very long and you should be ready to wait.
On the screenshot above there is Security Scan module. This module launches an Internet-service which can audit your computer for brittleness which can be used to hack your computer. Security Scan is not the worst online tool who wants to protect your PC form viruses, Trojans and spyware programs.

McAfee FreeScan is a very popular online antivirus program.
This online antivirus scanner is available here http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/default.asp

The main advantage of using this online scanner is that it is based in the popular antivirus platform known as McAfee VirusScan. There is no setting for the online version and you can choose only disk C:, folder My Documents or Windows system directory for scanning.

McAfee web scanner can not cure infected files but it will provide you with detailed information about virus characteristics and advice you to use McAfee commercial products to cure detected viruses and spyware programs.

PCPitstop Virus Scanner is the other online web scanner to protect your computer
This online antivirus scanner is available here http://www.pcpitstop.com/antivirus/AVLoad.asp

If you manage to handle PCPitstop Virus Scanner it will be easy to find these three buttons: Quick Scan, Full Scan и Custom Scan. The first one is used to start a quick scan with a detailed analysis of running system processes, system Windows files and “My Documents” folder. The second button will scan your dick C: for viruses and Trojans. And at last the third button makes you to choose any other disk or directory for complete online virus scan. So as you can see PCPitstop Virus Scanner interface is rather simple but this antivirus application is effective.

You can use Freedom Online Virus Check to find harmful viruses online
This online antivirus scanner is available here http://www.freedom.net/viruscenter/onlineviruscheck.html

You can find on the official site of Freedom Online Virus Check that this online virus scanner uses technology of F-Prot Professional. It is easy to choose any disk or directory (as well as system directories) for a complete online virus scan. There is no settings for a scanner and Freedom Online Virus Check has a very simple interface.

MyV3 is a simple online antivirus scanner
This online antivirus scanner is available here http://global.ahnlab.com/global/products/myv3.html

It is one more online antivirus application which is developed by South-Korean IT company AhnLab. It works only as a browser antivirus and updates its antivirus babes every time when it is launched. MyV3 scans boot sectors, checks memory, archives and files. This antivirus program also creates a copy of an infected file in the protected folder “Quarantine”. MyV3 can be run in Windows and Internet Explorer.

Use Trend Micro HouseCall to find Trojans online
This online antivirus scanner is available here http://housecall.trendmicro.com

Trend Micro HouseCall find infected files and allows to check your system (Windows, Linux and Solaris) to find possible backdoors for hackers. This online antivirus application also works with Mozilla Firefox and it’s really a great advantage in comparison with other online antivirus programs mentioned above.

There are three stages of using this scanner. At first you are to choose a sector of scanning and program settings. After that Trend Micro HouseCall some time to check your computer for viruses and on the last stage you will find detailed reports and further instructions how to deal with your situation.

If you have something to add to my review of online antivirus programs and applications you are welcome to post your ideas in the comments to this article.