How to check the Sophos website for the latest versions of Sophos Anti-Virus and IDE files

To check that you have the latest virus protection from Sophos Anti-Virus, you need to know the current versions of anti-virus software, virus data, and virus identity (IDE) files.

You can then compare these with the versions available to your computers, and, if necessary, download the latest version to your system.

What to do

Identifying the latest version of Sophos Anti-Virus

• If you are running Sophos Anti-Virus versions 4.5 and above you will need to obtain both the Sophos Anti-Virus version and the Virus data version:
  
  
  1. Refer to the knowledgebase article Current versions of Sophos products to view the current anti-virus version numbers.
  2. Browse to http://www.sophos.com/downloads/ide/
  3. Scroll down to 'Identity files (IDEs) by version'
  4. Make a note of the number displayed in the latest version, (on the first line and listed as 'Current CD and web version' ). This is the current Virus data number.
     For example, in the entry 'IDEs for SAV version May 2005 (3.93)', the virus data number is 3.93.
  Note: All the other versions listed on this web page are also supported as current by Sophos, and virus identity (IDE) files for them are available.
  Refer to the knowledgebase article What the version number means for more information on version numbering.

• If you are running an obsolete version of Sophos Anti-Virus,
  1. Browse to http://www.sophos.com/downloads/ide/
  2. Scroll down to 'Identity files (IDEs) by version'
  3. Make a note of the current version number.
  Refer to the knowledgebase article What the version number means for more information.
  Note: You should upgrade to a current version. 

Identifying the most recent virus identity (IDE) file

1. Open the web page http://www.sophos.com/downloads/ide/
2. Scroll down to 'Individual IDEs for all supported versions of Sophos Anti-Virus (SAV)'
3. Make the cursor hover over the topmost Download IDE button
4. Note the name of the IDE file it is for (e.g. apribotc.ide)
5. Repeat this for the second Download IDE button in the list.