Clam Sentinel

The Clam Sentinel Program Description And Setup

Clam Sentinel lets you use ClamWin Antivirus as a resident scanner as files are added, modified, or copied to your computer. It scans permanent hard drives, network drives, and USB/removable drives with ClamWin, and Clam Sentinel also uses its own system monitor to detect unknown malware that does not have a ClamWin signature. Clam Sentinel is designed especially for older computers, such as Windows 98, ME, 2000, and XP, but it has been tested on Windows Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8 machines and works fine on them also.

Both Clam Sentinel and ClamWin are free, open source programs.
Clam Sentinel can be downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/projects/clamsentinel/ on the web.
ClamWin can be downloaded from http://www.clamwin.com/content/view/18/46/ on the web.

INSTALLATION

ClamWin must be installed/configured on the computer before Clam Sentinel can be installed. The Clam Sentinel installation setup will remind you to stop and exit an old version of Sentinel during installation. The new installation will keep your old Clam Sentinel configuration settings and add any new settings needed.

You should use C:\Program Files\ClamSentinel for the Sentinel installation directory. If your Clam Sentinel download file is the ClamSentinel.exe file, download or copy the .exe file to this directory and click on it to install. If your Sentinel download file is a zipped file, unzip it to this same directory, and click on the ClamSentinel.exe file to install. If your unzip program tells you that a file is already in the directory, tell it to replace the old file and all files. During installation, select Run on startup if it is offered, so that Sentinel will start in real-time mode on your computer. Select to use Sentinel for all users if asked during the install.

You must stop and exit Clam Sentinel before installing a new version of ClamWin. Be sure to start Clam Sentinel after the new ClamWin version is installed.

Language Support

Clam Sentinel automatically supports the default language on the computer if it is English, French, Italian, Japanese, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Portuguese, Bulgarian, Azeri, Dutch, Indonesian, Hindu, and Galician. English is used as the default for all other languages. You can force Sentinel to use any of these languages by adding a row to the Sentinel .ini configuration file like this: Language = French. Do not use a period. Lines in the .ini file without a semicolon at the start are active. All other lines are just explanations.

If you would like to help the Clam Sentinel project by translating the program into a new language, download this file: http://clamsentinel.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/clamsentinel/ClamSentinel/Languages.txt from the web and then do the translation and send the translation file to: dynclient@users.sourceforge.net

Uninstalling

You can uninstall Clam Sentinel from the Windows Start menu, by selecting Start, All Programs, Clam Sentinel. You can also uninstall via the Windows Control Panel or via the Uninstall program in the Sentinel directory.

**QUICK GUIDE TO CLAM SENTINEL CONFIGURATION AND OPERATION**

All Clam Sentinel configuration is done by right or left clicking the Clam Sentinel icon badge in the Windows system tray. We suggest that you use the default settings that are already configured. Under settings choose to write scan activity to logs, detect and monitor new drives, ask to scan new drives, quarantine infected files, and detect suspicious files only. Under Advanced Settings, choose to monitor C drive, network drives, and any other hard disks/removable drives you may have. USBs are usually drives F and G. Download files only from trusted web sites, do not use cracked software, do not visit porn sites or torrent sites, and do not put personal information on social networking sites.

Infected file detections are ClamWin detections. You must send files that are falsely detected as infected to Clam AV for signature correction. Suspicious file detections are Clam Sentinel system monitor detections. You must whitelist any falsely detected suspicious files in Clam Sentinel—Clam AV can do nothing about them. Whitelisting excludes a file from scanning by Clam Sentinel. You can whitelist files in Advanced Settings, Paths Or Files Not Scanned. Read the section below on Paths Or Files Not Scanned for information about whitelisting.

To minimize Clam Sentinel false positive detections, set up a download folder and whitelist the folder in Clam Sentinel as a path or file not to be scanned. Download all files to the download folder before you run/install them. Scan each file with ClamWin and then with another AV or Jotti or VirusTotal before you install/run it. If the file is okay, then install/run it. If Clam Sentinel detects a file as suspicious, always scan it with ClamWin and then with another AV or Jotti or Virus Total. If the file is okay, disable the system monitor, whitelist the file, restore the quarantined file via the Sentinel Recover program, and re-enable the system monitor. If a suspicious file is also detected by another AV, upload the file to Clam AV so they can prepare a signature for both Clam AV and ClamWin. Read the rest of this guide for more complete information about Clam Sentinel operation.



CLAM SENTINEL DETAILED OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS

SETTINGS OPTIONS

Memory Scan

The first settings option is Scan the memory when the program starts. This is the same as ClamWin's memory scan. You will probably not want to activate this option. You can always scan memory with ClamWin manually or during a ClamWin scheduled scan.

Write scan activity to the log

The next option is Write scan activity to the log. Sentinel has 5 scan logs for real-time, memory, USB/removable drive, messages about new malware/suspicious changes, and quarantine. All logs are activated by this one selection. For most users, the message log and quarantine logs are probably the most important. The real-time log is very active when you are on the world wide web.

Detect And Monitor New Drives

This option is for detection on removable drives (USB, etc.) You should choose to detect new drives, but scanning takes some time, so you would probably not want to scan new drives unless you are using a USB drive for the first time. You can scan a USB manually with ClamWin.

Ask To Scan New Drives

You can choose this option tom make Sentinel ask if you want to scan a USB (or another) removable drive when it is inserted. Scan all new USB drives that you have not used before.

Infected File Options

The next option is What to do when an infected file is found. There are two choices: Move to quarantine or Report Only. Choosing quarantine is best. ClamWin and Sentinel have protection from false positive detections on Windows system files. You can restore false positives from quarantine via the Sentinel Recover program. Use the Report Only option if you are not sure what to choose, but you will have to manually quarantine infected files or and manually remove files from quarantine..

Monitor System For New Malware Options

The next option is Monitor system for new malware. There are several System Monitor options: Detect suspicious files and warn about system changes, Detect suspicious files only, and Disable. There is also an option to Skip files with a valid digital signature. When Sentinel detects a suspicious file, it is put in quarantine (if you choose the quarantine option). The type of suspicious detection included in the filename. Suspicious files that are quarantined should be sent to Clam AV at http://www.clamav.net/lang/en/sendvirus/ so Clam can prepare a normal signature for all users.

Do not select the option to Detect suspicious files and warn about system changes unless you are an experienced user who wants to know about all changes to your computer system. Users who select this option will see many popup messages about system changes (files put on the computer). Most system changes are okay and should not be a concern.

The option to “Detect suspicious files only” is the default option and is recommended for most users. When this option is chosen, the System Monitor will give popup warning messages only when new suspicious files have been detected. There will be no popup warnings of other system changes, but an entry will still be made in the Message Log for the record. Send quarantined suspicious files to Clam AV for normal signature preparation. Whitelist Sentinel suspicious files that are false positive detections as explained below.

The option to Disable the System Monitor turns off detection of suspicious files. You can Disable the system monitor while you “whitelist” a file, but re-enable it after you whitelist the file and restore it from quarantine via the Sentinel Recover program. If you have problems using the System Monitor, choose the Disable option and inform the Sentinel developer. The System Monitor provides important extra protection for malware that does not have a ClamWin virus signature. When the System Monitor is disabled, there will be a red mark in the lower right portion of the Clam Sentinel badge in the Windows system tray.

Even if you practice “safe surfing” on the world wide web, the System Monitor may give an occasional false positive warning when downloading “good” files. Read the Quick Guide to Clam Sentinel Configuration and Operation about how to handle false positives.

Upload quarantined suspicious files to Clam AV at http://www.clamav.net/lang/en/sendvirus/ on the web for normal virus signature preparation. If you check files with Jotti or Virus Total on the web, a suspicious file that is not detected by more than 3 AV programs is likely a “false positive” especially if the file is older than a week or two. See whitelisting elsewhere to learn how to exclude false positive files.

If you get a suspicious warning when you are not installing a new program, malware may be trying to install itself on your computer. If you are not installing/running a new program and you get a warning about a suspicious file, a warning about a registry change, or several warnings close together, you probably have malware on your computer. Run a complete ClamWin scan and then do can with a cleanup scanner, such as Malwarebytes Free Antimalware or Microsoft Safety Scanner (msert.exe).

There is also an option to Skip Files With A Valid Digital Signature. Once in a while, a malware will have a valid digital signature (usually adware), but most files with a valid digital signature are okay, so it is fairly safe to select this option.

Notify Of New Versions

The last Settings option is Notify of new versions. If you choose this option, Sentinel will give you a pop up message several minutes after turning on your computer if a new version is available for downloading at the Sentinel web site. Turn off the notification if it annoys you, and visit the Sentinel web site once a month to see if there is a new version.

ADVANCED SETTINGS OPTIONS

The advanced settings options are for expert users who want to “tweak” Sentinel. The configuration defaults that come with Sentinel are best for most users.

Fixed Disks To Monitor

The first Advanced option is Choose fixed disks to monitor. This is selected when you install Sentinel, but you can change it at any time. Sentinel can monitor hard drives, network folders, CD drives and USB/removable drives. Sentinel will normally automatically choose to monitor the C drive You should monitor all other hard drives and removable drives that you use regularly. USB drives are often named drive F or G by the Windows operating system. The CD drive is often called drive D or E.

Extensions To Scan

The next option is Choose what extensions Sentinel will scan. The Sentinel default option has about 130 Windows file extensions. Experienced users can configure their own custom scan extensions here, but they will miss any future changes made to the default extensions.

Paths Or Files Not Scanned (Whitelisting)

Operation: Disable System Monitor or Stop Sentinel, Verify Files, Whitelist “Good” Files, Re-Start/Enable

The next option is Paths or Files not scanned. Clam Sentinel comes configured so that the path on your computer with the most recent Windows activity is not scanned (whitelisted). You can add other paths, or even individual files, that you do not want to be scanned if they will trigger an unwanted Sentinel suspicious detection. You can also whitelist infected file false positive detections until Clam AV corrects their virus signature. Clam Sentinel has wild card support (? and *) for filenames or paths not scanned. Files not scanned are excluded from both the System monitor and the real-time monitor, so be careful what you whitelist. Verify with Jotti or Virus Total that each file you whitelist is not really infected.

Examples: c:\temp will exclude the temp folder from scans; c:\temp\test.bat will exclude the test.bat program in the temp folder from scans; test.bat will exclude the test.bat file anywhere on your computer from scans. You can browse files/folders on your computer by selecting the little icon on the whtelist configuration page. If you use Clam Sentinel with another antivirus/antimalware program, you should whitelist the other AVs program folder, data folder, and quarantine folder and database folders (if separate from data folder) from Clam Sentinel to prevent the other AV from triggering a false detection on a ClamWin virus signature. Also exclude Clam Sentinel and ClamWin program and data folders from the other scanner. This option is also used to exclude files from Sentinel's System Monitor warnings about suspicious files. If “good” programs that you use trigger a System Monitor warning, you can whitelist these files from the System Monitor so that future warnings will be only for “real” suspicious files. If possible, exclude individual files within a folder. Example: C:\Foldername\Filename.Extension. Excluding entire folders will mean less protection from both Sentinel's Real Time Monitor and the System Monitor.

Paths Where All Files Will Be Scanned

The next option is Paths where all files will be scanned. This is for selecting paths or directories, where all files are to be scanned—regardless of the extensions. You can browse paths or folders on your computer by selecting the little icon on the Sentinel configuration page. You will generally not need this option.

Maximum No. Of Simultaneous Scans

The next option is Maximum number of simultaneously active scans. Clam Sentinel comes configured with a 1 for this option, and most users should use it. You might set it to 2 if you have a very large hard drive or if your computer has a powerful dual processor and ClamWin/Clam Sentinel are your only antivirus software.

Maximum Sentinel Log Size

The last advanced settings option is Maximum Sentinel log file size. Clam Sentinel comes configured with a large 5 megabyte size, but 1 or 2 megabytes is usually enough. There are 5 logs, and each log has this same size.

Quarantine

There are two options under the quarantine menu. You can access the quarantine folder or restore quarantined files from here.

Access the quarantine folder to see what files have been quarantined.

You can also run the Clam Sentinel Quarantine Recover program to restore files from quarantine back to their original location. Clam Sentinel comes with a separate program, SentinelRecover.exe, which is similar to ClamWin's Quarantine Browser program to restore files from quarantine. Sentinel Recover works on all computers, and it can restore files quarantined by both Clam Sentinel and ClamWin. Operation is simple, and the options are mostly self explanatory. To restore files, you should follow the operation steps above. Before restoring an infected file (not a System Monitor suspicious file), you should visit the Clam AV Submit A File page on the web to upload the file and tell Clam it is a false positive detection so they can correct their signature. Then you can whitelist the file for Clam Sentinel until it is corrected. If you intend to scan a detected file with a ClamWin on-demand scan, you should also whitelist it for ClamWin via the ClamWin filters tab. Remove the whitelisted file from both Clam Sentinel and ClamWin whitelists when Clam AV has corrected the signature in a few days. Never submit a file detected by the System Monitor as “suspicious” to Clam AV because Clam can do nothing about false positive System Monitor detections. Whitelist suspicious files for Clam Sentinel only.

Logs

There are logs for the real-time monitor, quarantined files, messages (System Monitor with some registry changes if you used the full system monitor option), memory scan, and drive scan. After “whitelisting” your “good” files/folders that are detected as suspicious by Clam Sentinel , you will normally not get many system monitor messages, so each message can be important. Check the Message log occasionally to see if you have missed anything. Recent messages are shown at the end of each log.

You can locate any file warning by looking at the System Monitor Message Log (the most recent files are shown at the end of the log). Look at the Quarantine log to see suspicious files put in the ClamWin Quarantine folder.

Using Clam Sentinel On A USB Drive With ClamWin On The Hard Drive

ClamWin must be installed on the computer the USB is plugged into, but it does not have to be installed on the USB. Put the Clam Sentinel program folder on the USB and put the .ini configuration file in the program folder. Manually change the UseLocalIniFile in the Sentinel .ini configuration file to UseLocalIniFile 1=yes. The 0 default puts the Sentinel configuration file in C:\Users\Bob\AppData\Roaming\ClamSentinel for Windows Vista/7/8 computers or in Documents and Settings for Windows XP computers. Changing it to 1 will put the configuration file in the Clam Sentinel program folder on the USB. The UseLocalIniFile setting is the first item in the Sentinel .ini configuration file.

Using Both Clam Sentinel And ClamWin Portable On A USB Drive

First install ClamWin Portable on a USB drive/key and start it (run ClamWinPortable.exe from the ClamWinPortable directory). Configure ClamWin the way you want. Not all normal ClamWin options are available in the Portable version).

Then download the Clam Sentinel Zip file (or Sentinel.exe file) from the Clam Sentinel web site to the desktop on your computer. Extract the zipped Sentinel files to the desktop of your computer. Then copy the Sentinel.exe file, the .ini file, and the Sentinel Recover file to the USB drive in the ClamWinPortable\App\clamwin\bin folder on the USB.

Next configure Clam Sentinel to use the .ini configuration file that is in the local folder from where Sentinel is run (the ClamWin\bin directory on the USB). The configuration item is UseLocalIniFile 1=yes. Do not use the zero default. You can change the Sentinel.ini file in Notepad or a similar text editor. Save the .ini file after making this change. The UseLocalIniFile setting is the first item in the Sentinel .ini configuration file.

You must also configure Clam Sentinel to use the local ClamWin configuration file on the USB drive. To do this, make the PathClamWin=..\..\..\data\settings active. Do this by removing the semicolon (;) from the beginning of the line in the Clam Sentinel .ini file and put a semicolon (;) at the beginning of the line for any other “PathClamWin=” statements in the .ini file. This configuration always works best for me if I put PathClamWin=f:\ClamWinPortable\App\DefaultData\settings. The USB drive is usually drive F or G, so change it as needed.

Do not run Clam Sentinel before you make the two manual configuration changes mentioned above. Then click on the Sentinel.exe file in the ClamWin bin folder to run Clam Sentinel. You can do any other configuration via the Clam Sentinel badge in the system tray after starting. You can then delete the Clam Sentinel files on your desktop.

From now on, you can start Clam Sentinel on the USB by clicking on the ClamSentinel.exe file in the ClamWin\bin folder on the USB, and Clam Sentinel will start protecting you. I suggest that you do not configure Clam Sentinel on the USB to run on startup—start it manually each time you insert the USB. When you start Clam Sentinel, it drops an icon in the system tray—just like it does for the regular hard drive version. You can configure Clam Sentinel by clicking on the icon—just like the regular version. Be sure to enable the System Monitor to detect suspicious files only.

After Clam Sentinel is installed on the USB, you do not have to start ClamWin Portable any more—Clam Sentinel will find the ClamWin Portable files it needs on the USB key if you configure as suggested. You do not need ClamWin Portable running in order to use Clam Sentinel, but you should have both programs configured on USB as mentioned. You will need to start ClamWin Portable, however, in order to update the ClamWin signature database. Do this at least daily, but more often if you use the internet a lot.

You can make a shortcut to Clam Sentinel on the USB and put it in the ClamWinPortable folder/directory with the ClamWinPortable.exe file. You could also make a shortcut to ClamWinPortable.exe and ClamSentinel.exe on your desktop so that you can start them from your desktop. CAUTION: before setting up or using ClamWinPortable and ClamSentinel from the USB key, you will need to STOP them from running if they are already installed on your hard drive. In fact, if you want to run ClamWin and Sentinel from USB, it is best if you do not have them installed locally on your hard drive.

You can stop both programs from running locally on the computer by right clicking on their icons in the system tray and then selecting Exit or Stop. When you want to remove the USB key from the computer, you will have to stop Clam Sentinel on the USB (and ClamWinPortable if it is running), and then click on the USB icon in the system tray and stop the USB from running before you can remove it without doing any damage to the USB.

Be sure to keep your old Sentinel.exe and .ini and Sentinel Recover files from the USB when you update to a new version of ClamWin Portable. When future updates to Clam Sentinel are available, just copy the new Sentinel.exe file to the USB like you first did. Your old Sentinel .ini file and Sentinel Recover file on the USB will still be good, and Sentinel will update them during installation if needed.

Thank You

Thank you for using Clam Sentinel. If you like it, please tell other people about it, and give the author, Andrea Russo, your comments and suggestions. Visit the Sentinel web site monthly for news and updates.

by Robert Scroggins