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Introduction
Agax is an expandable free Mac antivirus program. It offers both standard virus-scanning facilities
and more advanced background protection - so you don't get infected in the first place. Click on one
of the links below to download Agax.
Download Agax v1.3.2 in MacBinary II format* or
BinHex format.
(These links last changed on 28/4/2002. The files at old links are replaced with a small app saying so.)
* MacBinary II is smaller, but some browsers haven't been set up to handle it properly.
Latest News
17/8/2006:
This is the first update to the Agax site in over four years, and will probably be the last. I think it's safe enough now to make a few things clear:
- Agax, like the viruses it deals with, only works on System 7, Mac OS 8 and MacOS 9, including on PowerPC Macs in the Classic environment. If you are only running Mac OS X then Agax is neither useful nor needed. Nor will it run :-).
- There have as yet been no credible viruses for Mac OS X. If this situation were to change, and a free Mac antivirus program again became beneficial, then I would probably write a whole new program rather than trying to port or update Agax.
- So it's been fun folks, thanks muchly for all your emails, and now I think we can let Agax rest in its history. G'night!
28/4/2002:
- Agax v1.3.2 released. This version is only a maintenance update. The main changes are that the
Defender Log is limited in size, and Agax works under System 7 on a 68000 Mac. There are also a
number of cosmetic improvements to answer questions I am frequently asked. In particular, the message
reporting files that cannot be opened is less alarming. No new antivirus features have been added.
20/02/2002:
- Due to the expiry of my uni account, the Agax site has moved from its long-suffering host
at www.cse.unsw.edu.au to my own site at
www.defyne.org/agax. My email address has also
changed (see main page).
- This event gives me the chance to answer what is now my most frequently asked question:
'Are you still there?'. The answer is yes, although I don't have as much time to spend on Agax
as I did. Fortunately, there has not been a new Mac virus for a couple of years now,
so I've only had to deal with supporting Agax. Nevertheless, there is a minor update in the works which
fixes some bugs and adds a few features (including knowing where the Agax site has moved to).
Hopefully I will be able to release this soon.
10/7/1999:
- Agax v1.3 released, with bug fixes, drag and drop, improved progress bars, and more.
(See the version history linked from the manual for details).
- AutoStart Additive now at v1.0. It's been made more robust, and taken out of beta.
Old news
Additives
The virus-fighting capabilites of Agax are determined by which 'Additives' are installed. (Additives
are just like plugins, but more important). You get all the current Additives when you download the
Agax program (see links above). You can download and read about Additives and the nasties
they deal with by viewing the Additives Index.
There is also an Additive SDK
available for people interested in writing their own new Additives. Agax can look up an
authentication web page to verify that its Additives haven't been
damaged or hijacked. If you want your Additives on this page then please let me know!
Note that this approach of using specific Additives means Agax can only protect against known viruses.
To give your computer some protection from new and unknown viruses, and suspicious behaivour in general,
try the programs Tracker, DelProtect, and Scanner offered by Ioannis Galidakis.
Manual
Most experienced Mac users will not need to read this - and most users won't anyway - but if you've run
into problems or are after more information, then you can read the manual right here.
Problems
If you have any problems with Agax that can't be solved by reading the manual, then feel free to
email me. Also, if you run into an interesting new virus
(note: NOT a Word/Excel/etc macro virus ... if you have to use these programs look elsewhere for
your virus protection - and if you do so by choice then you get what you deserve!), then you can
email it to me also.
{P^/
John Dalgliesh
Last updated 17/8/2006