stress testing an antivirus program

[insane_alien]

just curious about this, but is there any program that can make IE follow random links on a page in series? i want to test how secure my XP setup is against viruses. since i instinctively do 'safe browsing' i've found out that even with no protection my computer remains virus free.

just wondering f there is something like this that you can download and run. links would be nice.

[smoker]

i don't know about such a programme, but if you stick to 'safe' sites you are unlikely to get a virus this way anyway, most virus infections are due to downloads or email attachments, etc.

if you want to really test your security against viruses, make an image of your xp installation, then venture over to 'the dark side' of the internet for an hour or so and surf some warez and porn sites following links at random and downloading keygens and stuff and running them (whether you want them or not!). unless your antivirus and spyware protection is really good, your pc will have slowed to a crawl after an hour!

once you've done the above, format the partition and restore your 'clean' xp image to get your pc back to normal.

[insane_alien]

yeah, i have the image, i just don't want to sit down for an hour browsing the dark side of the web, i was thinking there would be a program or something to open random links and pretty much do the browsing part auto matically.

[Chiko2008]

I really don't know any program that does what you're asking, but I'll keep coming here to see if anyone knows one. :)

Ubuntu (http://www.linux-archive.org/ubuntu/)

[insane_alien]

i thought i had found what i wanted in the form of a webcrawler(HTTrack), but that just multiplies until my connection is saturated by visiting every link. i'd rather have one that follows a single thread of links. it also didn't appear to catch anything, as i didn't get a virus from a known infected website which i get infected off of if i visit it in IE