User Guide

User’s Guide 347

Understanding iDAT Technology

12=40554056.UPD

For this example, suppose you have .DAT version 4053 installed on your

computer and the current .DAT file release is version 4056. The

AutoUpdate utility can look in the DELTA.INI file to learn that it needs to

download the10th, 11th,and 12th .UPD file releases to have allof the virus

definitions that the current .DAT file release does.

The entries in the Incremental Resolver table, meanwhile, translate the

sequential numbers from the Multiple Patch Table into actual filenames

that the AutoUpdate utility can download.

The DELTA.INI file also has checksum and other information that the

AutoUpdate utility can use to verify that files it downloaded have not

changed or become corrupted.

 NOTE: If an iDAT download fails for any reason, the AutoUpdate

utility will download and install a full .DAT update.

After it downloads the correct .UPD file, the AutoUpdate utility decodes the

existing .DAT files, patches the downloaded iDAT files into them, validates

the data, then re-encodes the newly updated .DAT files for use with your

software.

 NOTE: Because the iDAT files patch the existing .DAT files youmay not

download the iDAT files through the AutoUpdate utility and use the

utility to save them for later updates. You can download the .UPD

packages independently from the Dr Solomon’s Software FTP site,

however, and save these files for later distribution. See “Best practices”

below for details.

What does Dr Solomon’s Software post each week?

EachweekDrSolomon’sSoftwarepostsacomplete.DATfileupdate,along

with a new weekly iDAT update, and a new DELTA.INI file that has updated

Multiple Patch Table and Incremental Resolver entries. You can download

these files independently of the AutoUpdate utility for posting on your

internal servers from the Dr Solomon’s Software FTP site at:

ftp://ftp.nai.com/licensed/antivirus/datfiles/4.x/

IMPORTANT:Toconnecttothissiteyoumust have alicensedcustomer

user name and password. The FTP site will not accept anonymous

connections.