These days you never know which web site is safe to visit and which is not. Some well known web sites you can readily trust, but when you are visiting a new web site, you should always check if the web site is not hosting some malware, riskware or some other attack code. In addition to using a good firewall, anti-virus and anti-malware software you can use few online services to find out if a web site is safe to visit. This article shows how to do this :
1. Link Scanner
Link scanner is an online service from Exploit Prevention Labs, which you can use to find out if a URL is safe to visit. Navigate your internet browser to http://linkscanner.explabs.com/linkscanner/. In the URL field type the web site address you want to be analyzed. Type in the verification code and click on Scan.
The Link Scanner will scan the url for few seconds and then report if the site is safe or not. If the site is safe then you would see a green check mark. If the site is unsafe, then you would see a red warning cross.
2. Google Safe Brosing
Google offers Google Safe Browsing service to check if a site is safe to visit. It also tells you the safety history of a web site. If you are using Mozilla Firefox, then Firefox already checks all web sites using Google Safe Browsing. To check a web site using Google Safe Browsing, simply type in the address in the following text box and click on Scan button on the right
The results would be shown on a new page. You would be able to see the current status and last 90 days history of the web site.
3. Norton Safe Web
You can use Norton Safe Web, to find if a web site is safe or not. Norton Safe Web scans a site through their professionals. They also have a community based valuation, where anybody can tag a web site safe or unsafe. Threfore, when using Norton SafeWeb stick to the evaluation made by Symantec professionals only.
To use Norton Safe Web, point your web browser to http://safeweb.norton.com/. Type in the site adddress and click on the little magnifying glass picture on right side of the text box.
4. McAfee Site Advisor
McAfee Site Advisor is another tool to find out if a web site is safe to visit. Like Norton Safe Web, it also uses a community of users to tag a web site safe or not. To use it, point your browser to http://www.siteadvisor.com/. Type in the site address in the right side box as shown in the picture and click on View Report Now.
I hope using these tools you can sca an unknown web site before you visit it and stay safe. But these tools are not a replacement for a good firewall, anti-virus and anti-malware.