Chinese anti-virus software provider Rising has launched Online Expert Outpatient, a service to provide better assessment and treatment of virus-infected computers in China.

The Online Expert Outpatient is a new function of Rising's 2006 beta anti-virus software. Rising says perhaps by the end of the year the company will open the service for free to the public, but currently it is only available for users of its security software.

Starting April 10, all users of Rising's software can seek long-distance help, including diagnosis and guidance, in anti-virus matters from Rising's security experts at the online hospital, which was exclusively launched by Rising in China.

Wang Jianfeng, deputy managing director from Rising's Client Service Center, says that in the past it was hard for the engineers of Rising to help customers identify and solve computer problems because the clients could not accurately describe the symptoms. However, now they can repair the clients' computers from a long distance.

In addition to the Online Expert Outpatient, Rising has also added long-distance data recovery, security training and security assessment on its online computer hospital.