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Post by Forum Cat on Oct 8, 2010 15:35:23 GMT
As promised here is the thread for markbrashOne quick question if I may, is should I worry about having any anti-virus software or not. Most articles I've read suggest there's nothing to worry about but I still feel a bit exposed. Any advice on Anti Virus software or Firewall settings would be most welcome. Regards, Mark
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Post by Alex on Oct 8, 2010 16:31:37 GMT
I think I said this in the thread... I don't use any. Maybe I might want to someday, but I've had my iMac for just over 2 years now with nothing and I've never had any 'attacks'.
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Post by Forum Cat on Oct 8, 2010 23:50:26 GMT
I too don't use any. Maybe one day there will be a need but with no Mac viruses yet seen in the wild I don't see that need. There are to the best of my knowledge three Trojans out there. But you have to actually download and install "dodgy" software to be affected by them. (If there are more than three for OS X I am sure I will be corrected by those here who know more) The main need of AV is to prevent passing on an infected file to a PC user and thus damage your reputation. As I don't have a reputation I don't care. Let them install their own AV I say.
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Post by Alex on Oct 9, 2010 7:31:49 GMT
As I don't have a reputation I don't care. Let them install their own AV I say. Yep - If I email a PC friend, I expect them to have AV. Obviosuly I wouldn't deliberately send them infected mail, but if by chance I did then it's their fault if they get infected as a result of not having AV on a PC. The first thing to do when you get a PC is install AV, without question.
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Post by Forum Cat on Oct 9, 2010 21:54:03 GMT
The first thing to do when you get a PC is install AV, without question. Is there much point in putting AV on a PC though? How many new viruses are there each day? How long does it take for the AV companies to catch up?
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Post by wierdostomps on Oct 10, 2010 13:08:09 GMT
My Mac is owned by the NHS, so I have to play by their rules. On my Boot Camp partition, which I use for hospital business, I have the corporate Shophos AV. Now, admittedly, we have a very secure system now (having been virtually closed down by Confickr last year!) - and at home I am Mac only, but I have never had a virus on the Windows side. On the Mac side, I run ClamXav, mainly so that if there ever is an incident the IT department can't accuse me of bringing viruses into the system. It has occasionally flagged up suspect - mainly phishing - email attachments, but nothing which ever caused me any genuine concern. So, unlike M. le Chat, I do think there is a point in AV on the PC - and I do have a reputation, so I also run AV on the Mac, even though I don't think it actually does any good.
I would add that at one stage I had a bundled copy of VirusBarrrier installed. It seemed to use up enormous amounts of system resources, was very slow to run, never found a virus and after a year demanded more money in order to keep functioning. It was almost impossible to uninstall (I still have a contextual menu item inviting me to add a file to its safe zone, which I simply can't trace). My strong recommendation would be to avoid it like the plague!
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Post by Forum Cat on Oct 10, 2010 15:34:37 GMT
So, unlike M. le Chat, I do think there is a point in AV on the PC - and I do have a reputation, so I also run AV on the Mac, even though I don't think it actually does any good. Oh, you have a reputation all right. I would add that at one stage I had a bundled copy of VirusBarrrier installed. It seemed to use up enormous amounts of system resources, was very slow to run, never found a virus and after a year demanded more money in order to keep functioning. It was almost impossible to uninstall (I still have a contextual menu item inviting me to add a file to its safe zone, which I simply can't trace). My strong recommendation would be to avoid it like the plague! This is why I stay away from AV. On the Mac it seems to cause more problems than it solves. This may change in the future of course but they have been saying that for a decade now.
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Post by markbrash on Oct 10, 2010 18:53:13 GMT
Thank you to everyone for their comments, it seems like I can relax and not worry about installing anything for the time being.
I look forward to being a member of this forum, you all seem to be a very friendly bunch.
Regards, Mark
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Post by Alex on Oct 10, 2010 22:57:16 GMT
The first thing to do when you get a PC is install AV, without question. Is there much point in putting AV on a PC though? How many new viruses are there each day? How long does it take for the AV companies to catch up? Well, I had AVG on my PC and as well as being free, it is better than 90% of the AV programs which need to be bought. And it has at least one update per day, downloading new virus names and stuff to add to the vault. If you need AV for a PC, I seriously recommend AVG Free. Unless you have a Dell... If you use a Dell there is no hope for you.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 17, 2010 21:26:23 GMT
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Post by Forum Cat on Nov 18, 2010 1:05:55 GMT
Hey, does that mean that all the viruses have been cleared off of your Mac.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2010 16:20:06 GMT
Oh yes! All of them... :-) which I think the total was.... Err none! :-)
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Post by Forum Cat on Nov 20, 2010 19:12:33 GMT
Oh yes! All of them... :-) which I think the total was.... Err none! :-) That's what I thought.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2010 20:49:37 GMT
Well I wouldn't want to unknowingly pass anything on to my friends who still haven't see the light and have PC's. :-)
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Post by Forum Cat on Nov 22, 2010 14:43:01 GMT
Well I wouldn't want to unknowingly pass anything on to my friends who still haven't see the light and have PC's. :-) Well I can see the point of that. I have never understood AV I must confess. How many viruses are there out there? It that is true how large does the database of viruses have to be? Some viruses are 10,000 bytes in size (large ones) If the average is one tenth of this size then we need 1,000,000 times 1000 bytes. i.e. one Terabyte just for the definitions. My hard drive is not that large.
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