Anti-Virus?

[goinskiing]

AVG 8 is great. It's simple, easy, and does a pretty god job at getting most of the nasties with low overhead. Norton is no bueno for home users. They are typically better (not much though) in the corporate world.

It has been said before, but I have a hard time believing (at least in its entirety) that what killed safari was a "virus," or malware, or whatever you call it.

Did you install something with your user password? What kind of sites were you visiting? What were you downloading? What was the nature of the use of your computer?

On most of my windows machines (from regular web usage like email, google, etc) I would have some kind of random virus that poked out of seemingly nowhere.

It seems that most of the cases of a Mac "virus" usually require a whole lot of user carelessness.

I'm not going to be one to say that Macs are immune to viruses period. I feel pretty confident that if you get the right guy (brilliant most likely), probably someone who is sick of hearing that there aren't any viruses for Macs becomes bored one day and says, hmmm, I wonder if I can. And then we're hosed.

But, I think if you're playing safe, you should be okay.

But yes, AVG on the VM is highly highly suggested and AVG 8 is just fine.

 

[63dot]

AVG 8 is great.

I am going to look into AVG for my Macs. I use OSX with a G4 processor using 10.4.

Apple's site has Norton Antivirus for Mac OSX, 10.4 and 10.5, G4 through Intel processors, and that sounds pretty good. I don't think Apple would sell this product online at their own website if it was bad. However, if AVG is that much better, I will buy that one.

 

[bartzilla]

I am going to look into AVG for my Macs. I use OSX with a G4 processor using 10.4.

Apple's site has Norton Antivirus for Mac OSX, 10.4 and 10.5, G4 through Intel processors, and that sounds pretty good. I don't think Apple would sell this product online at their own website if it was bad. However, if AVG is that much better, I will buy that one.

Norton?
With the possible exception of their corporate products, I'd frankly rather run no antivirus at all and rely on common sense and non-admin rights, whether on Windows, OSX or whatever, than trust Norton virus not to cause more trouble than it claims to solve.

 

[Neil321]

I am going to look into AVG for my Macs. I use OSX with a G4 processor using 10.4.

Apple's site has Norton Antivirus for Mac OSX, 10.4 and 10.5, G4 through Intel processors, and that sounds pretty good. I don't think Apple would sell this product online at their own website if it was bad. However, if AVG is that much better, I will buy that one.

Do yourself a HUGE favour and stay well clear of Norton as it'll turn your Mac into an expensive slug, anyway's why install a AV on a Mac ???

 

[63dot]

Do yourself a HUGE favour and stay well clear of Norton as it'll turn your Mac into an expensive slug, anyway's why install a AV on a Mac ???

Norton is that bad? I have always trusted the Apple store if a third party product made it onto their website. That sucks so I will avoid Norton.

Are there any other products on the Apple website that I should avoid? I admit I had to buy MS Office for certain things and while I don't think it's anywhere near Apple's standards of their own software, that's about the only one I will put up with. Of course I have the Adobe products on one Mac but I am sure Apple and Adobe have worked so seamlessly together so there should not be any problems. I used to have the all the Adobe stuff fro graphics on my G3 iBook and it kicked the butt of someone running that suite on a PC.

I have always used Clarisworks and Appleworks and some Mac people I know only use iWork. From what I have seen they are better and more direct than anything MS can come up with. MS Office works like a slug on my G4 mini-mac and my dad's 1st generation Intel iMac 20". The last thing I need is another slug like Norton slowing things down more.

Anyway, thanks for the info.

BTW - I am not a MS basher since I love X-box and Flight Simulator. And I am not a Mac fanboy but any software from Apple simply works better than anything out there with OS X. I sometimes wish Adobe and Apple would merge but some people where I live, south bay, joke that they are the same.

 

[MacDawg]

Norton is that bad?

Yes, for the Mac it is

If you need to do a scan of files, you can use ClamXav
This will help prevent the spread of a virus to a Windows user if you share files

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[63dot]

Yes, for the Mac it is

If you need to do a scan of files, you can use ClamXav
This will help prevent the spread of a virus to a Windows user if you share files

Woof, Woof - Dawg

Hey Dawg, thanks a million.

Yikes, share anything with a Windoze user?

 

[Neil321]

Yikes, share anything with a Windoze user?

Basically that's the only reason why you may need a AV on a Mac, but then again if a windows user hasn't got their own AV installed then god help them

Glad to hear you took the advice about Norton

 

[63dot]

Basically that's the only reason why you may need a AV on a Mac, but then again if a windows user hasn't got their own AV installed then god help them

Glad to hear you took the advice about Norton

I have always trusted Norton, as I have trusted Macromedia, Epson printers, and Adobe software. It's such a shame that Norton didn't get their software together for OS X.

I remember way back when the very first release of OS X was not up to Apple standards. I used OS 9 until 10.2.

 

[MacDawg]

I have always trusted Norton, as I have trusted Macromedia, Epson printers, and Adobe software. It's such a shame that Norton didn't get their software together for OS X.

I remember way back when the very first release of OS X was not up to Apple standards. I used OS 9 until 10.2.

Norton is still viable on Windows, but it has sucked for a long time on the Mac. It is worse than any virus it was supposed to detect... especially since there aren't any.

I too, stayed with OS 9 until I bought my first iMac with Panther

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[63dot]

Norton is still viable on Windows, but it has sucked for a long time on the Mac. It is worse than any virus it was supposed to detect... especially since there aren't any.

[/img]

Maybe that nerdy guy in the glasses on the Norton box is the true Mac virus writer. I heard Norton can be a pain if you don't set your preferences/settings correctly. It has been in the way on Windows 98 at times when I tried to make legitimate downloads.

 

[JAbreu610]

Stay away from norton, its a resource hog on a windows pc. The last thing you want is a greedy anti-virus program slowing down your computer. I highly recommend AVG 8.0, all-in-one free (yes, free) internet security software.DL it here... AVG 8.0 Via Download.com

 

[darkcurse]

If you're willing to pay, I would recommend Kaspersky. The best antivirus program out there in my opinion.

 

[nanofrog]

If you're willing to pay, I would recommend Kaspersky. The best antivirus program out there in my opinion.

+1
I isn't a resource hog like Norton or McAfee.