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Do macs need virus scanners

Virus Protection On Your Mac? Do You Need It?

  • Total voters
    64
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XFce

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 17, 2006
58
0
California
I am leery about downloading a virus scanner because I heard that anti virus scanners hog recourses, makes macs crash and that Macs do not need virus scanners because macs are a almost immune to catching computer viruses.
I don’t know what to do.... Should I download the virus scanner and see what happens and risk mucking up my precious Intel i mac core duo, is it worth the risk ? any suggestions would be appreciated.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/networking_security/clamxav.html
 
I'm gonna go out on a limb and tell you to not bother. There isn't anything harmful for Macs out at the moment so the only reason for a virus scanner would be to prevent accidentally passing Windows viruses on to Windows users. These viruses will not run on your system though (except through Boot Camp, but that's another story). :)
 
Every PC user should have virus protection (I know I didn't at first). AVG or Norton do a fair job of stopping viruses from damaging PCs. It's not your problem if you pass one on to a PC user, it's there fault for having a PC. :D
 
We can't have our mail swerver skip scanning just because it runs on a Mac. That would be idiotic.
 
I've never bothered with a virus scanner. Probably never will... just keep up-to-date backup of all the data you cannot afford loosing and you should be fine for all foreseeable future...
 
iMeowbot said:
We can't have our mail swerver skip scanning just because it runs on a Mac. That would be idiotic.
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No, the OP was about Macs needing virus protection. That server doesn't need the virus protection, it's the PCs that recieve the emails that need virus protection, whether it's built into the server or not...
 
Killyp said:
No, the OP was about Macs needing virus protection. That server doesn't need the virus protection, it's the PCs that recieve the emails that need virus protection, whether it's built into the server or not...
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In these days of dual boot and virtualization, skipping virus scanners is still unwise. It's no longer someone else's problem when an infected file gets copied around.
 
iMeowbot said:
In these days of dual boot and virtualization, skipping virus scanners is still unwise. It's no longer someone else's problem when an infected file gets copied around.
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If you use Parallels, for example, either turn the network off in Windows, or set up Parallels for a Virtual network between MacOS X and the various guest operating systems. Never read any email in Windows, never access web pages with Windows. You don't need to, do you?

If you want, set up one virtual machine just for Internet Exploder. If it gets infected, who cares? Delete it, set up another one.
 
mad jew said:
I'm gonna go out on a limb and tell you to not bother. There isn't anything harmful for Macs out at the moment so the only reason for a virus scanner would be to prevent accidentally passing Windows viruses on to Windows users. These viruses will not run on your system though (except through Boot Camp, but that's another story). :)
Click to expand...


Same here, no need for a virus scanner for Mac OS at the moment. :)
 
joeops57 said:
While there aren't viruses for OS X, there really isn't any reason why getting a virus scanner would be bad. That said, I wouldn't pay for one unless I was doing work in a professional environment.

~Joe
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One bad reason would be that virus scanners tend to bog down system resources (RAM and CPU). So if there are no viruses for Mac, why run an antivirus scanner that will only slow down your Mac and yet offer no real benefit to the user? :confused:
 
Virus scanners don't need to be run on a continuous basis. And looking at the OP's mac, I really don't think system resources are at a premium. That said, running a virus scanner is not necessary, but more of a niceity to the PC world. I imagine one could get away with running the scanner once a week. Surely, there must be some point during the week where the user is not using enough system resources to make running the scanner an issue on that front.

~Joe
 
joeops57 said:
Virus scanners don't need to be run on a continuous basis. And looking at the OP's mac, I really don't think system resources are at a premium. That said, running a virus scanner is not necessary, but more of a niceity to the PC world. I imagine one could get away with running the scanner once a week. Surely, there must be some point during the week where the user is not using enough system resources to make running the scanner an issue on that front.

~Joe
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I run XaV in the backround and have it only scan the documents folder, its from there that I send and save all my email attatchments, XaV only scans and doesnt remove, but I at least try to care about the poor windows people.:D ;) :p
 
I would. It's just being a good network neighbor. ClamAV is a good choice, since it's free.

You don't have to go out of your way to buy anti-virus, I think just having something running is a good idea. Thought that counts.
 
Depends on what you are doing if you need it. Mostly it will help prevent you from spreading virus around on the net. And indirectly all PC viruses do effect all mac users. For example when the I love you worm was huge the entire net world wide was taken to a crawl (or was it another one meh) and that effect everyone. Also the more virus that mac user helps spread means things are going to cost you more money because cost is increased due to having to deal with security and what not.

Do you need one running 24/7 no. The big thing is just make sure all out going emails are scanned or any file you sent out to a PC user. That cut down on the ammount of trojins, virus and worms on the net that are constately being spreaded around. the biggest thing it do is cut done on the trojins that are passed around (which is over 50% of all viruses any how).
 
I considered installing virus protection on my mac but I decided not to because its not my fault people insist on using MS windows, and seeing how Macs are practically immune to catching computer viruses I’d be doing window users a favor.
Nothing wrong with being a nice network neighbor but I’m not going to install a virus scanner on a mac so a window user don’t have to install one on their pecee. :p
 
XFce said:
I considered installing virus protection on my mac but I decided not to because its not my fault people insist on using MS windows, and seeing how Macs are practically immune to catching computer viruses I’d be doing window users a favor.
Nothing wrong with being a nice network neighbor but I’m not going to install a virus scanner on a mac so a window user don’t have to install one on their pecee. :p
Click to expand...


i Have Av setup for windows (for obvious reasons) i also have clamxav installed on the mac, its free to download, it doesn't run all the time and its handy for when you want to scan a file before passing it on.



http://www.markallan.co.uk/clamXav/
 
I said no....


the only reason you would need one is to scan stuff before you sent it iver to a pc uder. but they should have a virus scanner anyway...
 
virus scanning

my school (ut) provides norton av for free to all students, so i went ahead and downloaded it, although if they didn't provide it to me, i would never have bought it on my own.

clamxav seems to be a good compromise b/c it's free
 
The choices should have been "Yes / no / not yet". I'd say "Not yet." Obviously if you're running Windows unprotected (that is, in BootCamp or with a raw network connection through Parallels or VPC), then you should have something in Windows, but that's Windows, not the MacOS.

Right now, there's just no need for it unless you're at risk of passing bad files along to somebody who has a PC because stuff goes through you. In the future, that will probably change. And I've got ClamAV installed just in case, though I run it infrequently at most.

Actually... I take that back. If you exchange a lot of Word documents with sloppy Windows users, you're at risk for an annoying but not likely harmful Macro virus, and you should probably be checking incoming stuff.
 
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