Looking for Advice! Norton Antivirus & Other 3rd Party.

[amgff84]

Just a quick question... What are your opinions on Norton Antivirus on Mac? I am aware that Mac doesn't benefit from Antivirus in the same way Windows does, but are there any benefits? Would I be better off with the Mac firewall, or even third party? I connect using a VPN 90% except when gaming. My computer is wired in via ethernet, so it's always connected, and while Norton has useful features like firewall, a cleaner, a safe search feature integrated into Safari and Firefox... It is in the way most of the time.

What are some programs I can use to replace these features? Any good extensions for Safari or Firefox? Any good firewalls? How do I set them up optimally? Do I even need any of this? I am using a Hackintosh as my main machine, but it is up to date.

 

[EmmEff]

The built-in firewall is sufficient for everybody. If you want better "reporting" to know what's going on, Little Snitch is often recommended. I personally wouldn't bother with any antivirus.

 

[amgff84]

The built-in firewall is sufficient for everybody. If you want better "reporting" to know what's going on, Little Snitch is often recommended. I personally wouldn't bother with any antivirus.

Thank you.

 

[retta283]

I would not recommend Norton products for Windows or Mac. They are notorious for eating up system resources, being intrusive, and incredibly hard to remove. Mac systems don't really need much in the way of antivirus, but a scan every once in a while might not be a bad idea.

 

[TiggrToo]

I would not recommend Norton products for Windows or Mac. They are notorious for eating up system resources, being intrusive, and incredibly hard to remove. Mac systems don't really need much in the way of antivirus, but a scan every once in a while might not be a bad idea.

Agreed. I personally put Symantec in the same group as Mcafee: security apps that do more harm than good.

 

[amgff84]

I've never been a fan of those, but Comcast offers it for free. It is still intrusive and in the way, but it seems lighter than I remember for Windows. I used to use Avast back in its early days until Windows started Defender. Defender was weak, but also very out of the way. With Ubuntu, like Mac, I've never used antivirus but I figured I would give it a try considering I am running a Hackintosh. I still think a Hackintosh is still safer than any Windows Machine. Now, with that being said, how does Parallels effect MacOS considering you can transfer files between the two seamlessly?