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Anti Virus, Whats the best?

I

itchster

macrumors member
Original poster
Hi i have recently switched over to a mac from the windows world. and while i know that macs are less prone to viruses, running any machine on the internet (especialy a BB connection) for a long period of time is madness, so i need some anti virus protection ASAP. i have seen the .mac service provides Virex. Is this any good? is their a better program without subscribing to .mac? I will if i have to but i want to see what the mac community thinks is the best mac anti virus program.

Thanks

Itchster
 
Virex is probably the best, but most people I know have never used anything, and have never had a need to... no viruses, not just less prone.

Don't sweat it, just enjoy your Mac... seriously

And welcome to the forums.

Woof, Woof - Dawg
 
i know that but i also know that a virus is bound to strike at some point, may it be far into the future, but their will be one at some point, windows only has so may security holes to exploit 😛
 
itchster said:
i know that but i also know that a virus is bound to strike at some point, may it be far into the future, but their will be one at some point, windows only has so may security holes to exploit 😛
Click to expand...

That's possible of course, but even so... nothing that is around now would prevent it. They would have to write something to react to it. Then you would install... I know, after the fact, but that's the way it is. Hopefully you will hear about it before it hits you. And I can assure you, if one does come out, it will be shouted about all over this board.

I know its hard not to be concerned coming from Windows, but truly... just sit back and enjoy the Mac experience. Its a whole new world

Woof, Woof - Dawg
 
Save your money -- spend it on something more useful like a iPod shuffle 🙂

If you're not convinced, do a quick search on these forums... there's nothing to be worried about.

Maybe your better bet would be to ask this question: How many MacRumors forum members use anti-virus software...

Less than 1% would be my guess.
 
I have spent about $350 over the last 12 years on mac virus software and NEVER had or heard of a virus for the mac from anyone I know. I would spend the money on some way to back up what you work on weekly, daily or monthly. then you are not only covered if for some reason a virus would come about (which would not be prevented mostlylikely by software) but you would also be covered if your hard drive were to go or some docuent or pic became corrupt, etc. backup is your best safety option to secure yourself from losing anything.
 
I echo the sentiments of Blue Velvet and MacDawg.

As far as I know there has never been a Mac virus in the wild (someone wrote something as an experiment).

I have .mac - it is a decent service even if you don't want Virex. I downloaded Virex - used it a couple of times but stopped. I am not entirely convinced it would even spot a Mac virus as we don't know what one looks like......

Don't bother. Just put up the firewall and forget about it.
 
i used to have virex on m computer till i realized it was doing nothing and just taking up space so i dleted it and have not looked back since
 
I sit behind my firewall and router on a hidden wireless network. I have Virex via .mac but it's not set up to actively scan. I have it just in case someone sends me a Word document that might have a nasty macro attached so that I don't inadvertently spread it on. And no, so far I've found nothing yet.

Just enjoy the experience while it lasts - and I agree that you should spend the cash on backing up your data instead. Far more useful in the long run.
 
well you lot have convinced me 😀

I have the firewall in OS X up and running so thats all i need right?

and i still think im gonna get .mac
 
itchster said:
well you lot have convinced me 😀

I have the firewall in OS X up and running so thats all i need right?

and i still think im gonna get .mac
Click to expand...

A .mac account is nice. I have one, and you can easily put your family photos on the web and such without any problem. Has some other nice features. It isn't for those looking for true web hosting or anything, and some don't think its worth it, but I'm glad to have mine.

Woof, Woof - Dawg
 
I run Virex every now and then, when my boyfriend wisely has used my mac (instead of his own pc) to check out suspicious E-mail. I'm not worried at all for my own machine, but I won't risk passing on something nasty to windows users... Virex has on rare occasions found things it didn't like and got rid them for me.

-Squirrel
 
itchster said:
well you lot have convinced me 😀

I have the firewall in OS X up and running so thats all i need right?

and i still think im gonna get .mac
Click to expand...

I love my .Mac subscription as well. I know many say it is not worth it, but I think it is to not only have everything in one place, but easy to use and integrated programs that all work together (for the most part) to make the .Mac experinece simple. It has the backup software that you can use the .Mac space for some basic backups and then to backups to CD or DVD for pics, music, or whatever. I think Tiger is going to really upgrade the .Mac program and integrate it much more and hopefully provide more. good luck.
 
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