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Anti-virus software for OSX Tiger?

T

thomasp

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
What is the best anti-virus software to get for Mac OSX Tiger 10.4.2? I hear Virex isn't compatible and Norton is best avoided on OSX.

Please don't say "You don't need antivirus software" - I'm on a university halls network and it is part of the AUP that every computer (even macs!) have antivirus software installed.


Anyway, better to be safe than sorry 🙂
 
thomasp said:
What is the best anti-virus software to get for Mac OSX Tiger 10.4.2? I hear Virex isn't compatible and Norton is best avoided on OSX.

Please don't say "You don't need antivirus software" - I'm on a university halls network and it is part of the AUP that every computer (even macs!) have antivirus software installed.

Anyway, better to be safe than sorry 🙂
Click to expand...

You're going to get a lot of negative comments here about using AV software. I use Norton Anti-Virus (NAV) v10. Despite people claiming that NAV will harm your Mac without any real evidence to offer, I have used NAV for years right through all the OS X versions and have never had any problems with NAV or my system because of it.

Don't use Norton Utilities (you don't need to defrag etc) it is garbage and will scew around your system, just get the standalone version Norton Anit-virus v10. It is perfectly safe.
 
Is Virex Tiger-compatible, since my university actually offer the virex updates to download from the uni server?
 
I use ClamXav. It acutally found a few viruses in an old Windows folder I used when I was running Virtual PC on my old iMac.
 
I've been considering using something for a while too, even though everyone says you don't need it. I'm paranoid. Should I use it anyway?
 
There is a new version of Virex which is compatible with Tiger.
I just wish that they would offer it free via .Mac again!!!
 
Guitarius said:
I've been considering using something for a while too, even though everyone says you don't need it. I'm paranoid. Should I use it anyway?
Click to expand...

The main reason why I use NAV is I have pc using friends and colleagues. Even though current strains of virus can't infect your Mac (well for now anyway) your Mac can still be a carrier, so you can pass a virus onto a pc user. I'm not one to support these morons who write viruses so anything I can do to prevent them being circulated is right for me.
 
robert05au said:
I use ClamXav which is free and has daily defs updates and engine updates when ever needed.

😎
Click to expand...

I grabbed this to check it out.... and whilst it seems good - as it identified some files of concern that Virex previously did not... it doesn't have any way of repairing infected files though.
 
Somebody posted a fake AV app on here once. Makes it look like it's scanning the system, just to keep the IT department happy 😛
 
Virex in ANY form is never coming near a computer of mine again

Brand new one day old powerbook and a brand new mac user. Installed Virex bundled with .mac and my computer would not boot and giving kernal panics and this was using a clean install of Panther. 😱

Luckily I remembered all my old Unix stuff of booting single user mode ect. 😎

ClamXav is fine but a tad slow and has no realtime protection. I hear Intego Virus Barrier is supposed to be OK.

If Nod32 ever bring out a Mac version of their stuff , I might well go for that
 
thomasp said:
What is the best anti-virus software to get for Mac OSX Tiger 10.4.2? I hear Virex isn't compatible and Norton is best avoided on OSX.

Please don't say "You don't need antivirus software" - I'm on a university halls network and it is part of the AUP that every computer (even macs!) have antivirus software installed.


Anyway, better to be safe than sorry 🙂
Click to expand...

I expect it is more to do with protecting other computers than protecting your computer.

You can download a virus and it won't cause you any problems, but if you accidently put it on disk and gave it to a Windows user then they would have problems.
 
carpe diem said:
What AVS does your Uni use on its mac's?
Click to expand...

Virex.

I ran Virex on OS9.2.1 on a 350MHz G3 iMac, and when it ran, it slowed the computer down quite a lot.
 
Norton AV is good,comparatively. The installer is what messes up your system (personal experiance). Don't buy it, it's overpriced anyhow.

I'd go with anything free, since it's just to say you have, and not that you need it.
 
I like clamXav, as it is independant, free (open-source), cross-platform and nightly virus updates. It doesn't install any nasty stuff all around my computer, it just scans, and informs you. That's all I need.

llama 🙂
 
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