Do you? I was wondering since im planing on going mac soon.My pc gets adware and sometimes trojans almost weekly.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Does anyone use Antivirus softwear for there mac?
- Thread starter nyprospect
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Never have in over 10 years... never had a virus of any sort. I did scan my Mac for about 2 years back in the OS 9 days and 6 months around 10.2, but never found anything. I download anything and click all those virus links that are posted in chat rooms etc, just to look at the source code. Macs are immune 
I got Virex 7 as part of my .Mac subscription, and, yeah, I run it every few months, but for no real reason. There's never anything.
No adware or spyware either.
It's so nice....
No adware or spyware either.
It's so nice....
i've said it a million times and i'll say it again. Virex and all other anti-virus software use valuable clock resources behind the scenes and cause damage to your filesystem. there are no viruses for OS X. don't give money to a company that sells a product that has no need and therefor create their own with OS X source code and leak their "discovery" all over the web. OS X virus software is a HUGE WASTE OF TIME, MONEY, PROCESSOR POWER, AND WILL DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD.
Do I run resource leechers? No. The last time I ran it was on Win95 and took it out right after. What a waste of money.
I don't run it on Mac Panther nor PC WinXP Pro, no way, no how, no ever. I don't use P2P, uses FireFox, turns on firewall, scans system w/ ad-aware and spybot. It's all good.
A couple Macs at work has NAV on them though, but they are multi-user systems, so it's for preventive purpose. I don't have it on mine.
I don't run it on Mac Panther nor PC WinXP Pro, no way, no how, no ever. I don't use P2P, uses FireFox, turns on firewall, scans system w/ ad-aware and spybot. It's all good.
A couple Macs at work has NAV on them though, but they are multi-user systems, so it's for preventive purpose. I don't have it on mine.
Well unless I'm mistaken Virex only runs on startup and/or when you directly initiate it, by for example dropping a file on it to check for viruses, so I can't see how that could be a resource hog as some have stated here.
I have Virex and use it to check files that are sent to me in my mixed computing environment. To date I have had zip bad experiences, but its nice to know its there if the worst happens..
Vanilla
I have Virex and use it to check files that are sent to me in my mixed computing environment. To date I have had zip bad experiences, but its nice to know its there if the worst happens..
Vanilla
I used to use Norton when I was on the campus network because they gave it to us for free as students. Eventually, though, I figured out that it didn't actually do anything productive. All of our email is scanned for viruses and I use a firewall. There was never anything in the antivirus logs that Norton creates, so I decided to get rid of it and save the precious CPU cycles on my aging PowerBook.
neither
i don't use it on here mac or there mac. (if you don't get it, read the title of the thread...)
i don't use it on here mac or there mac. (if you don't get it, read the title of the thread...)
ok so you went out of( your) way to show me i made a typo. If you are going to reply to a thread and have to point out misspelled words then dont reply at all.
The use of Anti-Virus programs depend on how many Windows friends you have. I use Norton, only because at my work, there are a handful of windows users, and all of them got Blaster and the other worm. The program just sits on an external HDD, and whenever i need to use it (usually after a wintel virus has been announced) i pull it out of storage and use it, then it getrs condemned to the external HDD again.
I believe that the Anti-Virus programs are a good precaution, even though there are NO VIRUSES FOR MACS.
I believe that the Anti-Virus programs are a good precaution, even though there are NO VIRUSES FOR MACS.
in 6 years i have not installed a anti virus software and i get emails everyday from windows users. I'll never forget my friends pc i ran virus scan he had about 8,000 viruses.
Vanilla said:
open Activity Monitor and see the truth. and the worst part is the one that you can't see, the mess it makes of your filesystem. i've seen antivirus software toast more than one hard drive in my day. to each his own, but i stay away from this stuff.
tjwett said:
Well, kind of, and not really. Nope, not at all.........
We live in a windows world as far as the proliferation of viruses go. I have a Mac shop with 700 Mac's, including 150 wireless laptops for staff use, all running Panther. Know why I just bought AV for ALL of them? Years ago a pesky virus called Mellissa found it's way into our servers. I traced the original infected machine, but it was too late. Of course Mellissa is a Windows virus, BUT it certainly is a pain in the ass for Mac users as it screws up the "normal" template and re-infects everything that is created from that point on. And what it does is ONLY lets you open word docs in "read only", so users are forced to rename then delete the original, this ONLY after deleting the "normal" template and LOCKING it because a new document, once created, will itself become infected. So here I have hundreds of users... using e-mail... and sending docs to their contemporaries... who might use windows... some of whom WILL get infected with this virus. So in reality, there IS a Mac virus. Not as virulent as the latest 2 billion Windows viruses to be sure, but a virus nonetheless. I provide virus SW as a courtesy, and actually just purchased Kerio Mailserver (AWESOME product) that has built in AV from McAfee. And I HATE it when people say "Well, if their Windows users went to Mac" or "They should watch their own machines for viruses" because that would mean they don't understand the world of IT and their relationship to end-users, not to speak of the responsibility to the tech world in general.
Virex, like (my personal choice) Norton (Which ONLY has the app dragged to the HD and NEVER installed!) can be run manually, and no "valuable clock resources (?)" are used, and it does no harm unless you can please provide substantiated proof it does.
One other quick note: Mac can get and spread "macro" viruses, which are somewhat rare since new and more powerful virus abound now. Macs can't get trojans or ".pif" or ".scr" or ".exe" types. In my world I HAVE to provide some protection. As for a home Mac user? Nah, I wouldn't spend the money. paying 35 bucks a year for updates that can't harm a Mac is ludicrous. BUT, if I had a .Mac account, Virex is free and harmless.
well i was really referring to those people that leave this garbage running 24/7, allowing it to "scan" each and every bit of data being processed. i have a few neurotic clients that have rendered their HDs useless form this. i've seen Norton work it's magic and it's quite ugly. in your case, ok i can see the point of possibly letting outgoing docs pass through a virus scan but to run it on each and every machine seems over the top. also seems like it might be expensive, and time consuming for every file being sent out to the world to be scanned manually. unless it is "always on", in which case i'd again be worried about wasting CPU. different strokes i guess.
I really wish Apple would roll virus/spyware checking into OSX.
Why, you ask, when there aren't any known virii in the wild, and little spyware. Because that's precisely the time to do it. It seems many Mac users are worringly complacent about security (as, indeed, are Apple), and their confidence is missplaced.
The main reason the Mac is 'secure' is people haven't bothered to write virii/trojans/spyware for it. And that will change with the increasing number of developers coming to the platform - and especially if the Mac ever gains market share again.
Why, you ask, when there aren't any known virii in the wild, and little spyware. Because that's precisely the time to do it. It seems many Mac users are worringly complacent about security (as, indeed, are Apple), and their confidence is missplaced.
The main reason the Mac is 'secure' is people haven't bothered to write virii/trojans/spyware for it. And that will change with the increasing number of developers coming to the platform - and especially if the Mac ever gains market share again.
got Virex with my .Mac subsciption, installed it once to see it, removed it shortly after that and have yet to install it again. No need...
tjwett said:
B ut think about it... one of my users tries to send an infected file through the mail server. It's bounced, but it's an important document. Scan it, re-send, work not interrupted. Seeing that people have the tools and ability to be productive is my job here!
And the only time in 18 years I have seen messed up computers caused by an anti-virus app is when folks actually installed Norton under 9.2 and X, and it wasn't the SCAN for viruses that did it. Scans can't hurt, can they?
I use Virex for a number of reasons. All of the reasons deal with security I can not get around in my environment. The biggest two are:
1. I must have the most recent virus definitions to plug into many of the networks that I do as a Defense contractor. Without it, no dice.
2. If I pass on a virus that originated elsewhere, like a virus infecting a Word, Excel, etc. type file, I can be found financially liable. Not a fun proposition.
So, as others have mentioned, even though today's current virus infections may not affect a Mac, in a mixed computing environment where you could pass on the infection you should run some sort of protection.
1. I must have the most recent virus definitions to plug into many of the networks that I do as a Defense contractor. Without it, no dice.
2. If I pass on a virus that originated elsewhere, like a virus infecting a Word, Excel, etc. type file, I can be found financially liable. Not a fun proposition.
So, as others have mentioned, even though today's current virus infections may not affect a Mac, in a mixed computing environment where you could pass on the infection you should run some sort of protection.