FREE Mac anti-trojans/virus Tools?

[UltraNEO*]

I know the odds of having a actual active trojan or even a virus on a Mac is practically zero! However, we all do install stuff on our machines and who knows, perhaps something might found it's way and attached itself to something we already use? If you know what I mean...

Still.. are there any such tools you fold like to recommend for peace of mind? Recently I've been getting loads of odd emails from my OWN email address and everyone of them is spam. This got me thinking, could there be something on my system that shouldn't be there?

At the moment I'm looking at MacScan 2.5 does anyone recommend it?
I've also looked at free ClamXav but i'm searching for a virus - it doesn't search entire drives just folders... On the PC front i'm using free AVG cause my Nod32 expired.. lol

Ideally something 'x-platform' would be great, as I (like so many) have a Windows bootcamp partition on the boot drive - we don't need some malicious attack, while i'm working.... argh.. that would be horrible!

 

[richard.mac]

ive heard iffy things about MacScan and its generally regarded around here that norton does more harm than good on a Mac. i would go with ClamXav as ive never heard anything bad about it. but i would recommend not using an antivirus scanner at all. but if you feel more comfortable using an anti virus scanner then by all means install one.

… Still.. are there any such tools you fold like to recommend for peace of mind? Recently I've been getting loads of odd emails from my OWN email address and everyone of them is spam. This got me thinking, could there be something on my system that shouldn't be there? …

getting spam has nothing to do with which OS you use. do you type you email address in public on the internet or sign up to a lot of memberships with the same email? thats probably the culprit.

 

[UltraNEO*]

Nah.. i don't use my email for much.. just exchanges with friends.
Perhaps one of them have some mail-trojan on their pc?

 

[merc669]

Norton does more harm than good on a PC running Windows. And its written for it! Its a gross memory hog and I would never suggest buying Norton for even my PC friends.....

Bill......

 

[UltraNEO*]

Hmm.. Err, without trashing Windows. I don't think Windows doesn't do itself much good when left connected to the internet without any protection or a firewall What was Microsoft thinking when they built windows?

 

[iBlue]

...What was Microsoft thinking when they built windows?

$

 

[pastrychef]

I've been using Mac for years and have yet to install any anti-virus software. Until any real viruses (not proofs of concept) appear for Macs, I don't need anything to bog down my system.

 

[UltraNEO*]

I've been using Mac for years and have yet to install any anti-virus software. Until any real viruses (not proofs of concept) appear for Macs, I don't need anything to bog down my system.

I've not installed any yet..
but there's no harm looking and reading between the lines, right?



I've a perfectly good reason for this thread... As couple of days a go, someone here erased their entire HD cause they were infected with a PC virus on their boot-camp partition.. Now, unless things have changed in recent months, I know PC viruses and Trojans have absolutely no affect on the OSX itself, and they can't attach or affect the Mac's OS this is due cause the code/application simply doesn't run or execute. Correct?

But what happens if your running something like CrossOver? And the windows Trojan was a bottle?

 

[speakerwizard]

a virus even with crossover wouldnt do anything, as everything it looks for to do harm just isnt there, also with a virtual machine it would just stay contained in the virtual machine, as with bootcamp, but leopard can now repartition without the need to delete a whole drive. dont worry about viruses with the mac side of things just don't download any .exe files on the mac and then put them on to widows just to be safe as you wont know its malicious until its into windows.

 

[Tonerl]

Windows and Viruses, etc

Windows was originally written for stand-alone PCs because access to the Internet at that time was very difficult (it became easy when Tim Berners-Lee invented the Web). Hacking a PC thus required physical access. When the Web became available, MS did nothing to secure its OS and that remained the case up to and including Windows ME. That failure was bad enough but it affected the consumer line.

In the meantime, MS had produced the NT line of Windows, which was developed to be more secure. However, once MS decided to have only one Windows line, which resulted in XP. The compromises required to let games software & other badly-written programs run on an NT platform led to the security problems that XP became infamous for. That failure was, frankly, inexcusable.

Even Vista has its compliment of compromises.

The only way to get a secure Windows version is to start from scratch and let the games firms either write properly or lose market share.

Apple got that right.

 

[pastrychef]

Just install anti-virus software on your Bootcamp partition and hope that it works.

As for Crossover, speakerwizard is right.

 

[UltraNEO*]

Thanks everyone..
Hope this thread will be of some uses to newly switched users.

Please continue to contribute.

 

[UltraNEO*]

a virus even with crossover wouldnt do anything, as everything it looks for to do harm just isnt there, also with a virtual machine it would just stay contained in the virtual machine, as with bootcamp, but leopard can now repartition without the need to delete a whole drive.

I think it's rather odd that some people are having problems repartitioning their drive, even after they've supposedly deleted windows.. Yet we're all running the same base software..

I honestly don't know what they're doing.. For me, when windows screws up, i just format it's partition as if it's a PC and reinstall.. Yet some noobs format the entire Mac partition too...

dont worry about viruses with the mac side of things just don't download any .exe files on the mac and then put them on to widows just to be safe as you wont know its malicious until its into windows.

True...
I ain't worried about viruses on the Mac side, that's the beauty of Mac.
Often, any .exe's that appear on the mac end up in the trash...