I have a cable connection which is connected to a route then to my Mac mini and a PC. What are the chances of sending a virus from my Mac mini to the PC and vice versa. I don't share any files, but I do tranfer music files between the two.
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- Thread starter Tuned MP5T
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There are so many variables, its hard to answer this question. Is it possible? Yes.Tuned MP5T said:
Generally speaking, slim. PC viruses won't do anything on OS X. I'm willing to bet you're pretty safe, provided you have an antivirus configured and running on your PC.
I'm in the same boat so I got antivirus for both the Macs and the PC but looking back, it's kind of unnecessary. I'm pretty sure Norton does jack-all. 
I know Macs are capable of carrying viruses to Windows without having them affect the Mac in any way, but I'm just taking the risk now. After two years of solid file transferring between the two platforms, I've only had the PC fall three times and there's really no way of telling if that was any fault of file transferring or just the internet.
I know Macs are capable of carrying viruses to Windows without having them affect the Mac in any way, but I'm just taking the risk now. After two years of solid file transferring between the two platforms, I've only had the PC fall three times and there's really no way of telling if that was any fault of file transferring or just the internet.
I actually have Norton Corp. Edition on my PC as well as Zone Alarm Firewall. I don't have any anti-virus on my Mac but do have the Firewall turned on.
Viruses are typically transmitted via e-mail, so unless you're e-mailing between the two machines, the chances of a virus moving from one machine to the other are almost nil. Add to that the fact that a PC virus probably won't infect a Mac, and vice versa, and I'd say you're pretty safe.
The same is true for worms, which don't require e-mail... again, a worm that works on a PC isn't going to work on a Mac, and vice versa.
Just make sure that your router's firewall is running and configured properly, and make sure that your service packs are all up-to-date on both the Mac and the PC (I assume it's running Windows XP SP-2), and you should be cool.
Oh, and back up your data on a regular basis.
The same is true for worms, which don't require e-mail... again, a worm that works on a PC isn't going to work on a Mac, and vice versa.
Just make sure that your router's firewall is running and configured properly, and make sure that your service packs are all up-to-date on both the Mac and the PC (I assume it's running Windows XP SP-2), and you should be cool.
Oh, and back up your data on a regular basis.