mac Antivirus??

[AceOfBass]

Hey all,
I'll be getting a mac for my college comp in a few weeks and I'm wondering what antivirus program I should use if any? I know macs say they're more resiliant to virus attacks, but I'd just like to know for sure if the built in firewall is enough, and if not, what do most people use?

Ace

 

[soup4you2]

antivirus? whats that?

 

[psycoswimmer]

WIth the firewall on, and being smart when online, your Mac shouldn't become compromised. And from what I've heard, Norton for Mac really screws up your computer.

 

[Luis]

Just relax and use your computer. Viruses, trojans, spyware, malware. ***ware, etc won't bother you.

 

[MacBoobsPro]

I say this everytime but... DO NOT PUT NORTON ON YOUR MAC (or PC) it seriously spanners things up big time.

Until you hear about a virus on OSX I wouldnt worry about AntiVirus stuff. Its been 5 years without any nasties so when it does happen (and it will) it will be big news.

Ive never had AntiVirus software in ten years of Mac use and never had a problem.

 

[djstarrock]

Yes you don't need antivirus but you should really search next time there tons of these threads.

 

[FFTT]

I went through this crap last year when my daughter started at Va Tech.

The IT department sent out a general notice that all student computers
were required to use an A/V program to access the school's network.

They handed out free Norton CD's and not knowing any better, my daughter installed it.

While there was ZERO risk of anything harming her computer, it bogged down her iBook substantially and of course wasted limited HD space looking for
Windows viruses. Doh!

I told her to uninstall Nortons and she hasn't had a problem since then.

Like the others have said, there are numerous threads about this.

If you have extra money to spend on software, buy something you can use,
like Little Snitch (personal firewall ) or put it towards another application like MS Office.

 

[FrankBlack]

If you are using your mac on someone else's network, such as a college network, having an antivirus application installed is a matter of policy, and generally is not offered to you as a choice.

The Reviews for ClamXav are darn near 100% positive. It does the job, and it's free.

Read a little more about it at Apple's own Networking and security site

There is a pretty good discussion about this at Ted Landau's Macfixit site.

I will repeat what others have mentioned, because it bears repeating: Do not install Norton's anything! End of discussion. I'd also avoid McAffee's Virus Scan. This has been known to cause some serious issues.