Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Macs, viruses and fixing them on a budget ($0)

W

win_convert

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 12, 2004
98
0
Aus.
You may have picked up from my other posts, but I am a windows user looking to switch later on in the year. Are there any free to use/download, free to update and reliable virus checkers for macintosh? I have tried several sites and have only found norton updates.

Also, if I am looking to buy in nov/december, would I be better to get a 14" ibook or a 12" powerbook considering I am a student with a budget of about AUD$3500.

thanks alot.
 
their out there but im not sure you need one. i havent used a virus protection program since....maybe 1990. its not really necessary for the mac. now that i said that, maybe i should look into it.

seriously though, viruses arent really an issue with macs. the creator of the virus would spend a lot of time but only infecting a small user base.
 
Well, if you sign up for a .Mac account ($99) you get Virex for 'free'. It's slow as all heck, but I feel like I only need to run it about once a month (overnight) at the very most. It cleared up a MS Word macro virus problem I was having.

Otherwise, you really don't need to be too concerned with viruses.
 
beatle888 said:
their out there but im not sure you need one. i havent used a virus protection program since....maybe 1990. its not really necessary for the mac. now that i said that, maybe i should look into it.

seriously though, viruses arent really an issue with macs. the creator of the virus would spend a lot of time but only infecting a small user base.
Click to expand...


It's not necessary as far as your personal system (usually) but you can still pass them on to pc users through emails. That being said I don't normally use one but about once a month.
 
win_convert said:
Also, if I am looking to buy in nov/december, would I be better to get a 14" ibook or a 12" powerbook considering I am a student with a budget of about AUD$3500.
Click to expand...

Right now, I have a maxed out (memory wise) 14" ibook 933 that runs a little faster than my friends 12" pb, but the pb has options that make it worth the while. I would wait until you are ready (if you can avoid the itch) and see what systems are available at that time to decide. Surely Apple will update by then.
 
win_convert said:
Also, if I am looking to buy in nov/december, would I be better to get a 14" ibook or a 12" powerbook considering I am a student with a budget of about AUD$3500.
thanks alot.
Click to expand...

iBooks or 12" pb's may not exist nov/dec 2004. keep checking the buyers guide to watch the update cycles. it may be worth waiting until january to see what comes out at macworld. G5 powerbooks might be announced at wwdc in june or macworld in january anything could happen to the G4 lineup then. see what's happening when you are ready to buy. check out cworld for cheap ram (a lot cheaper than apple)
 
mac virus freeware

hey win_convert

there's shareware and freeware out there for mac viruses, and some have demos or "evaluation copies" (if you're swank :cool: ).

was just looking for the same stuff myself -- just d/l'd one from sophos, a 30-day trial available for mac os x ad below. no idea how good it'll be -- better not be some fancy tour! you can find old freeware too, but this one seemed both recent and os x-compatible. just google mac os x freeware virus utility...

cheers
*deriviative*
 
There are no viruses that affect mac osx

I'm not sure about macro stuff because i don't use any m$ stuff

all virex picked up from me was an email atachment with some windows virus
 
viruses are no problem, if you have a decent ISP they will screen windows viruses in email... but who cares about that.

I run firewalls, just because i can and its just to stop malicious trojans (i got one years ago when using os 9).

Most people just go through their everyday life with nothing and they do fine, all i recommend is screen cookies on web browsers manually... but thats just me and old habits die hard
 
it's not necessary to have anti-virus protection, but there are some things to watch out for. if you are on a pc network you can be a typhoid mary with microsoft documents if they are infected you can use them without issue, but may pass on viruses to your mates. and the usual rules with email apply no .pif files, or executables to your friends unless your sure the files are safe. otherwise the last major virus outbreak on macs was about 5 years ago with the autostart virus, and all it did was replicate small files, eventually filling your harddrive, not a biggy if you catch it.

you'll love mac - no outlook viruses, that's the best part.

happy computing.
 
I agree with everyone else -- you won't really have to worry about viruses.

However, if you still want to run AV software, another option is to check at your school -- most schools will give AV software for free, both PC and Mac users. My school has a deal with McAfee. I know of many schools with Norton Deals.

About the iBook vs. PowerBook, that's a tougher question. Cosmetic issues are the biggest differences if you don't use some of the advanced features of the PB -- DVD Burning, DVI out, etc. I personally like the keyboard on the PB much more than the iBook keyboard. There are small differences like that. I don't think you'll notice a speed difference if you are just surfing and typing papers -- but I've never used an iBook for an extended amount of time.
 
Powerbook G5's

win_convert said:
Also, if I am looking to buy in nov/december, would I be better to get a 14" ibook or a 12" powerbook
Click to expand...

Chances are that by november/december, there should be Powerbook G5's. Jobs said that he'd like to have them out by the end of this year. I don't know about the ibooks, but it's almost certain that they wont be G5's anytime soon. From there it's a matter of what you'd need your 'book for.
 
"Nope" could mean anything :rolleyes:

The memory is the same as "PC RAM". However, cheap stuff will likely cause crashes, just like it does on Windows. I learned my lesson when I bought cheap stuff, now I only buy Samsung (which is what Apple ships with their systems). I've heard that Crucial works well too.
 
Applespider wrote: I've got .mac and Virex but when running it the other night it did pick up a possible infection. But although it cleans/deletes it, I couldn't find a way to find out what it was to try to figure out how it got onto my machine. Is there a way?
Click to expand...

mac/pc compatibility in recent years has opened the way to cross-contamination, but not cross-infection... such as, if you're running a windows environment on your mac, like virtual pc, then yes, a pc virus can get through -- but i don't think it affects the whole system -- maybe just a partition -- i don't run it myself. as mentioned, there are also email viruses. my old mac ran eudora, and when i rec'd an email attachment with an infected .exe attachment, it didn't infect my mac, but did damage a couple of eudora's mailboxes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back