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

New to Mac? Can someone suggest a free virus protection software?

olakthepolak

olakthepolak

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 25, 2008
17
0
I'm probably the most over protective person when it comes to electronics' I have a case, keyboard protector, trackpad protector, screen protector, and a bag.
Now despite all of the comments of how macs get little viruses or none, I really want some protection.
Can anyone help, now more than ever with that trojan going around!
Thanks,
ALEX
 
olakthepolak said:
I really want some protection.
Click to expand...

You are wise not to do it without some....err, I mean, ClamX AV is the best free AV I have found.

But its best if you don't have any AV programs. The performance of the computer really goes down. Besides, there are no viruses for the mac...yet.

The thing is, if you really want to be safe, don't download anything from sites you don't trust. And besides, trojans must have your permission to install anyway. So unless if you are really stupid, you can prevent trojans to install in the first place. Its just user stupidity that trojan/virus writers love.
 
Watabou said:
You are wise not to do it without some....err, I mean, ClamX AV is the best free AV I have found.

But its best if you don't have any AV programs. The performance of the computer really goes down. Besides, there are no viruses for the mac...yet.

The thing is, if you really want to be safe, don't download anything from sites you don't trust. And besides, trojans must have your permission to install anyway. So unless if you are really stupid, you can prevent trojans to install in the first place. Its just user stupidity that trojan/virus writers love.
Click to expand...
Can you elaborate why the performance goes down?
Also the main reason for all of this is my older brother doens't have his own comp and will be using mine for limewire, I fought with him now too, but he's 18 i'm 14 who do you think won?
 
olakthepolak said:
Can you elaborate why the performance goes down?
Click to expand...

Duff-Man says...in general terms, performance goes down because the anti-virus software is using system resources to scan everything that is going on with the computer.

If you don't want to bog down the computer too much but still want some piece of mind you can set ClamX to scan only certain folders - such as where all the downloads go to - and then periodically manually run a "full" scan.

Have a search through the forum - this is one of the most frequent topics that comes up from new Mac users - you'll see there is not too much to be concerned about, but not something to be totally ignored either...oh yeah!
 
olakthepolak said:
Can you elaborate why the performance goes down?
Also the main reason for all of this is my older brother doens't have his own comp and will be using mine for limewire, I fought with him now too, but he's 18 i'm 14 who do you think won?
Click to expand...

I have a Vista 64-bit machine as well as my Macs. When I tot up how many CPU cycles it spends updating virus signatures (which are always out of date of course, scanners can only check for yesterdays viruses), defender definitions, then running the actual virus and malware scans, et cetera, and then tot up how many CPU cycles I actually get to use, I start to wonder if it really is MY machine.
It is a joy to just turn on a Mac and use it myself, just me, doing my stuff! I'm so glad I switched a few years back.
My experience of virus scanners is that they range from an inconvenience to some that are downright intrusive. Safe practice is always preferable I think.

As for your situation:
Make sure that you set up separate accounts for you and your brother, he shouldn't object to that. If you can get away with it, make sure his is just a standard user, that may be a stretch if he's savvy though.

Limewire? Ouch. There goes safe practice. See if you can persuade him to run Limewire in a Virtual Machine. When it gets infected you can just restore a backup copy of the VM.

Do you have an external for Time Machine? If so, partition it, use Disk Utility to create a bootable clone of your system, and use a separate partition for Time Machine. You then have lots of restore options should something go wrong. You can immediately boot into the clone, and restore differences from TM, then wipe the infected drive and copy the new version back. Or you could just do a TM re-install, but an immediately bootable backup partition is nice.
One of the great advantages of Mac over PC is this potential speed of recovery, especially if you're well prepared.
 
Thank you everyone i'll look deeper into the partitioning business.
Otherwise, I'll try to force my brother to use limewire on my apartment building's office computers XD'
Thanks again,
ALEX

PS: If someone could be very helpful and list any virus names for the Mac ex: "newpics.tgz" So I can avoid downloading them.
 
stop

olakthepolak said:
Thank you everyone i'll look deeper into the partitioning business.
Otherwise, I'll try to force my brother to use limewire on my apartment building's office computers XD'
Thanks again,
ALEX

PS: If someone could be very helpful and list any virus names for the Mac ex: "newpics.tgz" So I can avoid downloading them.
Click to expand...

There aren't any, not even from limewire.

1) you don't need AV on a mac, 2) stop using Limewire. You're asking for nothing but trouble.
 
mgclayton said:
Limewire? Ouch. There goes safe practice. See if you can persuade him to run Limewire in a Virtual Machine. When it gets infected you can just restore a backup copy of the VM.
Click to expand...

That makes no sense, as Limewire is already slow enough as it is, and running it in a virtual machine will only make it even slower. Besides, there are no Mac OS X viruses (although it is quite easy to make them) that are disguised as media files you'd typically download from Limewire. If you're good at pattern recognition, it becomes trivial to spot fake files on the Gnutella network (which Limewire uses). I haven't downloaded another fake file, virus or otherwise, in the three years since I first downloaded one.

Also, don't bother with Limewire; just use Frostwire. It's a free clone that doesn't nag you about getting Limewire Pro until you pirate it just to get rid of that stupid nag screen.

If your brother wants to steal your computer to use Limewire, just let him download whatever viruses he wants to put on his (presumably) Windows machine. Serves him right for not knowing how to tell the difference and for taking over your computer.
 
m1ss1ontomars said:
That makes no sense, as Limewire is already slow enough as it is, and running it in a virtual machine will only make it even slower. Besides, there are no Mac OS X viruses (although it is quite easy to make them) that are disguised as media files you'd typically download from Limewire. If you're good at pattern recognition, it becomes trivial to spot fake files on the Gnutella network (which Limewire uses). I haven't downloaded another fake file, virus or otherwise, in the three years since I first downloaded one.

Also, don't bother with Limewire; just use Frostwire. It's a free clone that doesn't nag you about getting Limewire Pro until you pirate it just to get rid of that stupid nag screen.

If your brother wants to steal your computer to use Limewire, just let him download whatever viruses he wants to put on his (presumably) Windows machine. Serves him right for not knowing how to tell the difference and for taking over your computer.
Click to expand...

So is Frostwire a good program for those uses, is it also a torrent client?
 
You seriously need to stop worrying.
You do not need to concern yourself with antivirus or anything of the sort.

As for limewire, dont use it.
Whose computer is it? Yours entirely? If so, lock your brother out by password protecting your account.

If youre set on downloading stuff, use bittorrents. Its much easier (in my opinion) and much safer.


And many bittorent clients use very little resources, such as transmission.
 
olakthepolak said:
So is Frostwire a good program for those uses, is it also a torrent client?
Click to expand...

Frostwire will do anything Limewire does, except continuously nagging you to buy the Pro version. Yes, it does BitTorrent, but you might as well use Transmission; it's much better.
 
Limewire is for perverts and werido's I hate the pile of crap. The amount of computers I have to fix which have become infected due to that piece of crap.
 
when i had my mac mini i use to use limewire all the time and then one day when i tried to turn on my computer it wouldnt past the first screen...i took it to the mac store and they told me its done..and it would cost more to fix than to buy a new one...they told me the reason was limewire because it was creating mulitpul files or something like that i have no clue at first i thought they were just telling me that so i can stop using limewire and start using itunes but the same thing happen to my friend computer...so i got the new imac 24in :) and just been downloading torrent files and everything seems to be fine....in short...limewire sucks
 
to tell u guys the truth i had limwire, but after reading this thread i decided to erase limwire from my mac.

thanks for the everything
 
mac.pablo said:
to tell u guys the truth i had limwire, but after reading this thread i decided to erase limwire from my mac.

thanks for the everything
Click to expand...

I honestly didn't know anyone still used it
Limewire = trouble

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
 
MacDawg said:
I honestly didn't know anyone still used it
Limewire = trouble

Woof, Woof - Dawg
pawprint.gif
Click to expand...

I still use it. Maybe once every 6 months perhaps.

Thing is, i've been using it for years, and before I discovered torrents I used it regularly. It never screwed up my system nor did I get any trojans or anything of the kind.

This makes me think it's user ignorance behind it all, not the application. ;)

However, I also would recommend you don't use it. People do the silliest things with it. (143kb .zip file pretending to be a song you want and you download it?)
 
so would everyone suggest for my brother to **** off and use torrent clients, is transmission the best. And torrents are the safest because you see the file your downloading first correct?
 
olakthepolak said:
so would everyone suggest for my brother to **** off and use torrent clients, is transmission the best. And torrents are the safest because you see the file your downloading first correct?
Click to expand...

No, you can use Frostwire or Limewire just as well; I do that, and like I said, I haven't downloaded a fake file since I first downloaded one on accident 3 years ago. Torrents are safer because people don't upload virus-laden stuff as often, which shouldn't even matter if you're smart. You can see the file you're downloading with Frostwire/Limewire too.

And our suggestions about your brother may not be applicable to you; that's something you really have to come up with on your own.

Osarkon said:
I still use it. Maybe once every 6 months perhaps.

Thing is, i've been using it for years, and before I discovered torrents I used it regularly. It never screwed up my system nor did I get any trojans or anything of the kind.

This makes me think it's user ignorance behind it all, not the application. ;)

However, I also would recommend you don't use it. People do the silliest things with it. (143kb .zip file pretending to be a song you want and you download it?)
Click to expand...

EXACTLY. If the user is an idiot, he or she will get a virus anyway; P2P apps like Limewire always take the blame for something that's not their fault. Goodness, Limewire is just a client for the Gnutella file-sharing network; how come we don't blame the Gnutella network as a whole or the clients that upload to you?

I really don't understand how people manage to download fake files. They're not even named anything like what you're looking for, and the file sizes make no sense.
 
Well my brother nor I no Howw to check what file were downloading off limewire, help?
 
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