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some antivirus advice please...

C

cane creek

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 22, 2008
50
0
Middlesbrough , UK
My new mac pro 8 core will arrive this monday it will be my first mac and i have never used one before.

will i need Antivirus software ?

if so which do you advise ?

will i need a firewall ? ill be using wireless.
 
No anti virus is needed. Just common sense.
OS X's own firewall will be fine.
In 10 years of having a Mac connected to the internet (with a firewall for 5 years) I've never had any problems.
 
This gets asked a lot around here.

Basically, all that anti-virus software will do right now is slow down your system. Macs aren't bullet-proof, but right now there are no viruses for them.

Some people say get 'ClamXav' as a free, light-weight virus checker, but honestly you'll be fine without.

Enjoy the Mac Pro! :)
 
i know it can sound weird coming from windows, but you really dont need it. I hav been running osx for years now without antivirus softwre, on a broadband connection, with NO problems!:)
 
I have a 1999 PB g3 that has been faithful for all those years with no know viruses on it...can say the same for my dead self-built PC with major costly virus protection on it and very sick from being infected...go figure!

Anyway, I remember an old freeware program that I use to use for a safety net called Disinfectant. Is it still in use?
 
I've been using OSX since it was a Public Beta sold by Apple, and I've never ran Virus software, and never had any Viri or problems. Even before the built in Apple firewall.

If you have a separate drive for running a version of windows in Boot-Camp I would get some protection for that, and if I were running parallels I might think about having some kind of protection, but for OS X you just don't need it.
 
I personally come from a Linux background myself so maybe this is bad advice for a Mac. But the only use I have ever found for virus software is to keep my windows friends safe from email worms and whatnot. However even at that point there is little to NO need for virus protection under either Mac or Linux.

There are only a handful of Mac virii about, and I know of none that exist in the wild. Much like the handful of Linux virii, I would imagine that you would have to go to great lengths to infect yourself - the ones I know of are rather old and most likely pretty useless at this point.
 
JesterDev said:
There are only a handful of Mac virii about
Click to expand...

There aren't any Mac viruses.

Needless to say, there are some programs that you can download, open, give your password to and then they might theoretically do something to your machine (go figure), and they're the sort of trojans that you would only get after sneaking around on pr0n sites, anyway.
 
Anti-virus protection?

I've read a lot of these replies, but I still have a question. I have a PowerMac G3. It came with Virex, but when it expired, I did not renew it. At this point, about 3 years later, I wonder if I should put some antivirus protection on it. I keep reading articles that as Apple computers are becoming more popular, there is more chance of getting a virus. I know on most of these posts, everyone said that you didn't need anything; I was wondering since my Mac is older, does that make a difference? I'll appreciate any advice that you can give me. I have over 2,000 pictures on my Mac that I don't know how to back up, so I'll be devastated if I lose my pictures! It will do CDs and DVD's, but I just don't know how to use this feature. As you can see, I need all the advice that I can get! I am older, a retired teacher who learned on a Mac; I also bought a Sony laptop, but PC's just confuse me. Thank you.
 
ldouthit said:
I've read a lot of these replies, but I still have a question. I have a PowerMac G3. It came with Virex, but when it expired, I did not renew it. At this point, about 3 years later, I wonder if I should put some antivirus protection on it. I keep reading articles that as Apple computers are becoming more popular, there is more chance of getting a virus. I know on most of these posts, everyone said that you didn't need anything; I was wondering since my Mac is older, does that make a difference? I'll appreciate any advice that you can give me. I have over 2,000 pictures on my Mac that I don't know how to back up, so I'll be devastated if I lose my pictures! It will do CDs and DVD's, but I just don't know how to use this feature. As you can see, I need all the advice that I can get! I am older, a retired teacher who learned on a Mac; I also bought a Sony laptop, but PC's just confuse me. Thank you.
Click to expand...

Don't worry about the anti-virus right now, but do get those pictures backed up! The easiest way might be to get a 2GB flash drive (less than $20 shipped) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820178085 and copy the pictures on there. Once they are on there, you can attach the flash drive to your laptop and keep a backup copy there too.
 
cane creek said:
My new mac pro 8 core will arrive this monday it will be my first mac and i have never used one before.

will i need Antivirus software ?

if so which do you advise ?

will i need a firewall ? ill be using wireless.
Click to expand...

There are few Mac specific viruses right now, so AV probably isn't necessary at the moment. Though as Apple's market share increases, so will the threats, so be cautious and stay informed on security. As it stands right now, half the Mac faithful will be caught with their pants around their ankles in the distant future unless Apple decides to permanently embed an AV in their OS in the future (and I'm guessing they will).

Apple's firewall is good enough, coupled with your network's hardware firewall.
 
ldouthit said:
I've read a lot of these replies, but I still have a question. I have a PowerMac G3. It came with Virex, but when it expired, I did not renew it. At this point, about 3 years later, I wonder if I should put some antivirus protection on it. I keep reading articles that as Apple computers are becoming more popular, there is more chance of getting a virus. I know on most of these posts, everyone said that you didn't need anything; I was wondering since my Mac is older, does that make a difference? I'll appreciate any advice that you can give me. I have over 2,000 pictures on my Mac that I don't know how to back up, so I'll be devastated if I lose my pictures! It will do CDs and DVD's, but I just don't know how to use this feature. As you can see, I need all the advice that I can get! I am older, a retired teacher who learned on a Mac; I also bought a Sony laptop, but PC's just confuse me. Thank you.
Click to expand...

I agree with eyecool. There's no need to run any anti-virus software at this time. All the talk about Macs being targeted more due to its increased popularity almost always originate from people who stand to profit from anti-virus software.

eyecool's recommendation to backup your pictures is a good one. If you'd like to backup to CD/DVDs, the following are links to some freeware apps that help with that.

http://simplyburns.berlios.de/

http://www.hernansoft.com/downloads_en.html

http://folderburner.netfirms.com/
 
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