Which Anti-virus should I get?

[balamw]

Pssh... if the user disables AV then they're vulnerable to more than just your Mac. And I have no problem with AV running on the Windows computers. My point is merely that there is no net increase in security by virtue of the Mac having AV.

FWIW I still see some Macro viruses embedded in old Office documents that need to be cleand up or at least not retransmitted, so even when you're not dealing with EXEs AV, can be useful when you are sharing files with vulnerable Windows systems...

Aslo, on our systems at work, you can't disable Norton w/o an admin password for the Symantec Corporate server. (i.e. it's not enough to be an admin on the box).

B

 

[neoserver]

I do totally understand. That's why I started by suggesting Clam. It's free, it's written by open-source programmers, so it's relatively well behaved, unlike commercial solutions. And it's gaining more and more ground.

I'll end up using it because I appreciate OSS and the fact that its free.

 

[suneohair]

or i'm downloading something for a friend.

That friend would get the virus if he downloaded, regardless. A Mac does not spread viruses. Yes they can sit on the hard drive of a Mac, but thats it.

If you download that file and it has a virus. If your friend has AV it will clean that file or tell you that it cant be cleaned. If he decided to use that file anyway, he is going to spread the virus to whomever isnt protected. That is not the Macs fault, but the fault of the PC user.

The reason behind a school requiring AV is to prevent viruses spreading and ***** up the network. I remember the I-Love-You-Bug when I was in school. Everyone who didnt patch(just about everyone) was spreading it around and took down many computers and part of the campus network.

Any Macs would have been chugging along all the same, and would have had ZERO involvement with the spreading.

 

[suneohair]

I will also add this. If I was going to a Uni that told me to get AV I would tell them to shove it.

One of the reasons I buy a Mac is so that I dont have to deal with viruses and other garbage.

I WILL NOT pay for the pitfalls of Windows and idiot PC users. That is what I would tell them. And if they deny me internet I would most assuredely take it to someone higher than IT.

Even if they were willing to buy the AV, i dont want that sh*t on my system. It's intrusive and slows down the computer. I am referring to Norton at least, i dont know about ClamAV.

 

[Sun Baked]

I;ll probably just go with ClamXav just to save myself the trouble of getting in an argument with the sysadmins.

Just look at the MacFixIt link in this thread for a quick rundown of the various viri and the problems you can expect with each.

If they accept it, use it -- but some of the more well known ones will cause some problems if you are forced to use those.

Price of playing on someone else's network.

 

[FFTT]

You only need to load A/V software if you are running a Windows partition ONLINE

In that case, I would use McAfee over Norton.

I've run Mac OSX since it was a tiny Jaguar cub and used Virex 7.2
and I have never once found a virus or any malware on my system.
Through Panther and now with Tiger nothing.

A Windows Virus CAN NOT affect your system. And there are ZERO "effective" or "self replicating" Mac OSX viruses. ZERO
Nothing can be loaded on your system without adminstrative authorization.
If you run a secondary Super User account for all your daily functions, nothing
can be installed on your system if you restrict that secondary account.

You must approve ANY installation by either being logged on as administrator
for drag installs, or you must enter your administrative password.

The ONLY reason at all for any A/V software on your system is to prevent you from sending a corrupted file or e-mail from one Windows user to another through your system.

If you are foolish enough to download files from an unknown source,
mainly P2P servers, and you install a corrupted program using your password, then yes you might eventually end up with a sudo trojan.

So to summarize, you don't need A/V to protect your system, but you are not completely immune if you are careless.

clamXav should do the trick to appease the school admins, but they do need to
brush up on their knowledge.

 

[Micrll]

Well, I have to ask this again. Do they physically check your machine? MY school uses a cisco clean access agent to get on the school network it requires that you have all the security patches and a uptodate virus scanner of their choosing, luckly they pay for it otherwise the client will not let you on the network. However this is ONLY for windows machines. (sadly I am using one as my desktop hope to buy a merom blackbook soon )

Someone brought their mac laptop into the IT area, where I was getting a network cable at the time. They pluged it into the network and instantly they were connected, the IT person disconneded it after going to google to make sure the connection worked then handed it back to the girl and said done, she was supprised, they said that the macs "just work on our network" what they must have done is set the servers to automatically accept apple MAC addresses.

So perhaps this is the same for you but sadly it sounds not.

 

[Oryan]

I highly recommend DNT-AV.

 

[bigrell486]

My school also "requires" an Anti-Virus for mac users but I don't use one cause I don't need it. They can't kick you off the network simply because they don't have the proprietary set-up *cough* spy-ware *cough* software for Mac as they do Windows that checks for Antivirus.

In fact I installed XP under bootcamp a few hours ago and have yet to install the virus software and I can browse the web perfectly fine.

So why you fear the wrath of the schools IT department is beyond me; you don't need any virus software for Mac OS X.

 

[bousozoku]

...
In fact I installed XP under bootcamp a few hours ago and have yet to install the virus software and I can browse the web perfectly fine.
...

So, what happens when you have a Windows virus and it takes over your computer?

 

[bigrell486]

So, what happens when you have a Windows virus and it takes over your computer?

Wow buddy, first off, I never said I wouldn't, I said I have yet to do so. Secondly, I only mentioned it to let the OP know that you don't absolutely have to have the virus software installed to access the Campus network.

 

[bousozoku]

Wow buddy, first off, I never said I wouldn't, I said I have yet to do so. Secondly, I only mentioned it to let the OP know that you don't absolutely have to have the virus software installed to access the Campus network.

Well, wow, buddy, you're putting everyone else at risk when you run Windows without anti-virus software using Bootcamp.

Mac OS X doesn't need anti-virus software at this point but running Windows on Apple hardware isn't any safer than running it on HP or Dell hardware.

 

[FFTT]

When you run a Windows partition, you are running a native windows computer limited to the size of your partition.

It is every bit as vulnerable as any other Windows computer.

You might be less vulnerable if you are only connecting to a known secure
network, but the first second you go on the world wide web, you're
a sitting duck.

 

[dpaanlka]

Yes they do. They do it when setting up for access to the Res network.

As to ClamXav, that might be a nice solution. It would probably satisfy their desires to run a clean ship.

plus its free

I can almost guarantee they don't check your computer before giving you access to the school network. We have the same silly warnings here like "you cannot access the network until you first install anti-virus" - but unless they're going to physically come to your dorm or wherever you live and make you turn on your computer and show them you have anti-virus (which no large campus is going to do) they don't really have any way to detect whether or not your Mac has anti-virus software.

Pretty much none of the Mac users here at Bradley University ever pay attention to what the stupid tech department here says, especially regarding antivirus.

 

[dextertangocci]

I agree withe the above post. Do you honestly think they will come check your computer to see if you have anti virus software? And even if you don't have anti virus software, do you think they will even do anything about it...

 

[Neonguy]

There isn't a lot of Virus protection software for the Mac because you don't really need it, and I havent seen a Mac virus yet but I think it's not 100% proof. It still exist, just a very small percentage. But whatever you decided to get, do not get Norton! It will screw your computer bad and it a CPU hog!

 

[dpaanlka]

There isn't a lot of Virus protection software for the Mac because you don't really need it, and I havent seen a Mac virus yet but I think it's not 100% proof. It still exist, just a very small percentage.

¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿??????????

Where do all you people keep getting this "small percentage" nonsense from?

Zero is not a small percentage, it is zero.

It still exist

Not for OS X it doesn't.

 

[bousozoku]

There isn't a lot of Virus protection software for the Mac because you don't really need it, and I havent seen a Mac virus yet but I think it's not 100% proof. It still exist, just a very small percentage. But whatever you decided to get, do not get Norton! It will screw your computer bad and it a CPU hog!

There are zero Mac OS X viruses. Zero viruses exist. Shall I say it another way?

There are exploits available but they do not work on their own.

 

[Neonguy]

I just heard from people a very small percentage or maybe one claiming they got a virus on the email attachtment. Some kind of word document. Heard it was on MacOS X. Don't know if it BS or not.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

I just heard from people a very small percentage or maybe one claiming they got a virus on the email attachtment. Some kind of word document. Heard it was on MacOS X. Don't know if it BS or not.

That sounds like a Word/Office macro "virus", which any Office since 97 or 99 should be immune against... unless you do something stupid, like turning off the protection against macro viruses, deep in the Office preferences...

They only affect Office documents, and tend to "infect" the normal.dot file or similar, and may be passed on to Windows users, but are - in them self - harmless on Macs.

Who the frell uses macros in Word documents, anyway...?

 

[MacBoobsPro]

They give out Norton for the Windows PCs. but i'd have to wait for them to order Norton for mac. which I don't want to do.

DO NOT go near Norton!

It has spannered every Mac I was forced to use it on.

Virus Barrier from Intego works very well but I dont use it anymore because the subscription ended and its not worth the money for obvious reasons. I dont know if its available on Intel though?

 

[MacBoobsPro]

The anti-virus software the school wants him to get is to not only protect his machine, but others on the nework. Macs can still spread PC viruses.

But if all the PCs have protection it doesnt matter

EDIT: I now see this has been covered in more detail in earlier posts I just had to jump in didnt I?

 

[Chundles]

I just heard from people a very small percentage or maybe one claiming they got a virus on the email attachtment. Some kind of word document. Heard it was on MacOS X. Don't know if it BS or not.

Probably an old macro virus that would have no effect on the system, old and crap. Office has been protecting itself against these sort of things for ages.

There are ZERO viruses for Mac OSX. None whatsoever. None at all, zip, zilch, S.F.A. No Mac OSX viruses exist.

 

[Porco]

You could argue that Mac OS X is anti-virus software itself

 

[sunfast]

i dont know where you go to school, but on campus here you are made to have a virus scanner, but since they force you to have a virus scanner they also HAVE TO provide it for you.

call your ITS at school and see which one they are going to give you, and if they refuse to give you one, then you have the right to refuse to purchase one. thats one reason you bought a mac im sure

This was the case at my university and they gave us all some corporate version of norton.