The Official Mac AntiVirus and Firewall FAQ

now if only neooffice as as powerful as MS office in things like excel... then i would be happy to use it.

Mathiau said:

now if only neooffice as as powerful as MS office in things like excel... then i would be happy to use it.

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If more businesses donated to them, soon OpenOffice.org (and thus NeoOffice), could become just as powerful, if not more powerful, than MS Office. And then they'd never have to deal with buying thousands of silly licenses from MS anymore... Sadly, they only look for quick returns instead of long-term goals like that.

Anyway, I've never found it to be less powerful. I'm sure a real expert user of MS Office would find a lot of things lacking, but I don't. It's been great for all my university work, and ironically, my "PowerPoint" presentations prepared with NeoOffice have been the only ones that haven't had compatibility issues when my seminar was giving presentations last semester.

I was about to ask about MS Office since I might use it.

So disable macros and that takes care of that.

I have to say I'm impressed at Microsoft's ability to even mess up a Mac. (that's what the poster from the above link claimed anyway) Though the worst it did was have someone reinstall Office...

Sorry if this has been asked already - searched this thread without success - if you load Parallels or VMware to run WinXP on your mac, I assume you need all of the protection (antivirus, spyware, etc) as if you were on a pc...is this correct? Thanks.

Well on your XP you will. Your copy of XP is just as vulnerable to viruses as any other PC. However, your OS X will still be completely fine. You don't have to worry about your OS X being messed up at all even if you get a virus on your XP partition.

In my opinion, other than the normal antivirus software on your XP partition, the best way to take care of this would be not to download or surf the internet on your XP. Whenever I need the internet, I just go back to OS X, and if I need to download something for my Windows, I download it in OS X and scan it with ClamXav in OS X, so nothing with viruses can get onto Windows. If you absolutely need to use the internet/download something in XP, just be careful and use your standard cautions.

Kuwisdelu said:

susanna said:

I tried following the thread, but so far could not find the right answer I was looking for... I just bought my MacBook, Leopard, and got the Office for Mac installed. Now I am searching for an Anti-Virus software (although I know about the discussion on whether to get one in the first place) and was wondering which kind of software you could recommend for my system, any experiences?

thx!

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Many will say these things aren't necessary. They really aren't yet, but if you just want to be careful and pro-active....

1) Go to System Pref -> Sharing -> Firewall and turn it on.
2) Download ClamXav, a free virus scanning software; no need to put money into this kind of thing anytime soon.

There are commercial virus software for Mac, but as Mathiau says, it's like buying ice if you're an Eskimo. You don't really need it, and if you do--you can get it for free.

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The PP has leopard. For leopard the firewall is at System pref. -> Security -> Firewall.


Is the original poster is still around: could the first post of this thread be updated? I found this thread very useful, but it's old and I half of it wasn't helpful because I'm a recent switcher, I have Leopard, had never used a mac in my life before getting my macbook, so all the tiger talk just made me more confused. :Blushing:

Maybe something about how to get to leopard's firewall and a link to ClamXav could be added to the first post? (It seems that most agree that ClamXav is the best A/V out there and it's free.)

Thanks!

ETA: Maybe that link that allows you to check if your firewall is working well could be added too? (link)

ILoveMyMacbook said:

The PP has leopard. For leopard the firewall is at System pref. -> Security -> Firewall.


Is the original poster is still around: could the first post of this thread be updated? I found this thread very useful, but it's old and I half of it wasn't helpful because I'm a recent switcher, I have Leopard, had never used a mac in my life before getting my macbook, so all the tiger talk just made me more confused. :Blushing:

Maybe something about how to get to leopard's firewall and a link to ClamXav could be added to the first post? (It seems that most agree that ClamXav is the best A/V out there and it's free.)

Thanks!

ETA: Maybe that link that allows you to check if your firewall is working well could be added too? (link)

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Oh, my bad. I'm still on Tiger.

I don't know about ClamXav being the best out there, but it's the best FREE one out there. And IMO, no reason to get anything that costs money just yet. If things change, maybe, but that won't be for a while.

AV For The MS OS Partition?

I will soon be using Boot Camp to run Vista to work on PowerPoint,Excel and Word documents. I expect to be using this configuration for only about 10% of the time, the balance will all be native Mac applications.
Question is, does it make sense to install one of the AV programs on the MS partition? Would that offer protection against viruses AND avoid some of the conflict issues that users have brought up on this and other forums?
I'm comfortable running without AV protection on the Mac side which is how I will be using the computer 90% of the time.
Appreciate any POV on this. Thanks in advance.

zimmerrk said:

I will soon be using Boot Camp to run Vista to work on PowerPoint,Excel and Word documents. I expect to be using this configuration for only about 10% of the time, the balance will all be native Mac applications.
Question is, does it make sense to install one of the AV programs on the MS partition? Would that offer protection against viruses AND avoid some of the conflict issues that users have brought up on this and other forums?
I'm comfortable running without AV protection on the Mac side which is how I will be using the computer 90% of the time.
Appreciate any POV on this. Thanks in advance.

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Depends how much you'll use the internet while Bootcamping. If you'll mostly just be using Office, then I don't see much point in installing AV software. Maybe a free one just to be safe, but certainly not a paid-for one if you'll only be on the internet in Bootcamp once in a while.

If you'll be using the internet frequently while in Bootcamp, I'd install some AV software, as you're just as vulnerable as any PC, then.

I don't bother with any antivirus software in Fusion, since I never use the internet on my XP installation.

zimmerrk said:

I will soon be using Boot Camp to run Vista to work on PowerPoint,Excel and Word documents. I expect to be using this configuration for only about 10% of the time, the balance will all be native Mac applications.

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If you just want windows to run office, wouldn't office for mac be a solution for you?

ILoveMyMacbook said:

If you just want windows to run office, wouldn't office for mac be a solution for you?

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I was assuming he either already has Office 2007 or needed the Vista version for VBA macro compatibility reasons or something.

However if that's not the case, I recommend NeoOffice!

better safe then sorry if your running windows in any manner to use AV especially if you are creating files and sharing them with others.

goobimama said:

Also there is ClamX or something. Again, no point.

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There certainly IS a point in having AV protection - remember most people are running windows, any files they share with you COULD be infected with a windows virus.

It won't affect your mac but you should be responsible and check files if you intend to pass them to others.

Gbeav said:

From my understanding OSX is like Linux and Linux users seem to write most of the viruses. They would be taking a chance with themselves if they wrote a mac virus.

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This is pure speculation - not based on any reality.

schweb said:

Many many switchers coming from the Windows world are always concerned about whether or not they need a firewall or antivirus software for their Mac. The short answer: maybe, it's a personal choice.

Having a firewall is always a necessity to protect your computer and network from hackers who could steal data or harm your machines. Luckily Mac OSX has it's own built-in firewall that can be activated in the Sharing pref pane in System Preferences.

Now when it comes to antivirus software it gets trickier and there isn't as much agreement. Here are the normal pros and cons...

Pros:

• If you use the machine in a mixed network antivirus software will help stop you from further infecting the network. While your Mac can't be infected by a Windows virus, it can pass it on.
• Even though there is not a virus for Mac OSX that doesn't mean there will never be one. Having antivirus software installed makes you proactive in your protection.
• Most users see no performance decrease or issues when running antivirus software.

Cons:

• There has never been a virus or spyware released for Mac OSX to date.
• It eats up resources on some machines
• In certain situations it could cause stability issues or kernel panics

As you can see there are good reasons on both sides so in the end you need to make up your mind on which your most comfortable with.(free)

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well i disagree with u on that schweb
one of the pros reasons is absolutely stupid
I meant the second reason, which says: Even though there is not a virus for Mac OSX that doesn't mean there will never be one. Having antivirus software installed makes you proactive in your protection.
I find this as a funny reason, specially that if there will be a Virus showing in the future, oh well, my old antivirus won be able to deal with it unless I update it later after the company creates a "Healing" file that would stop the virus.

Jeddawi said:

well i disagree with u on that schweb
one of the pros reasons is absolutely stupid
I meant the second reason, which says: Even though there is not a virus for Mac OSX that doesn't mean there will never be one. Having antivirus software installed makes you proactive in your protection.
I find this as a funny reason, specially that if there will be a Virus showing in the future, oh well, my old antivirus won be able to deal with it unless I update it later after the company creates a "Healing" file that would stop the virus.

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Thanks for your opinion. But I tend to disagree with you.

Jeddawi said:

well i disagree with u on that schweb
one of the pros reasons is absolutely stupid
I meant the second reason, which says: Even though there is not a virus for Mac OSX that doesn't mean there will never be one. Having antivirus software installed makes you proactive in your protection.
I find this as a funny reason, specially that if there will be a Virus showing in the future, oh well, my old antivirus won be able to deal with it unless I update it later after the company creates a "Healing" file that would stop the virus.

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I'm not sure why you think this is stupid. Part of the purpose of anti-virus software is to be ready so that should a virus come out, your system will be protected as soon as those definitions are available. If you wait until you know about the virus then you may already be infected, and while on a Mac this is unlikely since the news would no doubt be filled with stories, the idea is sound. Anti-virus software will do the checking for you without you personally having to be aware of the new virus.

please dont install norton. its a virus in itself.

Good read and info. Fighting the flu sux, but at least I'm learning here.
Just need to learn not to become complacent with the PC.
No AV on it either. Firewalled router and carful net use has served me well for several years now. Knock on wood.
Adaware and Window Washer to clean out the junk and that's it.
Foolish on my part ? maybe.
Only virus I ever had/have is the flu. Trojan to me is a wooden horse back in the day (others may conjure a different thought here), and I use worms for fishing bait.
Rather be lucky than good any day I guess.
Hopefully next week Tiger shows up to be put on this old gigabit G4.

How do you turn on the firewall in 10.5.2 I hear about opening sharing folder but the only option for the firewall i find is in the security folder?