Norton Anti-Virus for Mac v 11.0 now out

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Hagios1972 answer:
1) No you don't need it. It's pointless really
2) Not sure about that one. I had it on my pc as well slowed it right up.
 
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With no offense intended to anyone, my advice would be to stay away from all things Norton. I had Norton Anti Virus on my PC for a long time, and I could not believe how incredibly intrusive it was. It almost literally welded itself to my hard drive. It was everywhere. I received what seemed like continuous pop ups warning me of one thing or another. It was amazingly frustrating to have on the machine. I eventually uninstalled it (and Norton Personal Firewall too) and now have a much more peaceful PC experience... when I have to use my PC.

The upshot of this is that I would strongly advise against installing anything Norton on your Mac. Why mess with a good thing?

Some folks who also use PCs may be wondering if I have not left my machine wide open to attack now. I have not. I use Adaware, Spybot and ClamAV on the PC, on a regular but manually controlled process, to be sure the machine stays clean and healthy. The key here is that these things only run when I tell them to, not continuously and intrusively.

For a firewall, I depend completely on my FiOS router for this function. The same can be done for those with DSL routers. If you doubt the effectiveness of this, turn off all of your firewall software, and point your browser at:

www.grc.com

Scroll down an select the Shields Up! functionality, which will probe your machine from the web side and report what it finds. This is equally useful and informative for you Mac as well by the way. With just my router's firewall in place, my PC is invisible. That is proof enough for me that I don't need anything else. Use of "smart computing" rules (don't click on attachments in suspicious emails and things like that) and the occasional scan with Adaware/Spybot/ClamAV keeps my PC happily (and inobtrusively) clean and healthy.
 
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Worthless, most of their products that I've seen drastically slowed PCs down. ClamAV is the way to go for the occasional check.
 
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Some folks who also use PCs may be wondering if I have not left my machine wide open to attack now. I have not. I use Adaware, Spybot and ClamAV on the PC, on a regular but manually controlled process, to be sure the machine stays clean and healthy.

Thanks for that post mac57. If you don't mind me asking, how regular is regular?

I don't know if you know the answer to this, but how is ClamAV compared with AVG antivirus?
 
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Thanks for that post mac57. If you don't mind me asking, how regular is regular?

I don't know if you know the answer to this, but how is ClamAV compared with AVG antivirus?

How regular is regular? Probably not an appropriate question for me. I don't use my PC that much any more, so I don't do a full "sweep" of the machine more than once every few months. If I was using it full time, I would do it once a week or so, and again whenever anything "unusual" happened.

AVG and ClamAV were put through their paces alongside Norton and several others in an "AV Shootout" I saw in a magazine a few months back. Unfortunately I don't remember which magazine it was. Likely MacFormat, but I am not sure. One of ClamAV or AVG came out on top, the other was number two. The bottom line is that they are both very good, and both caught more stuff than Norton did. I selected ClamAV vs. AVG simply because I used it on Linux for years. When I went looking for a good freeware antivirus, it was the easy choice for me.

You won't go wrong with either one.
 

bobtomay

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Have to second everything mac57 has suggested. Have my PC's set up exactly the same except for using AVG instead of clamAV (simply because that's the one I've been using for quite a few years now). Think clamAV might have come out on top on the one mac57 is referring to. Have seen a couple where AVG came in 2nd. Not enough difference to give up what has worked for me for multiple years with out any system slowdown though.
 
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For the record, comparing your experience with a PC version of software to what "could" happen on a Mac is pointless and you have to make alot of assumptions, most of which are incorrect.

I've run Norton AV on my Mac for years. Absolutely no problems and definitely no noticeable affect on system speed. IMHO, ClamAV on the Mac is poorly supported and it's an awful UI. It had a worse impact on my system performance than Norton.

Similar to how Real Player on PC is a pile of steaming poo, but on the Mac it's actually not that bad.

As for pointless or not, don't be so quick to judge. There will be a Mac virus at some point, I promise you that. But more importantly for me right now is preventing the spread of viruses on my mixed PC/Mac network. While a virus may not affect a Mac, it certainly can pass it on.
 
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Like schweb I also use mixed Mac/PC networks and choose to use AVG and NAV. Macs can indeed pass a virus on through email attachments etc to our friends using peecees. There are reports of Trojan Horses popping up on Macs, admittedly on porn web sites at this stage, but some smarty hacker is a certainty to try and spread this or something similar in the near future.

If you don't use antivirus well and good - it is your decision but don't down those who do.
 

moi


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i use antivirus cause i download pc programs on my mac and have to see if their infected before passing em to a pc,not everyone has macs people
 

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