anti-virus software

I recently purchased a powerbook and I am looking for some good, free anti-virus software. I am not part of a network and access the internet wirelessly. I don't use Entourage, Outlook Express or Mail. The PC user in me is paranoid. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. Thanks.

Don't worry about it, you won't have any problems with viruses. Turn your firewall on (System Prefs > Sharing) and you'll be alright.

Nag: Please post in the right forum. If you're unsure, 'switcher hangout' is usually a good guess. I don't see how this would fit into 'suggestions/comments'.

Yep, the most wonderful thing about OS X is it's UNIX base...
Means: No Virus and difficult to harm the system...

muso said:

Don't worry about it, you won't have any problems with viruses. Turn your firewall on (System Prefs > Sharing) and you'll be alright.

Nag: Please post in the right forum. If you're unsure, 'switcher hangout' is usually a good guess. I don't see how this would fit into 'suggestions/comments'.

Click to expand...

Now that I have been nagged in to posting a thread that asks for software suggestions to the switcher hangout (I thought I was in the right place, sorry), I have a question about antivirus software.

If mac's don't need virus protection, why is the software sold? Is it to placate switchers that can't shake the pc frame of mind?

because Macs CAN get viruses, just not very easily. Mac users are less than 10% of the market, so virus writers dont taqrget Macs. Usually, they target Microsux products which mainly is on the PC. I wouldnt sweat the virus stuff. Just turn on the firewall like mentioned earlier.

My parents insisted I got an anti-virus program, even though even the Apple Store guy agreed with me that there were practically no viruses for OS X.

My advice is DON'T GET ONE. I have the Norton one for Mac, and it's annoying as ****. Whenever I insert a disc it scans it for not only the 0.5 known viruses for OS X, but also for all the 5 000 000 PC viruses out there. Whever I mount a .dmg file, it scans it. It's annoying as ****, and it only gets in the way.

Practically the only reason antivirus programs are made for Mac is so they can scan for PC viruses, so if you're in a PC network you don't infect everybody else. Seriously, there has never been a successful Mac virus, ever, in the history of mankind.

It's a waste of money, trust me. I would uninstall mine but my parents are a bit paranoid, like you. Well, I guess they have a reason, since they're not going to replace my PowerBook if anything goes wrong, since I'm only 13. But seriously, it ISN'T WORTH IT AT ALL.

Trust me.

I didn't bother, I decided it was a waste of money. All the Windows PCs on my network have virus scanners, that's good enough for me

Even for PCs there is a good, basic and cheap anti-virus: the user!

Just don't use Internet Explorer (use Mozilla or Firefox), don't use Outlook (again, Mozilla or Thunderbird will do a great job) and, for your own sake, never EVER open an email attachment from an unknown source, or put your email client to "opene everything directly".

After that, getting a Virus will be quite unlikely (not impossible though), and for those very few that use other ways to install or spread, you can use an antivirus software.

But, unless you don't want to infect your fellow PCs connected at the same network, your Mac doesn't need an antivirus software. The only known viruses for mac were just "proof of concepts", to show that it's possible to write one. Nevertheless, it was always the user who had to do something to activate the virus...

What Avalon said. As a user of both platforms, I've had an antivirus running on my PC for a long time (at least 5 years since I started using one full-time) and the only viruses I got were ones that I asked for - downloading stuff off Kazaa and a few weeks ago stupidly connecting a new XP installation directly to the Internet without patching or putting a firewall up.

If you run a decent browser and email client, and are vigilant with emails, whilst also staying away from dodgy areas such as Kazaa, running a firewall and being fully patched with the latest updates you'll have an extremely slim chance of getting a virus. It's just that the vast majority of people either don't know how to do all that or can't be arsed.

Email is by far the biggest culprit. The email policy I wrote at work is to never open an attachment unless it's pre-arranged. Even if it's from someone they know, if it's not pre-arranged then they're instructed to contact the sender some other way (e.g. an email back or preferably a phone call) to make sure they intended to send an attachment and it definitely wasn't just a virus using their address book, and to let them know that the company only accepts pre-arranged attachments and failing to co-operate with this request will result in undesirable delays. This, so far, has completely eliminated all questions and problems regarding attachments (except 1 or 2 who decided to ignore the policy and got a subsequent bollocking)