The Official Mac AntiVirus and Firewall FAQ

[ashden]

Anyone know of an Antivirus solution that is designed to run on the Intel Macs as an Universal Application. Want to make sure I have something before someone makes an actual MacOS X virus.

 

[mr g5]

If I go onto a website that noramlly sends viruses to pc's would it still send it to a mac?

wouldn't a firewall detect and block an incoming virus before it reachs the computer?

btw my router has a firewall.

 

[jram]

If you had virus protection it would pop up and tell you.
If you didn't have protection, a windows virus can't hurt a Mac. Mac users are bridge jumping because of this worm, virus, trojan or whatever it is.. I would guess for any user to get infected he has to be drunk or something, first off your using ichat, you get a file that you didn't ask for, you double click on the file, your password thing pops up, that in itself tells you something is wrong. I would doubt if AV companies didn't invent this LOL I guess my pc paranoia is showing.

 

[mr g5]

If you had virus protection it would pop up and tell you.
If you didn't have protection, a windows virus can't hurt a Mac. Mac users are bridge jumping because of this worm, virus, trojan or whatever it is.. I would guess for any user to get infected he has to be drunk or something, first off your using ichat, you get a file that you didn't ask for, you double click on the file, your password thing pops up, that in itself tells you something is wrong. I would doubt if AV companies didn't invent this LOL I guess my pc paranoia is showing.

So what is the point of a firewall?

 

[Going2fast]

Just the post i was looking for, great cheers.

 

[firas]

Here are some good articles on the subject:

Mac Security: Fact and Fiction

Spotlight on Mac Security

 

[earltash]

ClamXav or Sophos.....Which is better. I have both installed. They both seem to work fine. ClamXav finds things in the cache, I haven't notice Sophos finding those things.

 

[John_S]

ClamXav or Sophos.....Which is better. I have both installed. They both seem to work fine. ClamXav finds things in the cache, I haven't notice Sophos finding those things.

I recommend ClamXav. It was more reliable and I just liked it better

 

[earltash]

ClamXav or Sophos.....Which is better. I have both installed. They both seem to work fine. ClamXav finds things in the cache, I haven't notice Sophos finding those things.

I have tested both and found that ClamXav finds much more.
None of the windows viruses bother a Mac, but it is good to know your not passing them along.
Be sure to scan any .doc files you may download because these can contain macroviruses.
I have also had problems with Sophos causing problems in OS Tiger.
ClamXav- never any problems.

 

[.nathan]

I find Anti-Virus for mac a pointless scam.

If your careful, you don't even need anti-virus for PC.

It's all marketing to paranoia.

 

[schweb]

I find Anti-Virus for mac a pointless scam.

If your careful, you don't even need anti-virus for PC.

It's all marketing to paranoia.

Thanks, glad most people don't agree.

 

[dtravis7]

I find Anti-Virus for mac a pointless scam.

If your careful, you don't even need anti-virus for PC.

It's all marketing to paranoia.

Can I have 5-10 minutes on the net with your windows pc? I will show you in that time why it's not pointless to have Antivirus on a Windows system. No porn sites either.

 

[christm]

i run clamvax (free) and the mac osx tiger firewall. i find them great and i havnt passed any viruses on or had any on my mac (if there are any out there)

 

[alovett]

I'm just trying to set up the firewall on OX 10. In the advanced settings it gives an option for blocking UDP traffic. What is UDP?

 

[schweb]

UDP is just am internet data transfer protocol often used for file sharing or streaming video.

More information.

 

[alovett]

Right. So that's what is used for malicious purposes then I suppose. So if I block that plus enable stealth mode would that provide adequate protection?

 

[schweb]

Are you directly connecting to the internet or are you connecting through a wireless or wire router? If you're going through a router, then the firewall on your actual Macbook isn't really necessary.

 

[alovett]

I just use direct dialup.

 

[schweb]

I don't know if I'd worry about it then. There's not really a need for a firewall on a Dial-up account. Every time you dial in there's a new IP assigned.

 

[alovett]

That's interesting. Didn't know that. Thanks for your input.