I’ve never used it. The closest I’ve come is Spybot Search and Destroy’s Resident version that protects the registry only. I’ve owned computers since 1984, and after Windows made a working version of Windows Restore, I’ve never used antivirus.
Except for 1 particularly nasty infection (SpySherriff), all other virus problems have been solved by rolling back to the previous day or week. This process not only gets rid of the virii, but it preserves registries and drivers.
Heh! and ow! Okay, I can be smug I admit it, but what I was really trying to express was:
“It sounds like a lot of people still use resident AV software. The last time I tried it, it was annoying crap. I have gotten away fairly painlessly without it for years, have I merely been lucky? Am I insane or all alone on an island? Are there now painless alternatives to crapware AV, do such alternatives offer a functional advantage over not running anything?”
What I have got out of this is:
[ul]
[li]Lots of people operate machines without resident AV software with little to no problems reported.[/li][li]Lots of people use resident AV software that is effective and mostly invisible.[/li][li]Some of the former are now using such software and are happy with it (thanks davekhps, and others)[/li][li] You are are a careless smug antivaxer with no libido! ;)[/li][/ul]
I think I will give Microsoft Security Essentials a try and see how painless it is.
Oh and Grumman: Whatever dude. :rolleyes:
This.
The 10% of you who trumpet your virus-free existence despite lack of AV protection are beneficiaries of the 90% of us who are protected.
See herd immunity.
The “iffy sites” thing is dated, they can and have hid Adware and even Spyware in ads on legit sites, such as Snopes.
There is Malware out there you can get from “safe browsing” that is more or less impossible to remove.
Now sure, with IE8 and the Windows Security and a good free anti-malware AND safe browsing, you’re likely OK. So, an expensive Security suite is not nessesary.
No have always found it too annoying, yes i have had a few viruses, but certainly no more than when i actually had antivirus software running. I usually do a clean windows install about once a year anyway so its never been a big problem.
I haven’t had an anti-virus program on my computer for probably 8 years. This covered two computers, but the first was only replaced because it was old.
If you know what you are doing, and don’t go to any questionable sites, you don’t have anything to worry about IMO. Don’t go to porn sites, don’t open email from people you don’t know, and don’t download or install anything that you aren’t 100% sure what it is ESPECIALLY if it pops up on a porn site or source of illegal materials (torrent websites, etc).
This is a constant battle with my Dad. Case in Point: About three weeks ago he got an e-mail from a friend that only contained a questionable looking link in it. A few minutes later he received a mass e-mail saying his account has been compromised and please disregard any suspicious e-mails. He said he was curious what it was, and wanted to go to the website anyway. We managed to convince him not to do it.
I’m sure there are tons of people out there who follow this same thought process though, and then get pissed because geek squad wants to charge them 200 dollars and take a week to fix their computer.
I chuckle when someone says they’ve never been infected. How do you know you’re not infected right now? Using your spidey sense?
Sorry, I didn’t mean it as an insult. What I meant was that although some people are careful enough that they don’t need antivirus, as a general rule if some random guy off the street doesn’t know if he’s careful enough, he probably isn’t.
Because I haven’t done anything stupid that would increase the chance of infection, my computer isn’t displaying any apparent symptoms, and every now and again I reinstall AVG just to make 100% sure. Oh look - I’m still not infected. What a surprise.
Just found the 3rd nasty virus this month on my other PC - the one my kids use. I’m going to Linux
I use AVG on my work laptop, because the company-installed solution is never updated, and doesn’t work. We have viruses running around all over the place. How do I know? Because AVG catches them. However, the lack of symptoms isn’t indicative of a lack of infection. Not all viruses are meant to be malicious to your computer per se, but to enable bot-nets. By their very design, they want to not exhibit symptoms so that they can continue to use your box as a slave.
I haven’t used any antivirus, firewall or anti-spyware software since getting a Mac a couple of years ago. Come to think of it, I don’t even know if there are any antiviruses for Macs…?
If you don’t have some sort of antivirus running, you could have picked up a virus from the SDMB website itself, or to be precise, from one of the ads on it. See this thread from “About This Message Board”:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=554317&highlight=virus
Just curious here; AVG is one of the better non-intrusive anti-virus around (but they have been getting worse, what with their search toolbars and what-not). Why don’t you just keep it installed?
Quoted for truth. The folks saying “if you do this, and this, and avoid doing this, you’ll be safe without AV software” are just spreading ignorance.
As mentioned upthread, even completely legit sites like the SDMB can sometimes expose you to threats - I’ve opened threads and had the ads try to install stuff here - on other sites (still ‘legit sites’), I’ve seen things on the page (even when I was surfing using FF with adblock plus) that subtly redirected me to a hacked site that tried to do something that - fortunately - my AV software blocked.
I’m not going to say that AV software removes all risk, but you are generally more at risk without it.
Because when a program has been completely useless for the past 7 years, I at least expect the ability to turn it off when I’m not using it. Since the newer versions of AVG apparently don’t let the user shut down the program, I turned it off the hard way.
I run two all the time. McAfee and Norton. They update daily and check my computer for viruses every second I’m online or offline. They back up all my work daily. I learned a lot about viruses from being online for decades and dating a DB designer. Many internet providers are offering free AV and firewall protection. Mine just offered it because they lose customers from all the malicious viruses. It’s totally free if you want it and easy to install.
Who writes viruses? People that want to make money. A good hacker can support himself that way. AV’s will buy the info from the hacker and then make an update. Some people are just nosy and want to find out where you live and what you look like. The best place to catch a virus is on a porn site where they are tested free from a lot of firewalls. Also beware of third world countries web sites where many hackers live. Dating sites are often just phishing sites. Never ever go off of a dating site and e-mail a person you don’t know. I even had someone try from Illinois to break in to my hard drive from a website. Nice try…
Best thing to do when you get a virus or a break in? Look up their IP address and report them to their internet provider. Like with my message board hacker I looked up his or her IP address and that told me his internet provider was World Com. I phoned World Com and they looked up and verified it was one of their customers. They said they would take it from there but to report it to Spam Cop which I did. I also reported it to the SD website.
If I didn’t have ‘real time’ anti virus software I would have had my computer in the shop many times. Surprisingly as much as I’m online message boards are the biggest threat I have had to date. Hackers are part of the internet and if your online you just have to run AV, kind of like wearing bug spray to ward of mosquito’s.
I worked at a huge company and they made the mistake of having one man design and run the companies computers. He got greedy and when he was fired he shut the company down and was remotely accessing the companies computers and creating havoc. Now they hire a company to handle it.
Another thing for newbies is never post your personal info online. No pictures! I cringe when I see people putting their kids pics up or pics of themselves. Gone are the days when people online are friends. They will steal your personal information and use your picture on dating sites and well your kids pics… I won’t go there. Be safe online and remember not everyone is nice and some people want to hurt you or steal from you.
This is an excellent point.
I have AVG on my computer which is an excellent option. PC Magazine, rates AVG Free with the paid version and AVAST, Norton and McAffee. They are all about the same.
I also have Windows Defender, Spybot Search and Destroy and Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware. All this is free and none of them slow up my computer.
The thing is options on some of them WILL slow it up. AVG will run your computer to a slow (and I mean SLOW) crawl if you use the link scanner and email scanner, because AVG will literally scan every link of a page FIRST.
I turn off the link and email scanner, and it runs fast and fine.
If you don’t download from the web your chances are seriously reduced of getting a virus, but since there are free products out there that will keep your computer safe, why not use them?
I can’t imagine what programs you run that UAC is such a burden? At least for a home user, perhaps a corp user would be significantly different.
I return your chuckle. How do you know that your AV software is actually protecting you, and not missing numerous threats? Indeed, if you’re running AV software from the machine that’s being scanned, how do you know the AV software itself isn’t compromised? Your spidey sense?
Running some AV software in the background is a good idea for most people. But if you, say, only browse the web using Firefox with Ad-Blocker and NoScipt, your chances of getting infected are reduced drastically.
I don’t think it’s that simple. AV software causes many problems in itself, which people who don’t run AV software are immune to. And AV software is far from perfect in protecting you against threats. I think that that there is a level of other precautions that you can take, achievable by regular people and not just geeks, at which it is better to not run any AV software. That is, running AV software would overall be more inconvenient than running none.
You would have to be an idiot not to run and keep AV software updated. I think you are wrong and you are putting out bad information.
Why would my internet provider pay for free Norton anti virus for all subscribers if it was harmful? It’s to keep me safe and my computer out of the shop and from all the hackers.