virus utlity for mac?

B

brianh

Registered
Just got my 1.8 dual G5 and wondered what others have for virus utilities. I understand that .Mac has Virex, what are the opinions of that program? I do have an old bondi imac but have never used virus protection for it. Is there a real threat to Macs or have I just been real fortunate?
Thanks.
 
What is virus ?

never heard of that program :p

well if u really need virus protection these are some u might wanna look at :

Norton AntiVirus 9.0 ( Symantec )
Virex ( McAfee )


ive actually got a lot of viruses on my mac the last months, only problem is they were all in exe or vbs :D
 
Virus protection isn't a bad idea (check multiple threads on the subject) if you deal with file exchanges with PC programs. Your Mac could be a carrier and could pass on a virus, even if it doesn't impact you.
That said, it is a low priority for most. (I use .mac's Virex).
 
ive never actually used that virex thats included with .mac

do i need to install some program i DL from .mac ?

ive also heard virus utilites really slow the computer down

Any thoughts ?
 
If you go to your .Mac site, just look down the menu list and click on Virex for all the info.
It'll be a little slow when it's actually searching as there are thousands and thousands of files to be searched. Once you've done that, things as normal. PCs tend to be slower.
 
Norton generally causes more problems than it solves on a mac. So if you want a virus protection program, go for Virex.
 
I had no trouble with the retail copy of Norton Antivirus 9. Had to test it out before recommending it to a company I was dealing with that was passing on infected files to clients PCs. Of course, the files had no impact on their Mac systems, but it made dealing with other people a pain in the neck. So, like others have said, if you don't deal with PC users, you don't need to worry about it too much, though you never know when someone will write some nasty virus for Mac OS X just to prove a point. The problem with Virex I found is that 1) it only comes with a .Mac account, 2) you have to manually scan stuff. VirusBarrier wouldn't let me connect to my PC shares for some reason. Sophos is cool, but is geared towards large corporations. Norton (with the updated Panther UnInstaller) worked very well. Any program that you have running in the background all the time will use memory, so if you don't have a lot of memory, you will probably notice it.
 
If you really want to have a virus scanner, you get use Sophos. I've got it from my university as they have a site license. I don't run it much, but its there if I need it.
 
Hehehe...I'll correct that then. There's practically no need to run an antivirus software, as viruses are rare on the Mac.

Isn't it ironic, the few viruses that do target the Mac are due to MS products?
 
I'm a little cautions about using the 'no one is writing viruses for the mac' argument... too many people hear that and all of the sudden there's an onslaught of mac viruses.

Protect your computer and play it safe... :)
 
I have Virex installed cause it's free for .Mac users :) I wouldn't pay $60 for a virus package tho.

Brian
 
Thanks All.
Looks as though I will try Virex on .Mac account. I appreciate all your inputs.
I have always gotten good info from these forums.
 
I am pretty happy with VirusBarrier. I have had problems with Norton SystemWorks(kept giving me kernel panics...the panics stopped when I dumped Norton SystemWorks)
 
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