BF2S Forums Do you use AV software

On every one of my windows machines: yes. either AVG or Avast! or some variant.  Maybe mcafee 8.5 if I felt like being slow. 

Ubuntu laptop: No

Macbook: No

If I end up getting a virus on the mac or linux, I either was not doing updates or being a ding dong.

Kmarion wrote:

My need to retain my financial information exceeds my ego. As a tech savvy person you should understand the importance of preventing an attack in a constantly changing environment.

If you feel insecure without anti-virus, of course you should use it. As a tech 'savvy' person, you typically go with the flow. If people tell you that your computer is going to blow up without anti-virus, you put it on there, and probably conjure up some informed opinion on it. Rational thinking, however, dictates a sharp correlation between your need for protection and the inconvenience of implementing it.

If your computing strategy has left you completely unaffected by viruses for a very long time, and the only data that you stand to lose is data that you've backed up, then it's perfectly rational to omit anti-virus software, and it has nothing to do with ego, arrogance, ignorance or whatever else it may come across when you apply greyscale goggles to computing.

Last edited by mikkel (2008-02-26 22:55:07)

nukchebi0 wrote:

My AV doesn't hog resources at all. I don't know where this conception is coming from.

i've stated more than once why it does... re-read some of the posts here and you'll see what it does.  when you know how AV software works, you'll see why its a resource killer.

mikkel wrote:

Kmarion wrote:

My need to retain my financial information exceeds my ego. As a tech savvy person you should understand the importance of preventing an attack in a constantly changing environment.

If you feel insecure without anti-virus, of course you should use it. As a tech 'savvy' person, you typically go with the flow. If people tell you that your computer is going to blow up without anti-virus, you put it on there, and probably conjure up some informed opinion on it. Rational thinking, however, dictates a sharp correlation between your need for protection and the inconvenience of implementing it.

If your computing strategy has left you completely unaffected by viruses for a very long time, and the only data that you stand to lose is data that you've backed up, then it's perfectly rational to omit anti-virus software, and it has nothing to do with ego, arrogance, ignorance or whatever else it may come across when you apply greyscale goggles to computing.

i couldn't agree more with mikkel.  it all comes down to what you are comfortable doing, and making sure your protection strategy fits your needs.  imho, you should not rely on your AV solution to protect any of your data, but before you uninstall it, you need to have a good understanding of how to handle your system security.

jsnipy wrote:

Sgt. Sergio Bennet 3rd wrote:

Im so lazy

Total      2911:45:59. Apparently not

@bennet, there a couple ways to do it.  "best practices" suggests that you should log on to your computer as a limited user, and only invoke admin rights when necessary.  (linux and macs have done this for years, finally windows is coming around.)  but most people log on to the their windows machines as admins, which really makes things worse if you do get a virus.  to run any program as a limited user, you first need to have a regular user acct on your computer, and then right-click the program you want to run and choose "run as." enter the credentials of your limited user account and bingo! the process will only run with limited privelages.  any virus that downloads cant execute, as limited users have no install rights on the OS.

a better solution is to log on your system as a limited user, like i said above, and use the "run as" ability to launch programs only when they need admin rights.  you can launch installers, games, whatever when you need to and only that process will have admin rights on the machine.  it really helps tighten the overall security, and makes for a much safer browsing experience.

Network hardware firewall as well as software firewall on windows, scan with AVG and spybot snd every once and a while. Though I won't bother on my linux install.

steelie34 wrote:

i knew it!!!  i totally saw this coming. i promise you AV software is a dying practice...

http://windowsitpro.com/whitepapers/Ind … 4b8d63e39a

Notice this fact:

"According to AusCERT, Australia's Computer Emergency Response Team, the top-selling Anti-Virus solutions let in 80 percent of all new malicious code."

LOL at av software.  it actually makes your computer less secure.

The new code that hasn't been found and flagged? Yeah, some virii can be caught before they're known as a virus, but if it's a fresh new thing that 80% doesn't surprise me. Besides, without it you'd have 100% instead of 80%. How did you get your conclusion from that?

Last edited by Defiance (2008-03-13 09:24:16)

Defiance wrote:

Network hardware firewall as well as software firewall on windows, scan with AVG and spybot snd every once and a while. Though I won't bother on my linux install.

steelie34 wrote:

i knew it!!!  i totally saw this coming. i promise you AV software is a dying practice...

http://windowsitpro.com/whitepapers/Ind … 4b8d63e39a

Notice this fact:

"According to AusCERT, Australia's Computer Emergency Response Team, the top-selling Anti-Virus solutions let in 80 percent of all new malicious code."

LOL at av software.  it actually makes your computer less secure.

The new code that hasn't been found and flagged? Yeah, some virii can be caught before they're known as a virus, but if it's a fresh new thing that 80% doesn't surprise me. Besides, without it you'd have 100% instead of 80%. How did you get your conclusion from that?

im not sure what you mean... i was pointing out the fact that AV software lets 80% of the mailcious code get into a system.  without AV software, i only have to worry about the other 20%. 

i've seen it first hand at my work.  several months ago some new virus was spreading through the same port that symantec was using to update itself.  without symantec, we never would've had to deal with that virus.