Does anyone NOT use an anti-virus program?
- Thread starter StuntMonkeh
- Start date
The_KiD said:
Yup so true. The best way to elimante these infections is for all users to run AV (Just like in Real life- Health and vaccines). But I agree with you some won't, because of this "coolness" factor. Maybe they think their CPU will have a longer lifespan ?
On modern day GHZ's processors and GB's of RAM I cant believe people worry about these things, unless they have a really slow PC of course. Maybe they have used the Nortons and McAfees of old and that has really put them off...I run Kaspersky myself and dont notice real-time issues at all and I use my PC for gaming, so performance is crucial.
Oh and can I just add its not limited to what websites you visit, or what you click or what you browse because bots actively scan IP ranges and find you.
pallys said:
oh please....
edit: this thread is about av. i don't think anybody is daft enough to go online without either a router or a basic firewall which blocks this kind of stuff. infact if microsoft had enabled the windows firewall by default most worms wouldn't even have happened.
Last edited:
Coolness?
wtf?
The only way for a virus to get onto the machine is by opening/running a file containing the virus. That means opening an email attachment, or double-clicking a dodgy .exe (for example, a crack etc.)
Don't make the mistake of running a virus and you will never need AV software.
wtf?
The only way for a virus to get onto the machine is by opening/running a file containing the virus. That means opening an email attachment, or double-clicking a dodgy .exe (for example, a crack etc.)
Don't make the mistake of running a virus and you will never need AV software.
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i dont mean to sound like an idiot but i dont know what protection i've got. i'm connected to the net via my netgear DG834N (with WN511B pcmcia card in lappy). surely i've got some protection from that? i've never had any cause for concern about viruses etc as i never receive mail from unknown contacts and i certainly never open/install anything i dont trust. i'm not 'being cool' (i didnt realise it was cool not to use protection, maybe it is amongst geeks etc) i'm just being honest.
What i do know for sure is that the Norton programme i had preinstalled on my lappy when it was new was simply awful. i ran 3d mark 03 before and after and as expected there was a massive difference. massive!! so i got rid of it. so lets say that i'm now really paranoid about catching some horrid virus, what do i get to stop it? and what do i get to scan my lappy for stuff thats already on there?? (bearing in mind that i'd rather be sick out of my eyes than spend my hard earned cash on something which is going to give me this little amout of excitement/pleasure). any help is much appreciated.
What i do know for sure is that the Norton programme i had preinstalled on my lappy when it was new was simply awful. i ran 3d mark 03 before and after and as expected there was a massive difference. massive!! so i got rid of it. so lets say that i'm now really paranoid about catching some horrid virus, what do i get to stop it? and what do i get to scan my lappy for stuff thats already on there?? (bearing in mind that i'd rather be sick out of my eyes than spend my hard earned cash on something which is going to give me this little amout of excitement/pleasure). any help is much appreciated.
The_KiD said:
Sorry to spoil your fun, but most of the people on here who are running without anti virus are at least somewhat smart. I presume that was taken by the MOST comment, refering to the majority of people who are not pc-literate and therefore are at risk by downloading stupid attachments.
If you are computer literate, where on earth do you get the viruses from? The majority of those who know what they are doing do not use IE6, can identify a scam email from the start, and are not idiotic enough to trust downloads from random websites that they don't know anything about. If you are quite computer literate, I would say that there is very little chance of getting a virus at all. New viruses almost 99% of the time (save some rather special circumstances) require at least some sort of user interaction, and if you have some common and computer sense, you will not give the command needed to let it run.
A fairly high chance of being in a botnet? I presume this refers to the "most" and not to this forum. I put money on the fact that zero (save possibly one or two people, who are mirrored and therefore counteracted by those using programs which do not detect the signs of a botnet) people running no AV are on a botnet.
And the assumption that people who don't run anti-virus feel they are "too cool" not to run it is rather presumptuous and really quite arrogent. I have never had a virus, or a virus alert in about 3 or more years of using computers heavily. During that time I ran the top software of the time, ending up with NOD32, after a recent install of Vista, I have not installed it, because I have not been doing anything that would allow a virus to propergate. I only reinstalled it yesterday as I needed to clean up a mates hard disk who somehow got infected massively, and guess what? they were running a fully updated version of Norton. Did a full scan of my system in the process and nothing, because I have not been doing anything (as below, what do you do to get viruses? where from?) which would open me up to such.
Again a question to people who get viruses: Where from? How on earth do you aquire these? I honestly don't understand.
Just my 2p.
I have one installed but basically all it does is scan emails, don't have a 'resident shield' or whatever that scans files on access. I tend to do a complete scan every 6-12 months or so just to check nothing is amiss.
I think in some 10 years of owning a PC I've only had a couple of viral infections (to my knowledge), ironically one of these was due to someone I trusted sending me a trojan. Which is nothing compared to at work where I had a couple of workstations completely ravaged by Nimbda a few years ago despite my previous appeals to IT support to sort it out.
To be honest I'm quite surprised as generally speaking I have not run many virus scans over the years and gone for a few years without any scanner installed. Maybe this is in part down to the fact that I do not use the 'popular' communication tools much like email/icq/aim/msn etc or P2P, and I certainly don't open attachments from unsolicited parties. I've also never used a broadband connection that hasn't been behind a hardware router except for 1 week over 5 years ago.
I think in some 10 years of owning a PC I've only had a couple of viral infections (to my knowledge), ironically one of these was due to someone I trusted sending me a trojan. Which is nothing compared to at work where I had a couple of workstations completely ravaged by Nimbda a few years ago despite my previous appeals to IT support to sort it out.
To be honest I'm quite surprised as generally speaking I have not run many virus scans over the years and gone for a few years without any scanner installed. Maybe this is in part down to the fact that I do not use the 'popular' communication tools much like email/icq/aim/msn etc or P2P, and I certainly don't open attachments from unsolicited parties. I've also never used a broadband connection that hasn't been behind a hardware router except for 1 week over 5 years ago.
