I need no protection!!!

[gronbek]

i'm saying you seriously need to get out and see more of the world, or at least get outdoors a bit more, if you "know exaclty how many processes and how much memory is used at start up"

Hi,

Well, got a full time job. Familly fantastic wife
I usually get to "play" games between 9 and 12 evening when wife decides to go to bed. Wonderful life Between 9 and 12 I dont bother anyone with my hobby.

thank you.
BR Anders

 

[gronbek]

You're clearly not looking at enough porn.

Got a wife, no need for porn


BR Anders

 

[gronbek]

If you download Torrents or any other kind of P2P activity I'd highly, highly recommend getting a virus scanner.

A low-resource virus scanner such as AVG will make no performance dent on your computer, and can save a lot of heart ache potentially.

If you never run virus scans you cannot claim that you have never had a virus, chances are you simply wouldnt know if you had a random trojan installed or something similiar.

All this being said, I can honestly say nobody cares enough about you, or your computer, to try and persuade you to get some kind of AV software. In fact, judging by your posts I would be cheering on the virii to infect your 'top of the line' pc.

No download from torrents or filesharing. Only visit my old trusty game sites
I buy all my games, there you have it.

BR Anders

 

[gronbek]

If you excercise sensible browsing methods, then you won't need an AV scanner or Adaware app. I've been using PC's since the Windows 3.0 days without any of these programs and I've never ever had a virus at all.

Yeah, my opinion as well.

BR Anders

 

[AbsenceJam]

Norton 08 is supposed to be very good actually. So I've been told anyway.

Burnsy

I hear similar every year, perhaps when I'm collecting my pension it will finally be light enough to use.

 

[NathanE]

I am surprised to be honest at the number of people who seem to think this guy is practically trolling. Yes the opening post is a bit "look at me!!!", who cares, but the basis for a discussion is still there. Also surprised that the OcUK forums, of all forums, doesn't seem to have more people nowadays that understand AV are next to useless.

How do you know?

A very valid point was made earlier. If you have no AV, how do you know that you have no viruses?

Burnsy

Aside from rootkits... the best way of knowing is using Sysinternals' AutoRuns utility. It displays all the hooking points that malware use... so you just scroll through looking for anything you don't recognise or has typos like "Microsft Ltd" and "Intell Corporation"...

Not rocket science.

Rootkits... well run with UAC on Vista and they aren't a problem. On Vista x64 there is further protection in the form of PatchGuard and the fact that only signed drivers can be loaded... plus not many rootkit authors can be bothered to support x64 yet.

 

[Burnsy2023]

plus not many rootkit authors can be bothered to support x64 yet.

*Tut Tut*



Burnsy

 

[NathanE]

Well to be fair the type of users that will get suckered in are more likely to be using x32 Programmers, especially those writing nitty gritty rootkit-ware, tend to know basic economics Also the PatchGuard is pretty darn good and regularly gets updated silently in WU hot fixes now and then... which can easily scupper months of reverse engineering work on breaking PatchGuard by a rootkit developer...

 

[Begbie]

I never used to use virus scanners/firewalls, expect the onbuilt firewall on the router.

My paypal managed to get hacked and stole a fair bit of cash, I know this may not be a virus or my pc being hacked but certianly changed my mind on it.

Always thought the same as long as your careful etc etc, saying that never had a virus ever.

 

[Tripnologist]

I've only ever had one virus. I had just formatted and installed XP. I fell asleep before installing AV. When I awoke and installed AV, it found a virus. I had been infected without even opening a browser window.

 

[Sarduk]

If you excercise sensible browsing methods, then you won't need an AV scanner or Adaware app. I've been using PC's since the Windows 3.0 days without any of these programs and I've never ever had a virus at all.

NO PERSONAL ATTACKS. You can be infected with a key-logging rootkit just by loading JavaScript; Windows OR Linux.

 

[sirlemonhead]

Don't bother running them myself either. Just a NAT and windows firewall now (Which is only recent..forgot to turn it off on my last os install)

I download and do an anti virus scan and anti spyware scan every couple of months. Never finds anything so I usually delete them straight away again.

 

[titaniumx3]

I've been running Norton AV 2002 ever since it came out lol, it detected a few viruses in the past, but it has never detected anything since my last format. Its probably crap, but I like it because it uses very little resources and is practically invisible.

I've never experienced odd behaviour on my PC and I'm not suprised because I never do anything dodgy on my main comp. For anything risky I have a spare comp that I have loaded with avast antivirus and some other anti-malware apps.

I guess I'm a bit like the OP in that I know all the processes that are running on my computer and I'm always a bit paranoid when installing stuff.

For firewall, I just use the routers firewall which so far seems good enough.

I'll run the Kasperky online virus checker and see what it finds.

 

[MarcLister]

Firewalls and AVs are like condoms. If you careful and make sure that everyone you sleep with are trusted and clean then it's unlikely that you'll get an STD. But if you're promiscuous and sleep with anyone you find then don't be surprised if it burns while you pee.

I've had an AV installed for years, but I've not actually had anything detected for years either. Do I need it? Probably not, but it's that one time when that cute girl looks respectable but is actually rather slutty that you need to be weary of, in which case it's always prudent to be protected.

Burnsy

It was always going to be Burnsy posting this.

I can quite agree with him though. I've had antivirus protection for as long as I can remember. I probably don't need it as I don't visit dodgy sites and I use anti-spyware utilties on a regular basis. However if one time I get caught out I would like to think my antivirus will earn its keep at that point.

 

[d.chatten]

I know it's been asked a number of times but i'll ask again, if someone doesn't run AV software how do they know if they are infected or not?

Lets say you visit a trusted website that has just been compomised by means of a virus/trojan, etc, etc, and you become infected and the virus/trojan doesn't show up in processes or services, then you connect to MSN and everyone you chat with becomes infected, then you receive an e-mail from a trusted source which contains a virus/trojan which you then forward to someone you know who also gets infected by the e-mail you sent to them.

If you don't have AV software installed you are increasing the chances of a virus surviving in the wild, you are also increasing the virus's ability to infect other peoples systems, if no-one had AV software installed how safe would the internet be then.

Also if you only run an online virus scan every week/month or every few months, you could have infected a lot of systems by the time you find out that you/your self have been infected.

 

[Final8y]

I'm just using what comes what comes with vista Ultimate & AutoRuns & no more.

 

[Kainz]

NO PERSONAL ATTACKS. You can be infected with a key-logging rootkit just by loading JavaScript; Windows OR Linux.

O RLY? rofl, maybe I better go out and have a panic attack before going to buy myself an AV checker? Er no.

 

[Glaucus]

Av you can probably get away with. But the tiny amount of resources they take why not use them. However anti spyware is essential. Even if you only visit legit sites. You will have loads of tracking cookies and other stuff. No need for real time spyware just do a scan once a week with add-aware.

 

[NathanE]

Even if you only visit legit sites. You will have loads of tracking cookies and other stuff. No need for real time spyware just do a scan once a week with add-aware.

Here is how you stop that problem at the source... prevention is better than cure.

 

[NathanE]

NO PERSONAL ATTACKS. You can be infected with a key-logging rootkit just by loading JavaScript; Windows OR Linux.

Lies. A cross-platform vulnerability like that comes around like every decade... it certainly isn't left wide open for more than a few days after discovery. Microsoft especially are the market leaders at providing security patches. If a big enough vulnerability is discovered they will release a hot fix via WU within literally a couple days.