So AV is needed is it?

I use Avast purely because every now and then I plug in external drives from work or private jobs and sometimes these can be carrying a virus.

I suppose I could just turn it on before I plug in one of these drives though but one day I'd probably forget :p
 
To be honest with today's computers a good AV program would have little to no noticeable impact on system performance.

I run NOD32 on my 4 year old laptop and I have no performance decrease.
 
I went bareback for a while, but I'm a paranoid person.

I've got ClamWin installed now. It updates it's definitions every hour, doesn't have an on-access scan (so no slowdown) and has a right-click menu option to scan folders or files.

shoot1st said:
You can be careful, but I picked up a trojan the other day from a bbc website - NOD32 instantly spotted it, but would I have noticed it without an AV installed?
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How did you pick up a trojan just by browsing the BBC website?
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SiriusB said:
To be honest with today's computers a good AV program would have little to no noticeable impact on system performance.
Click to expand...

But a common question we get asked is "why is my PC running so slowly?"

The answer is either "it's full of malware" or "It's running Norton"
 
shoot1st said:
It's probably better to have AV and not need it than to.....etc

You can be careful, but I picked up a trojan the other day from a bbc website - NOD32 instantly spotted it, but would I have noticed it without an AV installed?
Click to expand...

link?
 
I do just as a habit really. I'd prefer to use something like e.g. Acronis True Image to clone back a working copy of windows should anything arise, rather than constantly run a AV.
 
No AV as along as your running behind a NAT router and know what your doing. Non computer people (parents etc.) should probably run some AV.

Norton can be more harm than spyware and viruses on an older computer. The amount of people who ask me to look as their computer because it's 'slow' and I find it running a trial copy of Norton from 2005.
 
Mr.Clark said:
How did you pick up a trojan just by browsing the BBC website?
Click to expand...

bledd. said:
link?
Click to expand...

Obviously NOD32 spotted it and stopped it from doing it's thing, so I didn't actually pick it up and I didn't look in to it to see what exactly the threat was.

The info from NOD32 logs ...

18/09/2007 - link - probably a variant of Perl/Exploit.Generic.L trojan - Connection terminated

I've just had a look at the site again with no problems. I'd put a screen shot up so you could see exactly what it says in the log but it would be huge, if anyone wants to see the log though I can happily send you it :)
 
This is why I run free AVG, but not sure if it would be any good at spotting webpage issues like this.

Would be interesting to know if the people that don't run AV just visit the same old sites, and never go surfing. As surfing brings increased risk.
 
shoot1st said:
Obviously NOD32 spotted it and stopped it from doing it's thing, so I didn't actually pick it up and I didn't look in to it to see what exactly the threat was.

The info from NOD32 logs ...

18/09/2007 - link - probably a variant of Perl/Exploit.Generic.L trojan - Connection terminated

I've just had a look at the site again with no problems. I'd put a screen shot up so you could see exactly what it says in the log but it would be huge, if anyone wants to see the log though I can happily send you it :)
Click to expand...

BBC website? Almost without any doubt a false positive. IMHO no AV if behind a router and you know what you're doing. Otherwise yes. Evidence - 3 years on XP and IE with NOD32 behind a router and not a single piece of malware. Now on Vista - when my NOD sub expired didn't bother renewing.
 
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