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| Thread ID: 100052 | 2009-05-24 09:22:00 | Look ma, no AV | Saucy (14844) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 776515 | 2009-05-25 00:30:00 | Probably I dont use any of them. If it'll give you viruses, its good enough | Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
| 776516 | 2009-05-25 00:35:00 | Torrenting can give you viruses, but not if you're a smart torrenter. And its rare that viruses ever get uploaded to private trackers. Never use the public trackers much now. |
Blam (54) | ||
| 776517 | 2009-05-25 00:38:00 | Torrenting can give you viruses, but not if you're a smart torrenter. And its rare that viruses ever get uploaded to private trackers. Never use the public trackers much now. And ALWAYS read the comments. No comments no download. |
Rob99 (151) | ||
| 776518 | 2009-05-25 00:39:00 | A lot of people go for many years without having insurance on their cars or property and they get away without it. But is this a wise choice for everyone?:badpc: |
minster (9180) | ||
| 776519 | 2009-05-25 00:41:00 | A lot of people go for many years without having insurance on their cars or property and they get away without it. But is this a wise choice for everyone?:badpc: Dont get started on insurance, its like betting against your self. |
Rob99 (151) | ||
| 776520 | 2009-05-25 00:49:00 | And ALWAYS read the comments. No comments no download. Definetly agree with you on that. |
Blam (54) | ||
| 776521 | 2009-05-25 10:34:00 | Previously I have ran a PC without an AV, and windows updates (on dial up it's not very feasible to be downloading 10MB files every week, thus not allowing use of the phone). Now though, I wouldn't dream of it. On broadband I now have windows updates running, with either Nod32 or Avast running on all household pc's. On the dial-up topic, I have a feeling that it is more dangerous than broadband. You have no protection from the modem/router firewall. |
rumpty (2863) | ||
| 776522 | 2009-05-25 11:04:00 | I mentioned on another thread that I run Win7 without antivirus. It caused a bit of discussion and I don't want to hijack that other thread with an off topic discussion so I'll create a thread for it. As an expert user, running a standard user account with automatic updates on, daily backups, and defaults like UAC and the firewall switched on, and being very conservative about what I install on my computers, I feel very comfortable without antivirus installed. I've never had a virus on my computer. I've seen plenty of viruses on computers of people with the fanciest antivirus, usually because they automatic updates turned off, or they open email attachments and install software indiscriminately. Those people usually also use administrator accounts and don't do backups regularly. Seems to me, antivirus is mostly overhead that doesn't actually catch viruses consistently. If I'd been running antivirus the last 15 years it would have done me more harm than any virus. Sometimes, the antivirus is an attack vector itself! It's not what I recommend for everyone, I agree it's better for most people to have all the protection they can get, and antivirus does add one more layer. Unfortunately it seems to create a false sense of security, and causes people to forget other layers that are more important. So I recommend standard user accounts and UAC and switching on automatic updates and doing regular backups for everyone even if they have antivirus. I realise it's a bit controversial, but it's far from unique, there are a few others who have similar experiences (geekswithblogs.net) running Windows without antivirus (blogs.technet.com). Anyway, curious what people's views are. What do you do? What do you recommend others do? Do you use all the layers of defence built into the OS or ignore some? For example, using antivirus but reducing your security by using an administrator account instead of a standard user account, or by switching off UAC. I would tend to agree with most of this. If one were to look back on AV, antispyware and how they came to be, a lot of it was good marketing by Symantec/Nortons and other companies which ultimately made the end user quite paranoid. And that paranoia is still very rampant, more so than half the viruses. Seriously, how bad is a tracking cookie? Yes there are bad virus infestations out there, but this really only occurs because of end-user stupidity. If they didn't click the attachment, go to that porn site, download music off kazaa etc etc, then half of these outbreaks would be more of a murmur PEBKAC |
Myth (110) | ||
| 776523 | 2009-05-25 12:17:00 | UAC can hardly count as a layer of protection but to a very inexperienced user. That thing always stays off, probably the first thing I do when I install Vista on any machine is to turn UAC off. But what about when a friend comes over and puts a flash drive/usb stick into your machine to get some files?! If that drive is infected your PC will now be too, and you won't even know. But isn't that an example where UAC and standard user helps? Those visitors won't be able to install any nasties even if they wanted to. Unless they are really experts, but then antivirus wouldn't stand a chance anyway. Same deal with mum and dad if you don't tell them the admin password. :nerd: |
Saucy (14844) | ||
| 776524 | 2009-05-25 12:20:00 | My AV is probably bored most of the time, it never finds anything. However there have been a couple of occasions where, when browsing, I have gone to a website and NOD has blocked it and sent a warning. You never know, careful or not. Yeah you are right of course, it's the risks you choose to take. :punk Not sure how often an antivirus warning actually means the thing would have affected your PC though, I think a lot of the scanning happens before the OS defences like firewall or sandboxing of the browser or user accounts kick in. |
Saucy (14844) | ||
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