Know of a good antivirus utility for OS X? Tell me!

placeboplacebo
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Lately, I've seen that aving a Mac does not save you from all virus trouble , and I want to buy an antivirus suite, like Norton Antivirus. From what I have read, Norton inhibits performance, induces kernel panics, and and has an inconsistent interface. The only other virus software I could find for OS X was Virex, which got bad reviews, and Intego's virus software, which I could find NO reviews on. SOOO...If you have any disagreements with the reviews that I have stated, or know of a good anti-virus utility for OS X PLEASE tell me what YOUR opinion on the software is, and give me a link or URL.

Thanks for helping. 8)



Mods-- I'm assuming that I got it right this time, but if this is a Genius Bar thread, feel free.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 17
    mrmistermrmister Posts: 1,095member
    It doesn't? What viruses are affecting you? i have not seen any that affect OS X, and i have done a lot of looking in these matters.



    I mean, so long as you have macros off in Word, Powerpoint, etc. the worst you should be able to do is send a virus to someone else, and to that you'd have to actually forward the email to them with the virus attached.
  • Reply 2 of 17
    vandewaalsvandewaals Posts: 450member
    I have Virex 7.2 via my .Mac membership. It seems fine to me. Although the 7.2 release put this weird "sw" folder at the root level of my hard drive that apparently screws up fink installations. I recall Brad saying that this was a bad implementation, and I assume it will be fixed in future update. Norton's products I have heard nothing but bad things about...avoid them. Virex is simple and straightforward. I have yet to find a virus in anything I download (knock on wood). With Brickhouse controlling my firewall, I feel like I have a very secure set-up.
  • Reply 3 of 17
    chychchych Posts: 860member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Placebo

    Lately, I've seen that aving a Mac does not save you from all virus trouble



    Please elaborate! Only reason for virus killers on OS X I see are to get rid of any PC virus that somehow find their way to your harddrive or app specific viruses like stuff for word. I don't use any virus suites myself anyway.
  • Reply 4 of 17
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    mrmister, VanDeWaals, and chych are right. There aren't any Mac OS X-native viruses about for you to be so worried about.



    Why do you seem so strung-out about this?
  • Reply 5 of 17
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    I have this wierd macro that takes my friends email addresses, and then sends ads, etc. to my friends under my email address. I just want to know of a good utility.
  • Reply 6 of 17
    switchfromdellswitchfromdell Posts: 101member
    [QUOTE]Originally posted by Placebo

    [B]Lately, I've seen that aving a Mac does not save you from all virus trouble , and I want to buy an antivirus suite, like Norton Antivirus. From what I have read, Norton inhibits performance, induces kernel panics, and and has an inconsistent interface. The only other virus software I could find for OS X was Virex, which got bad reviews, and Intego's virus software, which I could find NO reviews on. SOOO...If you have any disagreements with the reviews that I have stated, or know of a good anti-virus utility for OS X PLEASE tell me what YOUR opinion on the software is, and give me a link or URL.

    Thanks for helping. 8)



    Since I have many old PC files and most of E-mails are from PC'ers often with attachments, I searched for antivirsus which would be native with OS X and also scan PC generated documents/attachments. I only found 2...Virex 7.2 and Norton 9.O. At the time, Virex 7.2 was only available with .Mac and Norton 9.0 was in beta. Since I just bought my first Mac last week (iMac 17), I went with .Mac for first yr for antivirsus and primer for other features. So far, I have had no problems with Virex 7.2 which has automatic virus update (it is scheduled to scan on boot up but I never shut down the iMac). However, when I imported several PC files last night, Virex automatically scanned them. Generally, I scan the computer couple times a week.



    From reading the specs on Norton Antivirsus 9.0, it seemed the best.

    After first yr with .Mac, I will evaluate whether to buy Norton and other SW (such as backup) or stay with .Mac.



  • Reply 7 of 17
    stupider...likeafoxstupider...likeafox Posts: 1,618member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Placebo

    I have this wierd macro that takes my friends email addresses, and then sends ads, etc. to my friends under my email address. I just want to know of a good utility.



    I don't mean to be rude but this sounds highly unlikely. What software was the macro in and what do you use for email?
  • Reply 8 of 17
    zapchudzapchud Posts: 844member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by stupider...likeafox

    I don't mean to be rude but this sounds highly unlikely. What software was the macro in and what do you use for email?



    This sounds like a M$ Outlook issue
  • Reply 9 of 17
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Maybe I'm just overly paranoid and technically naîve. I just want some recommendations. From what I've heard, macros are the most common Mac "viruses". Go Figure (TM)
  • Reply 10 of 17
    mrmistermrmister Posts: 1,095member
    Well, get Virex then...it works well.



    But truthfully, you don't need any.
  • Reply 11 of 17
    whyatt thrashwhyatt thrash Posts: 421member
    The most likely thing that has happened is that someone you know using MS Outlook has been infected with a virus. There are viruses (for Windows, mind you) that opens up the infected computer's adress book, sends the virus to these adresses, and then fakes the "sent" header in the email to make it look like the email came from another adress from the adress book. So someone using Windows & Outlook that has your name in his adress book is infected. Not you.
  • Reply 12 of 17
    amoryaamorya Posts: 1,103member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Whyatt Thrash

    The most likely thing that has happened is that someone you know using MS Outlook has been infected with a virus. There are viruses (for Windows, mind you) that opens up the infected computer's adress book, sends the virus to these adresses, and then fakes the "sent" header in the email to make it look like the email came from another adress from the adress book. So someone using Windows & Outlook that has your name in his adress book is infected. Not you.



    Yeah, that's probably what happened. Many of these PC viruses will pretend that they came from someone else.



    The address that they pretend that they're from is usually in the address book of the infected computer - so check all your friends!



    Amorya
  • Reply 13 of 17
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Thanks. Now I have yet another bullet to add to my anti-Windows arsenal. Does Virex require .Mac?
  • Reply 14 of 17
    switchfromdellswitchfromdell Posts: 101member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Placebo

    Thanks. Now I have yet another bullet to add to my anti-Windows arsenal. Does Virex require .Mac?



    No....can buy Virex 7.0...for details see this website:



    http://www.mcafee.com/myapps/vs7/



    But, Virex 7.2 has better virus definition update via eUpdate.



    The Norton Antivirus looks very promising but is in beta...see the website below:



    http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/mac/18381



    Good luck!
  • Reply 15 of 17
    whyatt thrashwhyatt thrash Posts: 421member
    Seriously, has anyone here ever gotten a virus on their Mac? I got the 666 virus few years back, and it was a pretty big hassle to get rid of. But that's the only "dangerous" Mac-virus I've heard of the last decade.



    Running virus-protection on MacOS X is like running for president in a one-man country...
  • Reply 16 of 17
    mrmistermrmister Posts: 1,095member
    Never, on any of the 30 odd Macs I've administrated.
  • Reply 17 of 17
    chychchych Posts: 860member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Whyatt Thrash

    Seriously, has anyone here ever gotten a virus on their Mac? I got the 666 virus few years back, and it was a pretty big hassle to get rid of. But that's the only "dangerous" Mac-virus I've heard of the last decade.



    Running virus-protection on MacOS X is like running for president in a one-man country...



    I got the 666, aka 'SevenDust' virus too, though a non lethal strain a few years back. Got it from downloading something and something else happeneing, I vaguely remember. Had to boot on a boot cd and run the virus killer and replace the system and finder, stupid thing corrupted the resource forks of all apps that you launched, and you had to remove all instances of the virus to get rid of it (only noticable symptom it did was slow down application launching).



    Oh well that was OS 9, where viruses, although rare, did exist. Still never installed a virus killer after that, heh.
Sign In or Register to comment.