Is AntiVirus Software Really Necessary?

Hey Guys.

i totally agree with yall, on AV programs effectiveness. A users is the real AV Program. If you notice your system booting oddly, chances are you have a virus, if you have exe. files running in your task process chances are you have a virus, if your web suring is moving at snail like speeds and you have cable. chances are you picked up a worm.

Stay focused fellow users, your the AV.

Lindows

Hey Guys.

i totally agree with yall, on AV programs effectiveness. A users is the real AV Program. If you notice your system booting oddly, chances are you have a virus, if you have exe. files running in your task process chances are you have a virus, if your web suring is moving at snail like speeds and you have cable. chances are you picked up a worm.

Stay focused fellow users, your the AV.

Lindows

Most of the "users" I know, would'nt even spot most of those symptoms. The only one they would spot would be the slow internet. Even then, they would just assume that lots of other people were on line at the same time. So, I'm sorry if I buck the trend. But, I believe for "normal" users some kind of AV is better than nothing.

Is an old thread but I thought I would like to chip into this one...

For any AV solution to have a fix for any particular virus that pops up on the net takes typically 4-6 weeks from finding the new bug in the wild. A brand new virus targetted well could wreak absolute havoc before it is eventually dealt with. God forbid these idiots ever get themselves organised.

However, having an up to date AV solution will at least keep the old ones from doing the rounds and also fend off the practicing virii writers who have just tweaked someone else's code a bit and calling it their own.

Wide spread up to date AV solutions help flush out the old rubbish to stop it going round and round the net.

To the vast majority of people, Windows and IE is a computer. They have absolutely no idea of the different flavours possible. Who would have thought 10 years ago that many many people would have permanently connected internet ready PCs in the home by this time. However, in the long run they are learning slowly.... painfully slowly I agree but they are getting there. As more kids who learnt computers at school are coming up the chain the better it will become.

Windows has many holes I'm sure we all agree but the vast majority of normal users using IE as their web browser is the gateway which is the biggest problem. With these two in combination are so prolific throughout the world, these are the ones most highly targetted by malicious spotty virii/etc writers and hence why it spreads so much.

Yes *nix is a lot more robust in this area but it's only because it's market desktop share is minimul when your writing something nasty and you want to target the biggest audience. I have seen worms in unix before now so it is not impregnable.. don't get complacent on that one.

Lately I have been trying out different browsers as, after all these years, I have no faith that IE 7 will be any better at all despite it's claims. Firefox is starting to become widely used but that is already starting to attract unwanted attention. Opera seems nice having an interface not to different from old IE and the control on your browsing and what comes down the pipe is very nice .

However, I am certain that soon enough, opera will be targetted too.


Also, more people getting permanently connected broadband only increases the problem. The number of times I have found someone poking around my dirty side PCs is too high to count and from all sorts of weird and wonderfull places throughout the world.

It gets deeper and deeper the more you look into it. It's really becoming a jungle out there. IT/PCs/Internet/etc is still in it's infancy when compare it say to Mathematics. The more readers of sites like this who go on to become CCSP's will help win the war over the spottys in the long run.


Sorry for the long post. This is a field of networking that interests me quite a lot.

if u can know the concepts behind anti virus engines u will kno their necessities

if u can know the concepts behind anti virus engines u will kno their necessities

Master talk2sp, please enlighten me with your infinite wisdom on anti-virus engines concepts.

Starfire, Antivirus softwares are very important no matter what.

It is a good idea to read/google on the subject to know a little bit about just what they can do.

Most systems like Unix/Linux and Mac OS do not really bother much when it comes to having Antivirus. But for others you definitely need it from the moment you finish your install of OS.

Most Antivirus like AVG Antivirus have free editions, there are others but AVG has always worked for me, not to forget Ewido Anti-Malware/Spyware.

Piece of advice: For WINDOWS OS's Antivirus is a MUST!!!
Cheers!