Anti-Virus Software - Avast! Demo

Hi,
I've never thought about Anti-Virus Software for my MacBook Pro before. I've had it since the beginning of 2006 and i've never had a virus related problem.
I've found the Avast! Demo on the Apple downloads section and my question is... Is there any need for it?? I suppose there's no harm installing it, or is there a better full version?

Just as i'd thought.
I ran a full scan and not even a teeny tiny virus showed up! No warnings or threats. Zilch! No need for it at all. It's a 60 Day free trial so any trace of Avast! will be deleted from my Mac in 2 months time.

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Anti-virus software: Avast or MS Security Essential for my W530?

I did not purchase an anti-virus software but initiated the free 30 day use of Norton. Should I download the free Avast or MS security + Malwarebytes anti-malware software for my W530? Or is Norton still the best compared to these free softwares?
Thank you very much.

MSE is... sufficient. Not exactly up there in terms of detection rates compared to paid and well-established solutions.
Avira is nice, and MBAM is good for offline scans. Having a Kaspersky Rescue Disc (free, but offline) is probably a good idea anyway.
W520: i7-2720QM, Q2000M at 1080/688/1376, 21GB RAM, 500GB + 750GB HDD, FHD screen
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I have just updated Firefox on my desktop. In order to operate it had to disable avast, my open source excellent anti virus software - a surprise that Firefox is compatible! Is there an avast! update that is compatible? Or a fix from Firefox coming?

I prefer using Firefox over other browsers however I will have to switch if there isn't a fix. I am surprised since it is an excellent open source anti virus software.

Don't disable your antivirus software!
Can you explain the problem in more detail? These two issues come to mind:
(1) Avast protects against program changes. When Firefox changed, Avast blocked it, and you do not have an obvious way to approve the change.
(2) One or more Avast browser add-ons has not yet been marked as compatible with Firefox 5, so those add-ons were disabled. However, this has no effect on your protection outside of Firefox.

Internet/Anti-Virus Software/Clean-Up

I'm fairly new to Macs (ex-IBM user). I was told that I don't need anti-virus software with a Mac. Is that true? My Macbook seems to run a little slower as a surf the net now that I've had it for a few months. Should I have anti-virus software? Is there a way to "clean up" my Macbook from all the surfing and browsing? If I need the software - what is a good one for the Mac?
Thanks!

Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on spyware and viruses. There's also an excellent FAQ on system optimization.
There currently are no known viruses affecting OS X. There are several anti-virus programs that are sold through software retailers. You can often find demos here: VersionTracker or MacUpdate. An excellent open source program is ClamXAV. You can download it at the sites just referenced.
Kappy's Personal Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utilities are: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.0 is now Intel Mac compatible. TechTool Pro provides additional repair options including file repair and recovery, system diagnostics, and disk defragmentation. TechTool Pro 4.5.2 is Intel Mac compatible; Drive Genius is similar to TechTool Pro in terms of the various repair services provided. The current version, 1.5.1, is Intel Mac compatible.
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep.
OS X automatically defrags files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems.
I would also recommend downloading the shareware utility TinkerTool System that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old logfiles and archives, clearing caches, etc.
For emergency repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the commandline.
When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. PsynchX 2.1.1 and RsyncX 2.1 (Freeware)
6. Carbon Copy Cloner (Freeware - 3.0 is a Universal Binary)
The following utilities can also be used for backup, but cannot create bootable clones:
1. Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
2. Toast
3. Impression
4. arRSync
Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of also backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility as are the other two.
Impression and Toast are disk image based backups, only. Particularly useful if you need to backup to CD/DVD across multiple media.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
Additional suggestions will be found in Mac Maintenance Quick Assist.
Referenced software can be found at www.versiontracker.com and www.macupdate.com.
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Anti-virus Software Interfering with LR3

Just figured I'd post a note concerning at least one LR3 issue of mine being caused by seemingly harmless software running alongside.
I had been having issues with LR3 when deleting photographs, issues that arose as early as LR3 beta 1. Sometimes LR3 would randomly hang up, taking up to a minute to delete only 4 or 5 photographs. Occassionally, it would freeze up and I'd be forced to go into the Task Manager, kill the lightroom.exe process, and restart the application. My posts about this on the LR3 beta forums yielded no leads.
Today I started having the problem again with LR3. While waiting for it to finish deleting, I noticed that the system tray icon for Avast! Antivirus was spinning around (indicating it was 'working'). Out of curiosity I decided to disable Avast! and, all of the sudden, the problem was solved. Now LR3 just deletes photographs instantly without a single hiccup. Here I had thought LR3 had this very annoying bug, when it was an incidental lack of compatability with my anti-virus software all along. Well, I suppose it can still be called a bug... but at least it is a bug that can be remedied without waiting for an LR3 update.
I don't know if this can help others, but try to disable your anti-virus software in temporary tests to see if performance of LR3 improves. Antivirus didn't affect LR3s overall performance in my case, but given my discovery it is reasonable to think that other anti-virus softwares could potentially be bogging down LR3 on others machines in different ways.

I would accept that if not for the fact that lightroom 2 worked perfectly
in the same setup and catalog.
I'm going to try selectivly disabling the virus checker on some directories until i find the correct one.
Best Wishes,
Darren McInnes

Cisco Jabber for Windows - Anti-Virus Software

Hello,
Cisco Jabber for Windows could not resolve outlook contacts, when a client has installed McAffee Anti-Virus Software.
Is there any documentation available, how to setup a Anti-Virus Software, to get Cisco Jabber for Windows running?
Cisco Jabber for Windows Version 9.2.4 Build 4528
Outlook 2013
Thanks
Alex

this is all what we mention about antivirus; http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/jabber/Windows/9_2/JABW_BK_J6915A59_00_jabber-windows-server-setup/JABW_BK_J6915A59_00_jabber-windows-server-setup_chapter_00.html
Some antivirus or firewall applications, such as Symantec EndPoint Protection, block inbound CDP packets, which disables desk phone video capabilities. You should configure your antivirus or firewall application to allow inbound CDP packets. See the following Symantec technical document for additional details about this issue: Cisco IP Phone version 7970 and Cisco Unified Video Advantage is Blocked by Network Threat Protection.
with that being said; we probably would like to get the jabber process excluded from the antivirus list so that it allows for inbound MAPI communication as that is what is used for quering for the outlook contact.
The only process that ever runs from Jabber for windows is "CiscoJabber.exe" which is located in the following path:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Cisco Systems\Cisco Jabber
i hope this helps.

I have what appears to be a virus on my Mac namely MAL/FAK AV-OQ how can I remove it? I have only discovered after running SOPHOS anti virus software???

I have what appears to be a virus on my mac namely MAL/FAK AV-OQ I only discovered it after installing SOPHOS anti virus software.
I cannot remove it automatically with this software it says it has to be done manually.
Where do I start???
Help req'd urgently

That is Windows malware, and cannot affect your Mac. See:
http://www.sophos.com/en-us/threat-center/threat-analyses/viruses-and-spyware/Ma l~FakeAV-OQ.aspx
It may be attached to an e-mail message or could be something that was copied over from a Windows machine via flash drive or something similar. If it is attached to an e-mail message, simply delete the e-mail. (Do not let Sophos, or any other anti-virus software, quarantine the message or attachment! That can corrupt the mailbox that the message resides in.) If it isn't an e-mail message, you can let Sophos quarantine and delete the file or you can delete it yourself.

Anti-virus software on Windows XP pro sp3 with Virtual PC

Hi,
I'm running Virtual PC 7.0.3 with Windows XP pro Sp3 on eMac. Has anyone found the need to run a anti-virus software etc as part of the Windows system? Or will the firewall on the broadband router modem be sufficient protection?
Many thanks.

Thanks for the reply.
Any recommendations on AV software?
I tried installing a free version of AVG AV but the install would not complete, I ended the process after 1.5 hours.

Once and for all: Do I need anti-virus software for my Mac?

I've always heard that you don't really need anti-virus or anti-spyware software for Macs - but I do wonder that there has to be viruses about that would affect Macs?
I do alot of creative and professional work on my Mac. The data on it, means a **** of a lot to me, and I'd hate for my Mac to be infected with something horrible.
Could anybody please tell me if I really do need anti-virus or anti-spyware software for my iMac? And if I do, which one do you recommend? (Ideally I would want it to be cheap and not hog lots of system resources)...
Thank you!

Hi
I can only give you my personal experience on this one.
The short answer is "no". I've been using macs for the past 4 years, my partner for many more. Neither I nor she have an anti virus program installed.
We both use firewall on both the os x setup and via our router. I tend to install the security updates posted by apple after they are released and check the forums to be aware of any potential problems.
A much better idea is to back up your important projects etc on a regular basis to dvd and external hard disk.
I have one experience of anti-virus software on the mac:
About 2.5 years ago i thought i had a virus - my diskspace was being eaten up at a very very fast rate - and i was worried. Found out that the os update from 10.3.2 to 10.3.5 had an incompatability issue with the mcafee shock game controller driver (obscure eh!)
Anyway, after this experience and deleting the driver which i no longer needed, i decided to err on the side of caution and tried out both mcafee and norton. Both of which slowed down my system and norton especially caused problems when i was running logic pro etc. really really annoying.
Once i'd got over my "insecure" stage and having spoken to other mac users i realised anti-virus software was causing many many more issues than resolving any - and besides since then i have still had no problems and have never come across any viruses on mac os x.
It all depends on what makes you feel safer. Personally i wouldn't recommend ant-virus programs... i wonder if anyone has any positive experiences of anti-virus software on the mac?
that's my 0.02 pence

Since download of Firefox Hello desktop & laptop both on Windows 7 are very slow even after refresh, download history removed and anti virus software turned off

Since download of Firefox Hello my home desktop & laptop, both on Windows 7, are very slow to open. I have refreshed firefox, removed download history and turned off the anti virus software in extensions. All the plugins are up to date. Can we revert back to Firefox without Firefox Hello?

Firefox Hello is simply a wrapper for technology already in Firefox, it doesn't negatively impact performance if you aren't using it. Are you saying that your entire computer is slow or just Firefox?

When I down loaded the new upate a message said that the upgrade was not compatible with my anti-virus software so they disabled it. This is unacceptable.

I got a message to up grade Firefox so I did. At a certain time in the process a message came up and said that you have some add ons that aren't compatible with this software so they will be disabled. At this time I tried to stop the up grade because I don't like things just being disabled, but it would not allow me to do so. As I continued to the next screen it told me that the software that was disabled was my anti-virus software. I run a business on my computer and am not happy that the protection of my computer and its contents is at risk.

Firefox 4 is itself no longer supported and is not secure so the choice is between firefox 5 and firefox 3.6.
Firefox 5 currently [/questions/839953#answer-205178 has problems] with the McAfee site advisor, but the McAfee AV still works ok with it; is that the AV you are using or is it something else ?

Anti Virus Software....Do I need It On My MacBook Pro??

Hi
I was given the impression I didn't need anti virus software for my 1yo MacBook Pro?? am I correct or stupid? Please Help.....

Roadzee wrote:
Even better thanks...the question I have now is..do you recommend AV software if so what one is the best??
Thanks.
I have been using Macs with OS X since the day OS X was launched on March 24, 2001. (BTW, an experience I will never ever ever repeat, despite the overall clunkiness of OS9.) I have never downloaded, purchased, used, tested, or thought about using an anti-virus software. I still don't. In all that time, I have never experienced malware, trojan horses, and/or viruses. Whenever I read about these trojan horses or malware, it almost always requires user acquiesence, rarely superior coding of the malware.
Look, don't allow anything to have root access to your computer by keeping it secure by password, and only enter the password when you're sure of what's requiring it. Don't download anything that you don't trust. In other words, download Adobe Photoshop from Adobe's website, not from some random website in the Ukraine. I don't like anti-virus software because they gobble up system resources that don't need to go something like protecting the Mac from nonexistent trouble.
But if you're going to lose sleep over this, then get ClamXav. But it's really a waste of your time.

Just bought new macbook pro, do I need anti-virus software?

Does a new macbook pro come with anit-virus software already loaded on it?

ya, the OS it self, but in all seriousness. no there is not standard anti-virus and most people get more issues from anti-virus software than from any virus out there. there are very very few viruses written for macs and for the most part i cannot see how it could slip in easily to your machine.
some people around here do use them but i do not so the only advice i can give you really is that norton AV is not that good for Apple compared to the other ones out there but really its not a big deal to get it.
-matt

Do we need anti virus softwares for Mac book pro?

do we need antivirus softwares for mac book pro?

That is a complex question, whose answer depends greatly on you. See my Mac Malware Guide for the information you need to protect yourself and to make a decision about anti-virus software.

Shall i buy anti virus software for my MAC pro lion

Do I need to install anti-virus software for my Mac pro?

You do not need any anti-virus for a Mac.
Do not download any software from the web to protect your Mac.
Apple releases updates that will offer all the protection a Mac needs.
Keep the software updated.
Many in this community use ClamXav and recommend using it.
Best.

Anti-Virus Software - Avast! Demo

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