Is antivirus software really necessary?

I wasn't gonna post here since the thread was old, but now that the newbie opened it. I agree, Real-time AV is unnecessary. I use Panda ActiveScan from www.pandasoftware.com once every couple of months and rarely find anything actually malicious.

I take care in what I DL, and I can tell you that I go to sites you are sure to find crap on. I use SP2, have Ad-Aware, but use it as often as Panda, and I have no performance issues that I didn't have upon fresh installation anyways.

A_T

PS - Ratmonkey, you aren't supposed to post in threads that have the dates flashing, that means it's old/defunct.

Sorry, assumed that since I could add a reply that it was open....

I know, I'm a, St00p1d n00b

-The Rat.

On my mom's or my girlfriend's computers it is necessary.

On my computer the only active protection I use is Mike Lin's StartupMonitor.

Start-up monitors are a silly waste.

cheers,

catch

Quote:

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Antivirus software is like a condom. Personally, I prefer the piece of mind that comes with using it.

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DITTO.

If we didn't run real time AV in my corporate network we would be overrun by viruses... remember all the LSASS and RPC based viruses?

Just today we had one user get the download.trojan "virus" from a malicious website (that wasn't in websense) with no interaction from his side other than going to the site. Realtime scanning caught it and quarantined it before it could get loose and wreak havoc inside of our network.

For those thinking that just because you have a firewall that is locked down that you are safe, well you are in for a eye opener one day.

I don't think any one is saying that perimeter security is sufficient to prevent losses from malware.

cheers,

catch

* farts *

I'm not use anyone removal tool, i write my own tool, basically it is a "security auditor" thats can "spy" all processes and take the policy "when run a very strong appz stop it and send me a question for yes or not it's can run" and append a hueristic alarm. Yea i know, thats sound like a fantasy, but i test this one four years and solve all my security problems (except for Microsoft office, this is a bad example for best techniques for programming.....


in spanish "saludos a todos"