As long as I don't do anything stupid...

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legoman666

Gawd
Joined
Dec 21, 2003
Messages
638
Is anti virus really even necessary? I just reinstalled windows about 4 days ago (I had WinXP x64 Pro, but Steam has problems with it, so I installed 32bit) and didn't bother to install any antivirus this time around. This may seem rash, but I haven't had a virus warning from nod32 (had nod32 installed when I was using x64) for > 1 year.

So I figure I must be doing something right with my browsing habits. This will be my first time with no antivirus. (Do have a hard firewall though).
 
Anti-Virus? Say wha?

Aside from my IPCop box I run no Anti-Virus. :eek:
 
If you are careful you probably don't need Anti-Virus software. I think of having no AV as not wearing my seatbelt. Sure I may be fine without it but what-if?
 
I had no antivirus for a couple years a couple years ago (lol). One day I turned on my computer and there was a popup message saying something along the lines of "you're gonna need more than ZoneAlarm to protect you."

I freaked. Found AVG, installed it, found a trojan and not knowing what was taken or what else was on there I reformated. I've been running antivirus ever since. It's scary to think what someone could find or take from your computer without you even knowing. The message seemed more like he was helping me out but I took no chances.

It's not a big performance hit to have antivirus. Unless it is solely a gaming machine with no financials on there then maybe but you won't see me recommending it to anyone.
 
There's no way I'd run a machine without AV on it. I spend 25% of my service time removing Viruses, Trojans and Spyware from people's computers. I don't need it on my own.

The $39 a year for NOD32 is well worth the money IMHO.

Shame that it's needed, but real life says it is.
 
DragonNOA1 said:
I had no antivirus for a couple years a couple years ago (lol). One day I turned on my computer and there was a popup message saying something along the lines of "you're gonna need more than ZoneAlarm to protect you."

I freaked. Found AVG, installed it, found a trojan and not knowing what was taken or what else was on there I reformated. I've been running antivirus ever since. It's scary to think what someone could find or take from your computer without you even knowing. The message seemed more like he was helping me out but I took no chances.
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You sure this wasn't caused by the windows messenger service still being enabled? Did you actually have ZA enabled and blocking port 135?

No antivirus here. No problems. A combination of being a smart user and not doing nefarious stuff really goes a long way, along with keeping your system up to date of course.
 
SpaceHonkey said:
You sure this wasn't caused by the windows messenger service still being enabled? Did you actually have ZA enabled and blocking port 135?
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This was from a messenger window but I was behind a router and ZA was enabled. Like I said, I found a trojan on my computer after I received the message on bootup.

How come all the noobies here are the ones who roll without antivirus? Nuff said.
 
TechLarry said:
There's no way I'd run a machine without AV on it. I spend 25% of my service time removing Viruses, Trojans and Spyware from people's computers. I don't need it on my own.

The $39 a year for NOD32 is well worth the money IMHO.

Shame that it's needed, but real life says it is.
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Same. I know too many people who won't shell out 40 bucks for AV, but then need to pay me 100/hr to clean up their systems. Usually, about once a year.

Seems silly. Especially when Nod32 works as well as it does, and is resource light as it is.
 
DragonNOA1 said:
How come all the noobies here are the ones who roll without antivirus? Nuff said.
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You beet me to it. I don't know of anyone, for the most part, who has any IT experience who would recommend running with out it on a Windows machine.
 
For those that don't run any anti-virus software, how exactly do you know for certain you are virus free? Just because you don't think there is a problem doesn't mean there aren't and your PC isn't riddled with crap.
 
valve1138 said:
For those that don't run any anti-virus software, how exactly do you know for certain you are virus free? Just because you don't think there is a problem doesn't mean there aren't and your PC isn't riddled with crap.
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If I can't tell that my PC is riddled with crap, then how on earth does it matter? I don't use IE and Outlook, hell I don't even use Firefox. Flash is not installed. There are no financial records on here; the only thing I use it for is to play games. There is some school stuff on it, but that's all mirrored on my laptop (which has nod32). Besides, the definition of "riddled with crap" basically means your machine is so junked up that it's unusable. I think I might notice that.

I don't open suspicious email attachments, I don't go to shady websites (free warez zomg!), and I don't browse porn sites. I haven't had a virus warning from my AV in forever, so clearly I'm doing something right. The moment I get a popup is day I reinstall AV.

MorfiusX said:
You beet me to it. I don't know of anyone, for the most part, who has any IT experience who would recommend running with out it on a Windows machine.
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You're one of the ignorant people I've seen if you think post count on a forum I use mostly for FS/FT is indicative of IT experience.
 
So out of curiosity, I downloaded the free version of AVG, updated it, and did a system scan...0 threats. I don't ever run AV software on Windows XP SP2, and the last time I had a computer with a virus on it was the Michaelangelo virus that came on a 5 1/4" floppy from my stepdad's work...take that for what it's worth.
 
I seem to recall a year or two ago some security company got curious and put a brand new system on the net, with no firewall or AV. Within 12 seconds it had gotten a virus :eek:. If you're behind a firewall and are careful, then you *might* not need it, but why risk it?
 
Hurdler said:
I seem to recall a year or two ago some security company got curious and put a brand new system on the net, with no firewall or AV. Within 12 seconds it had gotten a virus :eek:. If you're behind a firewall and are careful, then you *might* not need it, but why risk it?
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Is it too much to ask for a bit of skepticism on your part regarding that claim? How would a computer get a virus just by sitting there online without some sort of OS exploit? The system was most likely not patched at all. And I suppose that whatever security company allegedly did this test and allegedly ended up with an infected computer within 12 seconds had no ulterior motive for said test, and was not using the results of said alleged test for their own profit and advertising, right?
 
Daggah said:
Is it too much to ask for a bit of skepticism on your part regarding that claim? How would a computer get a virus just by sitting there online without some sort of OS exploit? The system was most likely not patched at all. And I suppose that whatever security company allegedly did this test and allegedly ended up with an infected computer within 12 seconds had no ulterior motive for said test, and was not using the results of said alleged test for their own profit and advertising, right?
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I'll admit that I don't remember all the details, so I'll look and see if I can find the article. It did have an OS on it though.
 
legoman666 said:
it's also stupid of him to call me a noobie just because i don't post at this particular forum very often.
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I don't think he was calling you a noob because of your post count; I think it was because you were asking if it's ok to run without an AV.
 
Daggah said:
Is it too much to ask for a bit of skepticism on your part regarding that claim? How would a computer get a virus just by sitting there online without some sort of OS exploit? The system was most likely not patched at all. And I suppose that whatever security company allegedly did this test and allegedly ended up with an infected computer within 12 seconds had no ulterior motive for said test, and was not using the results of said alleged test for their own profit and advertising, right?
Click to expand...

It happened to my group when at college. We were making a website and our prof said we need to host it. So a couple group members found a pc and installed windows 2000 server, I believe, on it. Since the pc was old it took a few hours to install so once everything was installed they left it for the next day to start configuring.

Well, if you know a thing about college networks, many pc's have outside public IP's. The next day my group came in and found out the college network had blocked all network access to it b/c it was infected with tons of files and sharing them out to some place in Russia.

We weren't doing it to make the front page, it's a true story and stuff like that happens.

XOR != OR said:
I don't think he was calling you a noob because of your post count; I think it was because you were asking if it's ok to run without an AV.
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Many things go in to calling a someone a noob. I'm sure your (not you XOR) low post count in addition to your noobish comment didn't help things. Maybe it's b/c you are also trying to start a fight in here. Regardless, many factors add up to make you a noob. For more reasons, ask the person who said it to you. I'm just playing devil's advocate.

Merry Christmas :D
 
Fact - You cannot control the security of the websites you visit. Therefore if said website is compromised and malicious code is posted that exploits a security flaw in either a browser or web technology (e.g. Flash), then you will be infected.

A perfect example was Kelly Blue Book. Malicious code was posted on KBB's website prior to a patch fixing the issue or AV software being updated to detect it.
 
DragonNOA1 said:
How come all the noobies here are the ones who roll without antivirus? Nuff said.
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This kind of statement is completely inappropriate and highly offensive.

My number of posts or join date does not reflect my total experience in IT. I happen to be a smart enough user such that viruses and malware have never been an issue for me. I periodically run checks, and it's never been a problem. With proper education (including knowing how to setup an infrastructure to prevent exposure in the first place) it IS possible to have a clean system with no AV running constantly.

I apologize for overlooking the statement about actually having a virus. Truthfully I was probably doing 10 things at once and that part slipped my mind when I decided to reply.

If you want to throw punches, keep them to yourself. As an apparently 'more experienced' forum member, you should already know this.
 
SpaceHonkey said:
This kind of statement is completely inappropriate and highly offensive.

My number of posts or join date does not reflect my total experience in IT. I happen to be a smart enough user such that viruses and malware have never been an issue for me. I periodically run checks, and it's never been a problem. With proper education (including knowing how to setup an infrastructure to prevent exposure in the first place) it IS possible to have a clean system with no AV running constantly.

I apologize for overlooking the statement about actually having a virus. Truthfully I was probably doing 10 things at once and that part slipped my mind when I decided to reply.

If you want to throw punches, keep them to yourself. As an apparently 'more experienced' forum member, you should already know this.
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Those were my thoughts exactly. Sorry to burst all of your bubbles, but this isn't the only forum on the interweb...
 
SpaceHonkey said:
This kind of statement is completely inappropriate and highly offensive.
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It was only in response to your offensive comment to me. I tried to lessen the offensiveness by saying no AV could be done but no, everyone wants to start waving their e-penors around. You and legoman are acting very defensive. You guys need to grow up and let it go. I don't give a damn about post count and said post count is only one factor in calling you a noob.

I'm unsubscribing from this thread. Go ahead attack me all you want now, you'll get no response and you'll feel like the big man on the interwebs.
 
DragonNOA1 said:
It was only in response to your offensive comment to me. I tried to lessen the offensiveness by saying no AV could be done but no, everyone wants to start waving their e-penors around. You and legoman are acting very defensive. You guys need to grow up and let it go. I don't give a damn about post count and said post count is only one factor in calling you a noob.

I'm unsubscribing from this thread. Go ahead attack me all you want now, you'll get no response and you'll feel like the big man on the interwebs.
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Well, Dragon - I'm sorry. I truly didn't mean to be offensive. This is obviously just another example of how lack of inflection (just reading and not face to face) is not the best way to communicate. Now that I re-read my response I can see how it could look that way.

At least most of us seem to agree that is really is possible to do what the OP said and run without AV running.

Here is how I do things for reference -
No AV real-time agents. I have an XP desktop, iMac, gentoo laptop, gentoo server, DGL-4300. I only scan for viruses/malware when I suspect anything. Now suspicion is relevant. I know my baseline for all my systems and network. All computers have all unneccessary services disabled. All have firewalls running. Only 2 users, myself and my fairly adept wife. She knows to let me do the dirty work. The server has 2 nics configured as a bridge, with all internet traffic going through it. It also has an IDS installed and I check the logs daily. External ports that I leave open on the router, other than http/https, have been moved to uncommon ports. The router sends syslog info to the server. I also am typically ssh'd into the server, leaving it up on my second monitor watching logs, bandwidth, ip conversations, etc. All systems are up to date on patches, desktops automatically; linux manually usually weekly. I really do keep tabs on all things on my network. I also have a second wifi router which cannot access the LAN that visitors can use for net access. All confidential files are encrypted via GPG.

I'm sure that I'm still leaving stuff out too. So anyway, yes it's possible. I don't recommend most people do it, but for very skilled techies - it is an option.

Sorry again for the confusion.
 
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