I dunno what your surfin but...

[delta88]

I haven't installed an Antivirus for sometime now.. And as far as apyware goes I loaded up the M$ AntiSPyware Beta1 (google it) and it runs everynight and updates wheneva and I never have any issues..now I did install NA2005 on my desktop casue thats teh P2P junkie box.. but to much amazment after about 6months of dl'n like a mad man 24/7 it found nothing ...and the only apyware is from a few crappy shareware apps I tried out...



So to round out.. are all of you using big flashy antivirus and spyware apps to keep clean.. do your pc's get that dirty? I surf the not so friendly area's from time to time..but come up clean..


-d88

[paigeoliver]

Getting that stuff is largely an intelligence thing. The spyware stuff mostly happens to people who just click yes on everything that pops up on their screen and install stupid applications with bundled spyware, and some spyware brings in other spyware.

I have only ever gotten one piece of spyware on my own personal PC and it happened not while I was using the computer, but while a friend of mine was.

Now, the public computer at my work. I could spend 40 hours a week removing spyware from it. We have tried locking the sucker down, but it generates too many complaints (it is supposed to be a full function computer, our stupid chain requires it), locking it down to actually make it safe for idiots to use kills too many things. Hiding IE and making all IE references point to Firefox generates more complaints, as a few websites (our own company website included) don't work with firefox.

I can't even keep AOL off the thing, or keep the security software running. Every single day when I come in the security software has been disabled, AOL has been installed (despite the large sign on the computer that states "Do not install AOL on this computer), and every message program on the face of the earth has been installed and set to run on bootup.

[missioncontrol]

I was working on a friends P.C. (format and re-installed windows) a few weeks ago and just after installed and updated AVG on it I ment to go to google but accedentally typed googfle insted and the anti-virus software caught 3 viruses trying to get into the computer......

[saint]

Paige - install Deep Freeze or GoBack - every night, just have it reload the original image you've created. Doesn't matter what they do during the day to it, the next day it's squeaky clean....

[saint]

You should count yourself lucky. One of the latest bits of fun is DNS hijacks, where DNS lookups are returned with a bogus address, so when you surf a "safe" page you end up on some spammers/malwares/hacker-wanna-be site, that attempts to install various malware on your system. This happens despite any good behavioral practices you have...

You're also trusting that everyone who emails you practices similar safe habits and won't email you a bug.

You're also trusting that the web pages you frequent won't get compromised.

Also - if you're not running antivirus, how do you know you haven't been infected? Not all bugs are obvious.  Suggest a trip to www.antivirus.com (owned by TrendMicro), and running their free online housecall antivirus scanner just to see.

--- saint

I haven't installed an Antivirus for sometime now.. And as far as apyware goes I loaded up the M$ AntiSPyware Beta1 (google it) and it runs everynight and updates wheneva and I never have any issues..now I did install NA2005 on my desktop casue thats teh P2P junkie box.. but to much amazment after about 6months of dl'n like a mad man 24/7 it found nothing ...and the only apyware is from a few crappy shareware apps I tried out...



So to round out.. are all of you using big flashy antivirus and spyware apps to keep clean.. do your pc's get that dirty? I surf the not so friendly area's from time to time..but come up clean..


-d88

[Flinkly]

i think it's more for peace of mind.  i've only had to put up with a couple smaller viruses (in my lifetime), and boy are they annoying to get rid of.  it takes too much time and effort, so instead, i have antivirus.  i will admit that i haven't had any problems recently, although i do get those "this virus was caught and deleted..." messages from time to time.  my antivirus comes with all sorts of other nice programs too, so it somewhat eleviates the high cost.

[LPZ]

Yep, I think it's a personal choice, but yet, why risk an attack for a couple of bucks?

[missioncontrol]

You don't need to spend a few bucks on an antivirus prog.......

just use AVG

I think it works great and it's free

just google it.......