General Forum

So I was surfing through the web the other day... 10 replies

Jing said on: 2009-12-19 02:27 am
5482 Days, 5 Hrs, 30 Min, 16 Sec ago
Y'know, minding my own business, looking for ways to avoid torrenting an entire show that I might just delete in a day or two... When suddenly, my computer/firewall went crazy!
I mean!
Crazy like...

CLICK CLICK CLICK!
WARNING!
CLICK CLICK CLICK!
WARNING!
CLICK CLICK CLICK!
WARNING!
CLICK CLICK CLICK!

My jaw dropped.
Had to restart.
Did a little this, did a little that afterward.
My temporary files is now so squeaky clean.

Can't a guy watch a single video without worrying about a virus or three?
Jeeze! It wasn't even porn! Although it did involve something greenish and slimy.

Have this happened to anyone?
Like a massive virus attack out of nowhere.

And I might be looking into a new virus protection program.
I know a couple good ones, but let's hear your opinion!
And this whole thread seems oddly familiar somehow...
DannyFo (Mod) said on: 2009-12-19 10:00 am
5481 Days, 21 Hrs, 57 Min, 15 Sec ago
I don't use virus protection and I have yet to have any issue in the last 4 years...
Jing said on: 2009-12-19 11:32 am
5481 Days, 20 Hrs, 25 Min, 10 Sec ago
Now I find that hard to believe.
DannyFo (Mod) said on: 2009-12-19 02:35 pm
5481 Days, 17 Hrs, 22 Min, 3 Sec ago
*looks at his Mac*

Nope no problems.
Mini695 said on: 2009-12-19 02:59 pm
5481 Days, 16 Hrs, 58 Min, 23 Sec ago
that is only because it isnt worth making a virus for a mac....only 1/100 people own them.... :)
Jing said on: 2009-12-19 04:08 pm
5481 Days, 15 Hrs, 49 Min, 1 Sec ago
There's not a lot of viruses for Macs simply because Mac isn't as well known as Windows in general. I mean, why else do they need to brag about simple functions in their commercials when compared to their Window counterparts?

"Hi! I'm a Mac!"
"And I'm a PC!"
"I can do this!"
"I can do this too!"
"..."
"...Oh, is this the part where I am supposed to get jealous and pretend otherwise?"

Another thing, if they keep advertising their so called 'immunity' against viruses as they do now, then one or two people might go... "You know, I don't like their arrogant tone" and creating a whole new type of viruses, just for Macs.
If it hadn't happen already.

*Sigh*
One day, my sledge hammer will be impaled into every Mac in the world!
DannyFo (Mod) said on: 2009-12-19 05:00 pm
5481 Days, 14 Hrs, 56 Min, 33 Sec ago
All I read in that post was...

"My name is Jing and I wish I had a Mac"
Elmy said on: 2009-12-20 11:54 am
5480 Days, 20 Hrs, 3 Min, 3 Sec ago
Yeah, I haven't used any sort of virus protection in years, and I'm not using a Mac. Still have yet to have issues with viruses. Even my firewall has been off for ages now. I can even take a screenshot of all the warnings my computer tells me about how vulnerable it is if you want proof.

Pretty easy to avoid that stuff. Just don't visit or download from any questionable websites. Still going on a virus-free streak here, on a PC with Windows XP which is old enough now.
True_Highwind said on: 2009-12-20 12:15 pm
5480 Days, 19 Hrs, 42 Min, 0 Sec ago
The thing about viruses for Macs is that they are a lot worse then for the PC; however, the total number is far fewer.
Ayanami said on: 2009-12-20 01:54 pm
5480 Days, 18 Hrs, 2 Min, 45 Sec ago
essentially anti-virus is like the defense budget.. shouldn't have to exist, and even when it does is highly dubious in effectiveness..

but when something made by someone other than a script kiddy comes in proves ultimately ineffective

then you nuke your computer until you delete the dlls and bios and end up neutered


life is grand
Catatafish said on: 2009-12-20 09:15 pm
5480 Days, 10 Hrs, 42 Min, 24 Sec ago
I have 16 quarantined items in my AV's quarantine list. Since Feb ~25, 2009. Probably false alarms, but I'd rather let NOD32 take its 4234kb of RAM than risk having to spend hours trying to get rid of a virus. I have 3 separate physical drives for storage, so I'd only have to reformat my OS drive, but I've put a shocking amount of stuff on it in the past 10 months which I'd prefer to leave in place until I WANT to reformat.

Not having an AV is really, really stupid honestly. 90% of my quarantined items were cracks or warezed stuff, but one came from a game mod and another was a program I'd used for ages which AVG never thought was infected (scanned it with VirusTotal.com and found it was caught by pretty much everything else). I'm really not careful what I download, and wouldn't want to be. I still can get a virus that NOD32 doesn't recognize, but it's probably a much lower chance than being a responsible downloader and still getting a nasty virus.

As for no firewalls, I hope you have a router with a firewall. I don't run a software firewall, and haven't for at least 6 years, but I always make sure I am behind my router before going online. You absolutely can get remotely infected within MINUTES of being connected to the Internet. I experienced this once when I connected straight to the modem with a fresh install of XP SP1 (before the Windows XP firewall was added in SP2). I had to reinstall because I got some nasty crap before even hitting Windows Update. The Windows Firewall exists pretty much to prevent this. A router with a firewall performs the same job and a lot more, but you absolutely need either a software firewall (ZoneAlarm or something) or a router if you have an Internet connection.



Why don't you guys use antivirus? Modern clients use barely any resources. As I said, NOD32 is taking about 4MB of RAM and about 80MB in the swap file. I disable scheduled scans (I do a full scan of my C drive about once every 3 months) and leave real time scanning on. It's a bit laggy when you finish downloading a file, but I don't notice any other effects. It never pops up during games or any of that crap.