EggXpert

I have never in my life ran antivirus software. I have never had a virus. I am on my personal computer probably 20 hours a week. In my younger days I frequented all types of warez sites (good ole days of the internet). I always thought of those anti virus commercials as fear mongers trying to scare people into thinking that if they connect their computer to the internet it would be overcome within seconds without their product. Or that some hacker was just waiting to break into their home computer to steal all the goodies that dwell within. I wonder if alot of the spyware and viruses out there are not made by the AV companies....

Now I am not nieve I am a comptuer tech for a school system, I have seen tons of spyware infestations that completely shut down computers. But that is usually on the part of the user; screen saver downloads, tool bars, etc , etc... Viruses on the other hand are usually quite rare. Only seen a few.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,    
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.

it is the time to use anti-virus software.  

 

Egghead1980:

I wonder if alot of the spyware and viruses out there are not made by the AV companies....

VERY silly.

 

Egghead1980:

Now I am not nieve I am a comptuer tech for a school system, I have seen tons of spyware infestations that completely shut down computers. But that is usually on the part of the user; screen saver downloads, tool bars, etc , etc... Viruses on the other hand are usually quite rare. Only seen a few.

?  more sillyness.  At the root of the vast majority of spyware/ad-ware are Trojan droppers.  Trojans are a virus.  By your own admission you've seen "tons" ergo you've seen way more that just a few...LOL

Tallon41 

I am using anti-virus all the time, and have to update it everyday to keep my PC from malicious attack. Anti-virus software is obviously a friend of mine, but the problem is that he is not that loyal to me, he always play with his bad friends---viruses. But anyway, we are friends

The main purpose of antivirus is to detect and after disinfect the virus. virus is limited to screen saver downloads and tool bars only, and its not possible to prevent people from wrong operation. and the best defence against virus's is a good antivirus program. I just feel more secure having av protection.

Never used anti-virus software?  And use it, I'm sure there are a lot of surprises waiting for U.....

Egghead1980:

Now I am not nieve I am a comptuer tech for a school system,

Viruses on the other hand are usually quite rare. Only seen a few.

Obviously the school doesn't know about your philosophy or you would be out of a job.  Normally all it takes is letting a Virus scanner to expire and the computer is corrupted beyond use in the dirty environment the Internet has become since Al invented it.

Just because you haven't seen them doesn't mean you aren't loaded up and reporting your data to the world.

 

If you don't go to bad websites and sit behind a good firewall, you're usually fairly safe if you know what you're doing and know what not to click on online. This DOES NOT mean you're invulnerable.

Also, trojans are usually classified as viruses, but it depends on your personal defenition.

BTW, I have a firewall and an antivirus/antispyware program running at all times plus 3 extra programs already installed (but not running) for virus/spyware removal, just in case.

I dunno.    I had OP's cavalier attitude until about late 2004, when a nasty infection resulted in me having to spend long times trying to clean it and finally throwing in the towel and doing a full reformat and reinstall.   After that, I decided to make use of security software.   Been using Norton Internet Security, and while 2005-2006 versions were kinda bloated, 2007 and especially 2008 are marked improvements.  I also found that buying a 3-PC new OEM version every year is much cheaper than extending same subscription.   I presently run NIS 2008 on both my home PCs and my laptop, and during all the years of using Norton, I haven't had a single problem, although I did see it block a few nasty ones from happening.

Dude...

This is like saying "I drive with my seatbelt off and I'm fine!  I drive good so it doesn't matter."

Yeah you may drive good, but when an unexpected accident happens, you're gonna be in big trouble.

BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY

unless you can clean your own machine !   lol