Weekend Open Forum: Do you keep antivirus protection running 24/7?

I always have my anti-virus on. I don't see any advantage of turning it off as it would take time to do and my computer wouldn't run any faster. Even if it did improve performance I wouldn't do it. It just seems like more of a risk than its worth to me.

Alrighty well,

I have no anti-virus software running on my computer 24/7 really. I know which sites to visit and which to not. I know the tell tale signs of a fishy page and when it's decently safe. A few tweaks here and there and any operating system stands a good chance without anti-virus. I am running Vista by the way and am probably one of the very few to still use it day in and day out without a single problem in over I believe two years now. Make sure to ALWAYS clean up your tracks. Run Mbam every three weeks or so. TDSSKiller never hurt anything either. The "tweaks" I mentioned earlier will not be talked of but I can tell you one thing, I enjoy Virtual machines :]

What's antivirus?

I keep Avast running 24/7 and have setup to scan the whole computer once a month. I haven't had an issue with a virus in quite a while on that computer.
I could life w/o it but don't really see the point. This way I don't really have to worry if I click on a bad link goofing around online at 3am .

using AVG free 24/7.
i am not willing to purchase AV programs so if they're not free,
better i don't use them.

I'm on Windows and all my computers have an antivirus installed but the real time protection is disabled. I do have monthly scans but from the past few years I have not had any virus except for one which was my fault and stupidly even clicked yes on the UAC but good thing I had a recent image of my system. My main protections is sandboxing (using Sandboxie) all suspicious files and also all my web browsers which also have NoScript and AdBlock installed. However I think the most important thing is to be careful of what you do and no matter what OS you're on, viruses shouldn't be a problem.

i got nod32 but it takes up 60 mb ram, sometimes up to 100, so i disable the service sometimes even though i have more than enough ram at 3.4 avail. out of 4gb

@tw0rld: Not having an antivirus running doesn't mean not having an antivirus installed to manually run scans (although that wouldn't matter that much anyways). No single antiviruses is fireproof. There are many other much more important steps than having an antivirus on your computer that is not guaranteed to even detect the virus. Which leaves you in the same situation "my computer is clean because my antivirus didn't find anything"...

People who get viruses will find a way to get a virus past their antivirus anyways.

It's really just commonsense. If you don't know to set your computer to show all file extensions, and to never run an executable that you're not entirely sure is safe... odds are you're going to get a virus. I'll explain how I remain virus free.

1. Use Firefox (names of extensions in brackets)
a) don't allow javascript unless you trust the site (NoScript)
b) block flash from auto starting - only allow if you trust the site (FlashBlock)
c) block ads (Adblock Plus)
d) block cookies (Cookie Monster)
e) (MD5 Reborned Hasher) compare md5 when download an application

2. Double check the URL any application was downloaded from (in case a site was hijacked, this takes two seconds to do).

3. If you're not 100% sure the application is safe:
a) check md5 and compare (if relevant)
b) submit to online virus scanners the following online virus scanners: Jotti, Virus.org, and Virustotal
c) submit to online sandboxes to receive an analysis report telling you what they do: Sunbelt Sandbox and Anubis
d) look at with FileAlyzer
e) check out with OllyDbg (advanced but extremely useful)
f) run in a local sandbox and monitor with Process Explorer

4. Run a Firewall that blocks all outbound traffic unless allowed.

5. Commonsense - don't download warez and blindly run these untrustworthy applications or games without doing what is written above. Don't use applications like Limewire. Don't fall for lame Facebook viruses... I probably do a lot more but I'm not thinking too clearly right now with a headache.

note: if you use Firefox with those extensions and you never download anything - then unless you harass some crazy hacker and become his target, I think you safe ;p

I scan my computer once a week just for the heck of it, I haven't had an infection in a decade. The last infection I remember was through something I downloaded on KaZaA when I was running Windows 2000 a few months after Napster went down. If you're really paranoid, get Deep Freeze and work in the cloud (or switch to Mac or a Linux Distro if you're willing to adapt).

MSE and Super-Antispyware Pro running from startup. Quick Scan scheduled daily at 1:00 am.

I don't have an antivirus for over a year now.

On every computer including my wifes mac.

On the Windows partitions that I use to go online, definitely up 24x7 not only that I update manually and not wait for the auto-update to kick in. But, like another poster mentioned, a Firewall and Commonsense really helps

On the partition I do my Pro work, all the network connections are disabled/removed so I am a lot more relaxed.

MSE2 24/7
why would i need to close it?

Avast Free version 24/7...

Running a PC without AV is comparable to ordering a new car without seat belts and air bags because you are a good driver.
Felix
Sanibel, FL

Update and scan weekly. Usually keep antivirus running unless I unplug the internet. Unless thats just how 'they' want us to think, I thought the average pc connected to the internet should have some sort of real time protection enabled all the time??

I like the people that think they are cool to not run any kind of protection..ha ha. Sure there are exceptions and some applications/time periods where antivirus is not needed but the internet is not some friendly public park. I think any person that works in computers/networking would probably recommend to have at least basic protection.

So you might be a good driver..but are you gonna buy a car without airbags or not wear a seat belt?...oh, wait..some people still regularly don't wear seat belts ha ha...

^^^^Ha Ha Ha Ha! Should have scanned through all the comments I guess..ha ha!

Years ago I ran without any form of anti-virus and never had a problem. But in this day and age it's entirely too risky, using MSE which is on 24/7.

I searched around for the best free AV that didn't hog resources and have Avira Free running on both my desktop and netbook 24/7 along with Zone Alarm friewall on my desktop. My wife sometimes realizes she shouldn't click on thins and sometimes does not realize it. Like many others, I run Malwarebytes Antimalware once a month. I just inherited a laptop from my parents that has Norton Security on it, but I think I'm about to uninstall it. All three of my computers run the paid version of Advanced SystemCare, though that's mostly for optimization.

MSE on all my PCs.
I've run malwarebites a few times just to verify MSE's work, and it always comes up clean.