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Weekend Open Forum: Do you keep antivirus protection running 24/7?
Having antivirus protection has become a fact of life for most computer users, as it's certainly not uncommon to hear of massive botnets recruiting infected PCs for spamming operations or Trojans that steal or damage your information. But it's also true that with a little experience recognizing the nefarious from innocuous and practicing safe browsing habits one can navigate the web in peace with minimal security in place.
For a while now I've been using my main computer without active antivirus protection and only scan files rarely if I'm suspicious of something. It's not for everyone -- certainly not work environments or anyone likely to fall prey for tricks that a mildly experienced computer user would spot. You might even say it's a bit reckless.
But given our tech-savvy audience we think it's a fair question to ask -- and actually revisit, since we've touched on this topic before: do you keep an antivirus program running on your computer at all times? If so, what do you use? If not, have you had any issues you've had to regret not having active antivirus protection on your machine?
User Comments: 95
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^^^^Ha Ha Ha Ha! Should have scanned through all the comments I guess..ha ha!
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Mizzou said:
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.
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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.
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MSE on all my PCs.
I've run malwarebites a few times just to verify MSE's work, and it always comes up clean.
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Anti-virus on 24/7, AVG, Win7 64-bit and a hardware firewall. Scheduled scans performed at night. No problems for a while now.
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TrekExpert said:
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
I agree compleatly. +1
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Fry's is in our area and they offer all sorts of free antivirus software during their sales. On my multiple partitions and computers I have Kaspersky, McAffe, Panda, and Webroot, just to experiment; all for free. On my vista laptop with 1G of memory I can generally have only 1 window open at a time-how do some say they open 40 tabs at once? My old 1 GHz machine is really slow with this resource intensive software; I really should disable the antivirus. All are slow at the start, and you aren't getting any more GHz any time in the future.
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have vista 64 bit cause im broke and it came with the PC. i run my antivirus 24/7 scan and update daily ive never had a virus
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almost 24/7, for some operations a turn off the antivirus protection...
I have mi Windws XP, PC with Internet Conexion with:
(mainly and active)
1. Comodo Internet Security (Firewall, Antivirus and Defense+ but not Sandbox)
2. Autorun Eater
3. WinPatrol
4. SpywareBlaster, and
5. McAffe SiteAdvisor.
(secondary for sometimes extra-scanning)
6. HickJackThis
7. RootkitBuster
8. SpyDLLRemover
9. Malwarebytes' Anti-malware,
10. ClamWin Antivirus.
and all these are "free" and give me "total security protecction"...
... Mmmm, I not a "Microsoft Automatic Updates" fan, why I don't use this service !!!
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No, I don't download viruses.
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Norton 360 Fully paid subscription, customized Norton Firewall to tighten up some of the looser ports, backed up with a D-Ling DGL4100 for those annoying little wired issues.
Running 24x7x365 and review the logs and adjust the setting every 30 days.
Keepin it tight...
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Previously uesed Norton products, but recently switched to Vipre Anti-Virus with firewall and love it. Very light on using system resourses and is very efficient at protecting my computer. I also have Malewarebytes that I use for an occasional scan. Never had a infection with these products.
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24/7 here. You just never know when you'll get some trojan poping out of some java apps or those little ads, And that even on a friendly website. Happened before and will certainly not let it happen again. Then again, it always depends what are your surfing habits. That is unless you hang out on MS websites alone you might be ok without an AV...and notice i say "might".
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24/7 here. You just never know when you'll get some trojan poping out of some java apps or those little ads,If you're not already, you should look into running Firefox with extensions, "NoScript", and "AdBlock". Those two will really help keep those little buggers at bay
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supertech said:
One of the core components of my business is virus removal & spyware removal in the Windows environment. Even with antivirus / antispyware software, people still get infected. Unless you're a very advanced user and "keep your nose clean" then you are in a very small group of users that do this.
I run Symantec Endpoint protection (with the highest level of heuristic on), Spybot (active), and MalwareBytes (paid version).
We do not recommend any windows users to go on online without antivirus software. At least load AVG free or MS Security Essentials. Also, we find Web of Trust is a great tool for users who can't stay out of trouble especially in the search engines.
Also, in regards to doing scans with your antivirus software; if you have to run a scan for your Antivirus software to pick something up, sometimes it may be too late if it is serious virus it will be hard for the Antivirus software to eliminate it within the live windows environment.
THE BOTTOM LINE: GET ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE !!!
If you're system is slowing down with antivirus software, then it's a piece of crap. With hardware trends today, the costs of replacing an old system or upgrading your hardware is minimal but don't leave out the antivirus software due to hardware limitations.
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I run Avast 24/7. I do a monthly cleaning just for funnzies with Vipre, Kaspersky, Emsisoft, Dr. Web Cureit, Spybot, and Malware Bytes (goes along with the whole defrag and temp files cleanup thing).
Lol, over kill much?
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Trillionsin said:
Usually have Symantec Corp and Malwarebytes running... live scanning. 24/7
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I use Windows 7 x64 on both my Laptop at work and on my Home (Gaming) PC. I use Microsoft's Security Essentias, which I leave running 24/7. Haven't had any hassles with this setup yet
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I switch back and forth between Windows and Linux, when I'm running Windows I use MSE. Who would I cry to if my entire Linux installation was spyware? Richard Stallman? I'm also using OpenDNS with FamilyShield.
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I switch back and forth between Windows and Linux, when I'm running Windows I use MSE. Who would I cry to if my entire Linux installation was spyware? Richard Stallman? I'm also using OpenDNS with FamilyShield.I don't think you have to worry that much, it's Google's Chrome OS that's spyware
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