No protection, no virus, why?

[brigger]

For about 4 years I had no anti-virus software or firewall, didn't update windows or explorer, and had no virii.

I have an old notebook running Windows 98, with a dial-up connection to a small free ISP. On startup I used to delete all services except systray, explorer & sysinject (something to do with Mijenix Fix-It). My IE security level was 'medium' plus some block on Java (I think). I never had the in-box open while downloading email, and pulled the plug out before looking in the in-box. Also I avoided clicking on spam.

Eventually I got something and intalled Adaware which fixed it. Now I've got AVG and Panda and everything's dead slow.

I'm just curious about why I got away with it for so long.

 

[Nodsu]

You weren't stupid.

If you don't go to dodgy websites and don't download everything from everywhere then you are pretty safe.

Since you have a small ISP then they may be doing the firewalling for you too so you are protected from all kinds of internet attacks.

Why do you have AVG and Panda? Of course everything is slow if you have two virus scanners competing with each other.

 

[brigger]

AVG & Panda because:

Panda is designed to compliment 'normal' anti-virus software, it detects virii in memory and when they launch. From what I've read, using 2 'normal' anti-virus things will usually cause horrible conflicts of some sort.

You're probably right that in my case, using Panda is a bad idea, as I'm using an old underpowered notebook. And it eats bamboo.

 

[KidsCallMeHOJU]

I myself have only Symantec AV installed + using Sygate Personal Firewall. I have realtime scanning turned OFF. I've been virus free/spyware this way for a very long time. Just look at 3 things from time to time:

1) Make sure I have about 24 of the usual processes running in task manager regulary

2) Anything I download from wary sites I scan for viruses.

3) Keep tabs of every application that tries to contact the net other than AIM/Firefox/Outlook using Sygate Firewall.

This has kept me problem free. Spyware Removal Programs I have never used on my computer. Just know which sites you install activex controls from (if you use IE)./