Antivirus software completely pointless?

Strider590

I use online scanners every now and then, I'd never use AV software on my own PC or laptop simply because they gradually bring your system to grinding halt.
A virus scanner that decides to scan everything when you start your laptop is not conducive to laptop mobility. The same on a gaming rig is FPS suicide.
The difference is, I double backup everything so even if I had a virus id have no problem restoring my PC or laptop.

The only time in the last 8 years that ive had a virus was on my work laptop because id stupidly forgotten to turn of the XP autorun "feature" and went ahead with attempting a data recovery on a known infected HDD (external). Ended up killing the boot sector on C drive, requiring a full OS reinstall.

In my opinion, if you take the precautions and know what to look out for, you'll never get a virus infection.... AV software or none.

closed

What do you look out for? Browser and operating system holes get patched every month, high profile websites get infected all the time, there is no precaution you can take to guarantee safety, other than having a standalone pc with no connection to the outside world.

Strider590

Basically, it's about knowing your PC..... It's about not just saying "oh that was odd, but nevermind" when something unusual or suspicious happens.

Know what services are running, know what processes are running.
Stop everything and check the above if you come across any odd behaviour.
Never restart your PC if something odd has happened, always run an online scan first. 90% of Virus infections can't fully take hold until you restart your PC, because they install themselves to your start up sequence.
Never submit (ok) to the popup boxes that won't let you close a browser window, always end them in taskmanager.
Know your network shares and never run files in your shared folders if you did not put them there.
Use detailed folder view, with file extensions shown and all hidden/system files shown, be very wary of unusual file sizes and incorrect file extensions.
Turn off autorun OR hold shift when inserting disks or any external storage devices.
Always send downloaded files to "Virus Total" for scanning prior to opening them.
Turn of the automatic codec and license retrieval in Media Player.
Never open links in MSN without questioning the person who sent the link.
Never use Facebook applications, you don't know who created them.
The list to be honest is just too long, but experience has taunt me what to look out for and what precautions to take.

I don't need AV software and I never will, I prefer to open my files in 3 seconds rather than 30.

knowledgepower1

Why can't just instal an AV instead of going through so many precautions.I have logged on to msn sometimes and my AV pops up,I didnt have to click any link to be infected.

gjchester

closed wrote: »

Pro's use virus scanners, one's that don't either don't know the risks, or are reckless.

Any site, any flash drive, any network share, any hard disk, can get infected, it is naive to think that knowledge or experience is sufficient protection.

Sort of.

My "play" machine has no AV and it gets rebuilt as required. Then again it has limited lan access and only get used for gaming. If it dies (through AV or driver issues) then I wipe it an put the ghost image back. Sure I may lose my saved file for the last week but it's no big deal.

It's not being niave it's a realisation that it's faster for me to re-image it than anything else, (takes 20 mins at most) and it's quicker to re-image it that fix the virus.

My "main PC" is another matter though, but then again I don't visit dubious websites, or downlaod warez, or use other people memory sticks on it, and don't put my memory sticks in unknown PC's. It's all about understanding the risk, and accepting what you will consider reasonable rather than securing everything just because.

Strider590

knowledgepower1 wrote: »

Why can't just instal an AV instead of going through so many precautions.I have logged on to msn sometimes and my AV pops up,I didnt have to click any link to be infected.

Because I paid good money for a fast machine, I do not want or need AV software bringing it to a grinding halt.
If you've got a slow PC, the chances are it's your AV software that's causing it.

Do you know how much system memory <av software> 360 uses on startup? In some cases nearly 300MB! The damn thing scans the whole PC whether you want it to or not!
Ive got laptop here right now that takes nearly 5 minutes to start up simply because of its AV scanner, last time I looked at this laptop (6months ago), I had it starting in less than 1 minute.

cyberbob

gjchester wrote: »

It's all about understanding the risk, and accepting what you will consider reasonable rather than securing everything just because.

Well put. I've not used any AV on my Windows machines (I do use macs and linux as well) for 10 years. No problems. Its just basic understanding of what you are doing. In some ways AV has made people think they are safe because of that and become too reliant. When AV is only one method of keeping secure and not always the best.

My father in law is an IT professional. There family computer has more virus problems than anyone i have ever known. They have all the security under the sun installed. The reason they keep getting virus's is stupidity. They assume that the AV will catch it all instead of using some basic common sense

cyberbob

closed wrote: »

Pro'it is naive to think that knowledge or experience is sufficient protection.

Its also naive to think that AV will catch all

Strider590

"But it says im safe!!! So I must need a new PC!"

Ahhhh, the placebo effect!

-TangleFoot-

Strider590 wrote: »

Ahhhh, the placebo effect!

Ever tried Placebo AV? :rolleyes: