[TechPreacher]

With the gain in market share, I am not sure, OS X will remain safe from viruses / trojans for long.

But a useful software would need to check both virus and trojans at the same time, of course.

[reidit]

Do NOT upgrade from VirusBarrier X5 if you are using an older single processor Mac such as an iBook G4. X5 can try to grab most of the processor for significant amounts of time effectively stopping you from doing anything with your Mac. This only happens on single processor systems such as the G4 Macs. Dual-processor G5s and Intel Core Duo Macs seem to be OK with X5. I've been in touch with Intego about this and they confirm it's a problem with X5 which MIGHT get fixed in some unspecified update!!

Cheers

Peter

[reidit]

Sorry, should have said do NOT upgrade from X4 to X5...

Peter

[kirkmc]

"Intego will then send you an e-mail whenever a new virus definition is available–a nice touch."
This is incorrect. I've been using VirusBarrier for years, and they don't send e-mail. I think the e-mail address you enter in NetUpdate is just a means of identification.
Kirk

[nyip11]

Yeah, why antivirus software at all on the Mac?

[stonefingers]

Overall, VirusBarrier runs as described, but there are a couple of things you'll want to do to avoid a little frustration - 1) exclude mail if you notice slow performance or if you have a HUGE inbox that you don't really maintain, and 2), definitely exclude TimeMachine (it will real-time scan everything you try to review and bring TM down to a slow, slow crawl).
Otherwise, good program. They update regularly and provide updates for the latest threats. Unfortunately, I've not used ClamX AV (or any others) so I can't compare - free definitely beats fee, but I'd like to see a lab comparison of the two.

[MaddogMadden]

Considering I'd have to make the mistake of installing any OS X "Virus" on my system...why the heck do I even care this product exists?
In my experience the target demographic for "OS X Anti-Virus utilites" are Windows switchers who are just stuck in a rut. I can't blame them though, after years of abuse I'm sure I'd do the same thing.

[shanx24]

Do yourself a favor and read up on OSX viruses. Google is your buddy, it'll make you look smarter on public forums.

Secondly, learn to look a little beyond your own little cocoon. There are advanced users who use Parallels or VMWare to use Windows on their Macs, because they have to. For code testing, or for some functionality that is not yet available on Macs (e.g., Adobe Captivate). For these users it is important to have an av tool installed.

ClamAV is superb. The ClamavSentry is a no-nonsense utility that operates in the background and does a fantastic job on modern OSX machines for people who don't just stick to their Mail and iPhoto.

[MaddogMadden]

Considering my 'cocoon' consists of running XP in Fusion to test IE compatability, I find that I still have absolutely no need for any virus protection. Sorry that my ability to keep XP away from the virus infested intarwebs, and look at only local files, has kept me from looking 'a little beyond' my 'cocoon'.

If you're seriously reckless enough where user installed 'viruses' are a problem for you on your OS X machine...then you're beyond help.

[nyip11]

"why the heck do I even care this product exists?"

Full agreement here. Two of my co-workers switched to the Mac in the last year. And one of the first things they both asked was what good AV software is there for the Mac. I told them not to bother, since (in my younger, freer days) I used to purposely open files and emails with viruses to see what would happen. Now I just don't bother anymore since I can't get my Mac infected even if I tried.

One of my co-workers bought his Mac at London Drugs in Vancouver, BC, and asked the salesman the same question. To their credit, the salesman at London Drugs told him that anti-virus software for the Mac is only for people who are paranoid.

[Kingteddybear]

Thanks for the tip about TimeMachine and the Real Time Scan portion of X5. You are right. I now own X5 and can confirm if RTS is enabled and you enter TM to look for a file the star field background will be moving but nothing else will appear to work, making TM appear frozen. What worked for me was to run and select VB X5 > Preferences > Scanner > Trusted Zone add (+) > and browse until you can select TM's top .backupdb folder. This allows the RTS to skip the TM folders both while you are browseing them to restore a folder and during schedules scans. Manually started scans will scan the TM folders if you are worried about backing up an existing file containing a virus. This really should have been caught by the reviewer.

I keep my server's account email inbox fairly well cleaned out so I did not notice any performance issues when RTS was running in the background and I was retrieving mail with Entourage. Scan email was selected in VB X5's Pref's.

VB X5 appears to work as advertised and reviewed. I don't notice it running while I work on a 2.8 GHz imac w/ stock 2 mb of memory. Of course no virus problems were found. Oh well, it's resident and as a old DOS user and Windows XP convert I just feel better having it.

fwiw I went ahead and purchased MacScan from SecureMac.com as well. It too works as advertised. I found it interesting that of the 1600 cookies it reported finding, only 10 were labeled as tracking cookies and selected to be removed. No other malware was reported and this mac has been surfing the web since late February!

Do you need either piece of software? Based on my results probably not, at this time, but each does appear to do what they promise to do. Your milage may vary.

[MaddogMadden]

"...Two
of my co-workers switched to the Mac in the last year. And one of the
first things they both asked was what good AV software is there for the
Mac..."

My Uncle who still really hasn't switched per se, still buys the new version of "Virus"Barrier. Even after I explain to him that he's got nothing to worry about, he still insists that he buy it. I've tried to convince him to just hand me the money, and then I could maybe pretend that I put some Virus protection on there, but he didn't go for that.

[itommac]

The price is a joke, yes? Who in the world would pay $70 for an antivirus program. Even if I was convinced that a Mac trojan/virus/malware-thing would eventually go out in large numbers into the wild, what would make me shell out $70 and $45 updates when the $45 amount it is only slightly off from the Norton Antivirus program for Macs. None of the A/V companies could have a track record with Mac viral experience so to be kind to my Windows friends I just use Norton because it at least has experience on the Windows side of the computing world.

[macnuke]

nyip11 said:

Yeah, why antivirus software at all on the Mac?

elementary there Bob......


1... you want to Pay for the privilege of having hard drive space used.
2 ...the applications use of CPU cycles while looking for the elusive virus.
3... I/O on your hard drive while still looking for that elusive virus.
4....the loss of available RAM, both real and virtual that such program will cause.

yeah...... who wouldn't want to pay for something that does all of the above to protect you against something that doesn't exist, yet gives you a flashy icon for your desktop/dock.