anti-virus choice for PT rig on mac

[bradp]

(not sure if this is the right place to post...but ill give it a try)

now that we see viruses on the mac platform more often. im considering putting AV on the studio's mac that runs ProTools 10hd native

Q: what, if any, mac anti-virus does avid recommend?

Q: Are you using AV on your mac? and which one is it?

i have seen, and am considering:
comodo aV for mac: free
Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac Home Edition: free

thanks for your replies!

[C]

I use to have VirusBarrierX on my system which was unobtrusive and well behaved just sat in the background scanned drives as they were hung and files downloaded and then hid itself again, no real hit to PT performance.

Uninstalled cause I was beta testing some network software that wouldn't install with it running and never put it back on. Might take another look at it though and see what happens.

Hope it helps you,

C

[Dism]

Don't bother.

Keep your network turned off as much as possible, don't surf on your work rig. The less software you have using your drives at the same time as Pro Tools, the better.

The best virus protection is YOU.

[bradp]

hey dism,
ya, thats what ive been doing, but now that everyones using removable media a lot more, i have clients that bring audio files and other files on cd, flashdrive and sometime HD's...
that's the issue with me, the external client files...

[bradp]

have you seen the "default deny system" anti-virus from comodo?
i like the idea. i take it other AV is not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq31k...8VKXetLiQ9U%3D

[Shan]

Originally Posted by Dism

Don't bother.

Keep your network turned off as much as possible, don't surf on your work rig. The less software you have using your drives at the same time as Pro Tools, the better.

The best virus protection is YOU.

+1 to that.

Shane

[Dism]

Originally Posted by bradp

hey dism,
ya, thats what ive been doing, but now that everyones using removable media a lot more, i have clients that bring audio files and other files on cd, flashdrive and sometime HD's...
that's the issue with me, the external client files...

Yeah, I understand that, but 99% of the time you will find Windows only viruses on other drives. At any rate, it's just about impossible for a virus to get on a Mac like that, because you still need to voluntarily execute the file. Your chances of getting an infected wav or mp3 are pretty slim, and often by the time an anti-virus software sees it, it's too late. I've seen plenty of flash drive viruses slip right past protection, even it claims to catch it.

More often than not, I will plug in someone's infected flash drive intentionally into my Mac so to clean off the virus, as it is much easier to do (with a few quick Terminal commands ), and much safer. Even better, would be to do a quick check and plug it into an old, crappy laptop first, just to see what's what.

I'm not personally an advocate of anti-virus in general, even on Windows machines, as I am extremely vigilant in hunting down potential issues. Really, I just find they do more harm than good, at least in terms of productivity, and many anti-virus applications are painfully difficult to remove after installing (much like the viruses they are supposedly protecting you from...hmm). I haven't run anti-virus on any of my personal machines, Mac or PC, for over a decade and haven't had any issues with viruses or spyware.

If you know what you're looking for, and you know what not to click on, it's not hard to keep a computer safe and clean.

Either way, that's my experience/opinion. YMMV as always.

[Chris Lambrechts]

Originally Posted by Dism

Yeah, I understand that, but 99% of the time you will find Windows only viruses on other drives. At any rate, it's just about impossible for a virus to get on a Mac like that, because you still need to voluntarily execute the file. Your chances of getting an infected wav or mp3 are pretty slim, and often by the time an anti-virus software sees it, it's too late. I've seen plenty of flash drive viruses slip right past protection, even it claims to catch it.

More often than not, I will plug in someone's infected flash drive intentionally into my Mac so to clean off the virus, as it is much easier to do (with a few quick Terminal commands ), and much safer. Even better, would be to do a quick check and plug it into an old, crappy laptop first, just to see what's what.

I'm not personally an advocate of anti-virus in general, even on Windows machines, as I am extremely vigilant in hunting down potential issues. Really, I just find they do more harm than good, at least in terms of productivity, and many anti-virus applications are painfully difficult to remove after installing (much like the viruses they are supposedly protecting you from...hmm). I haven't run anti-virus on any of my personal machines, Mac or PC, for over a decade and haven't had any issues with viruses or spyware.

If you know what you're looking for, and you know what not to click on, it's not hard to keep a computer safe and clean.

Either way, that's my experience/opinion. YMMV as always.

very good post. Thought I'd emphasize on the thingy in red

Chris

[musicman691]

Anti-virus software on a Mac is generally a waste of money. Add that to the fact there has never been a true virus in the wild on a Mac. What has been out are Trojans which are a completely different animal, and that's what has made the news this past week. Even Apple's own built-in antivirus didn't catch this one.

A Trojan can't do anything unless you specifically tell it to by clicking on something, and intelligence, as others have pointed out here, is your best guard against doing something stupid. You know - like surfing bit torrent or porn sites - you never know what you'll catch there.

[bradp]

very good posts guys!
do you think this question would be approp for any other section on the avid forums?
im def. interested in what AV's dont hit the cpu hard or is easily paused.

in general "I HATE ANTI-VIRUS PROGRAMS" with a passion. oh ya, i hate viruses, but the AV prog always has eaten up cpu cycles on the win machines iv used, and that what i hate! ;-)
i really hate the fact that to run an OS (win) you have to buy(run) (well ya, some come free) an AV program. ill use win when i have to. (FYI: im really not a hateful person ;-)

im not sure what ill do for the pt rig right now, maybe set up a junk systen and pass any drives thru it before connecting to the pt rig...THAT would be a pita.

ive been reading about "virus sandbox" system just a bit. sounds like a neet idea.