[cynwoody]

I've never used antivirus software, and I've never had a problem. Antivirus is a racket.

All you need is a firewall and a little common sense. Don't run stuff from unknown sources and you will be OK.

[driftdiver]

“All you need is a firewall and a little common sense. Don’t run stuff from unknown sources and you will be OK.”

While that will take care of about 90% it isn’t a good plan. Well known and reputable websites get hacked. If you visit them your computer will be infected without some kind of defense. This bypasses the firewall because it rides port 80 through your browser, which is enabled.

[BreezyDog]

I don't use virus software either. It is a racket. However my 10 year old clicked on some security scan malware and infected her XP box. I couldn't get rid of it so i ran Comcast's McAfee virus protection and that did the trick...

Now the computer won't even boot up in safe mode...It was 8 years old...now it awaits a trip to the recycle bin.

[TomGuy]

I've never used antivirus software, and I've never had a problem. Antivirus is a racket.

All you need is a firewall and a little common sense. Don't run stuff from unknown sources and you will be OK.

Sorry, but that is no longer true.

Even Google, the search engine, has been infected with virus/trojan/tracker problems. If one happened to open a related web page from an 'innocent' search, one got a trojan infestation. Those may not show up immediately, but they can do severe damage to your files and to your hardware.

Even trusted webpages can sometimes get infected.

My AVAST! has alerted me several times to such potential problems.

==

If you are not running a virus program, even if you have a firewall, you are asking for trouble and you will eventually get hit with a bad virus/trojan/tracker.

[raybbr]

There are free anti-virus programs out there. Avast is a good one. I have not had a virus in years. Recently Avast caught one before it could do any damage.

[valkyry1]

Yep that is correct.