Re: Peeved with Ubuntu

I concur - leaving yourself open with no anti-virus protection is a bit akin to running naked around your neighbourhood and bridal paths - you would be open to abuse and interference at the least!!

Re: Peeved with Ubuntu

So what's the downside Gumbud?

Re: Peeved with Ubuntu

frozen balls? and shrunken spotted dick?

Re: Peeved with Ubuntu

As a co incidence the same topic has come up in a closed Google group I belong to of tutors in the government's Broadband for Seniors scheme

This is a cut and paste of an entry that came in today.

Re: Peeved with Ubuntu

Fair play Bruce, but three people out of how many using computers? I'd call that good odds. You have more chance winning the lottery, and that will be never.

Just a thought: If someone gets an infected e-mail from someone who has no virus protection then surely, their virus blocker should stop it?
My bank screen all contacts with the best firewall money can buy.
I think they would be a bit peeved if I kept infecting them. So there's your virus checker right there.

Re: Peeved with Ubuntu

I got infected because my virus protection said the link was iffy so I trusted the person who sent it - never believed the person I knew in the flesh would send me something that could harm me. Much more wary now and only open what Norton tells me is absolutely safe.

Re: Peeved with Ubuntu

Thats an absurd comparison. Its not three people out of how many people use computers it's three people known to this one person who use computers and who don't use anti virus. Much shorter odds.


Julie has answered the first part of your question.

Firewalls do not stop viruses they stop things/people from outside accessing your computer remotely, they also allow some things in ie web pages that pass a number of criteria. BUT they are not designed to stop viruses but a virus can be designed to defeat firewalls from the inside. Firewalls generally speaking do not stop things inside getting out. (That is not entirely true but close enough)

Your bank will not know nor care if you have a virus their firewall will allow only specific data from you to pass in. That is the point of it, you are not sending them an email you are asking or telling a bank a very limited range of data their firewall will only allow requests it recognises in. Everything else is blocked.

Re: Peeved with Ubuntu

Sorry Bruce, with all due respect, I'm so far out of my depth here my hat is floating. You seem to have infinitely more knowledge concerning computers than I, and there is no way I could offer you a valid reason why I do the things I do.
But until BT throw me off their Christmas card list, I will continue to struggle along in the world of cyber space waiting for the next heavy weight to fall upon this empty head of mine.

Re: Peeved with Ubuntu

...but seriously, you're not quite alone OldGreyFox. I read of others who don't use a realtime AV program. One reason being that they don't feel they work so well these days. Perhaps some truth in that but these people tend to be a bit knowledgeable and use other programs or measures that most people haven't even heard of. For us though, an AV program is a good thing to have because they protect a computer much better than using nothing. They don't necessarily bog down the system either. Many are fairly light these days. My current realtime AV program uses less than 20MB of RAM.

If you're really against using any such program, perhaps consider being a bit nice to the Internet and run regular scans with the free versions of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and/or Hitman Pro. These don't run in realtime on the computer. They are purely on-demand scanners and therefore don't weigh down the system at all.

Re: Peeved with Ubuntu

Thanks Mart, I'll give it a go....