what is the best antivirus for my mac?

If you're running Windows, no matter whether on a PC or on a Mac or in a virtual machine, it needs to have anti-virus software on it. Or it needs to be completely disconnected from the internet and receive no files from third-parties in any other way. ClamXav won't detect viruses in your Windows install, and neither will any other Mac anti-virus software.

Theoretically it will, but some users report issues with permissions involved with their Windows partition. If you run into that try checking the box to ignore permissions on that volume. If that doesn't work you may need to use ClamWin or similar on the Windows side.

You should run an AV product on the Windows side. Why not use Microsoft Security Essentials? It's free.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/security-essentials

Yes, I would like to know how some that does nothing at all but use resources can help a lot.

Allan

Sophos also have a free scanner which is based off of their corporate version

http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-ed ition.aspx

It has the advantage of being free, but the disadvantage of using resources for no reason.

It has the advantage of being free, but the disadvantage of using resources for no reason.

Unless you've actually used it, don't judge it. Sophos is surpisingly low-key, and caused absolutely no performance issues whatsoever when I tested it.

Not that I'm saying anyone must use it, of course. That's a personal decision. But if you're going to install AV software, Sophos is one of only two that I would recommend at this time.

Well, I'm sure that the resources it uses are small, and that's a plus, but you're in the realm of harm reduction at that point - the case that you're making is that intalling Sophos doesn't cause any practical problems, which is good. Of course, since it doesn't help the value proposition is still negative.

Sophos is great. I used it with Lion and I never saw a decrease in performance from my MBP, the resource use was small. However, the Mountain Lion version of Sophos is buggy at this moment and I'd recommend waiting for an update before installing Sophos for Mountain Lion.

Or even better, not install it at all.

Yeah...that's an old wive's tail. Macs simply have fewer viruses than Windows OS because there are simply so few Macs compared to PCs. Having used Macs since 1984 and having lived with the Mac OS X linux system ever since, I know first hand that security software works on the Mac. It's saved my butt on more than one occasion.

The more important protection provided to Macs however is against malicious attacks. (Just had two yesterday that Norton blocked.) So don't let folks tell you to run your Mac unprotected. If you don't think you get viruses then simply disable that part of the program.

The problem with any of these companies is that they have their own agenda and it's not protecting you. 🙂

And what, specifically, did Norton protect you from, pray tell?

Wow. Folks, the original question was valid (I asked the same of Google and ended up here, so at least ONE other person was asking it!). Before you all start lecturing me about how to run a network, or what I need - I've been an IT professional for well over 30 years. Only recently did I change my hardware platform to Apple (running VMWare Fusion to develop in Windows).

The answer that you don't need AV protection on a Mac was flippant at best. Of course you do - just because OSX hasn't been targeted with any significant viruses YET doesn't mean it won't. The fact that there are some pretty significant protections built into the OS doesn't mean they will stop everything. The fact that I base my livelihood on my Mac NOT getting a virus dictates to me that I should take every precaution possible.

Note that the original question was not "Do I need AV on my Mac", but "What is the BEST".

So, let's amend the question a bit. First, lets assume for the sake of argument that we DO need AV on a Mac. Let's also assume that we also need Anti-Malware (which nobody seems to be arguing).

Now then - let's ask the question this way - "What is the best AV and Malware package available for Mac, either free or paid?"

Is Sophos the answer to this question?

Message was edited by: BillRichardson (small corrections)

No

Allan

That about sums up what I was going to say.