[Ham-Mac] Norton's Systemworks 3.0 and Tiger

[Steve Muncy]

While Macs using OSX haven't yet been hit with a serious virus (or  
any virus I know about), our office is plagued with Windows viruses  
that arrive hourly. Because we can (and unfortunately often DO) pass  
these viruses along to others using Windows, we try to be good  
neighbors and keep Windows viruses out of our network. We are  
beginning to get a better handle on this situation by incorporating  
software with our mailserver that strips it out earlier in the  
process.  However, this doesn't work in some instances, and doesn't  
work unless the virus  comes in through the email system.

For these reasons, we also use ClamXav in the office. ClamXav is  
free, and very good at what it does. On my Macs (two laptops and one  
desktop) I follow the same strategy. All of my downloaded files and  
email  attachments are save in a folder called "downloads." Working  
files that are given to me on disk, acquired from a server, or by any  
other means FIRST go into a desktop "working" folder. ClamXav is set  
up to constantly monitor the "downloads" and "working" folders so it  
will catch a virus if it shows up there.

About one a week, I have ClamXav check my documents folder, and about  
one a month I'll scan all my applications - but I've never found a  
virus there.  This process works very well for me. While ClamXav is  
pretty versatile, one thing it CANNOT do is check incoming email  
attachments for viruses and strip them out if they are found. I don't  
recommend searching your mailboxes for viruses and automatically  
zapping them because zapping them can mess up your mailbox.

You can locate ClamXav using versiontracker.

- 73 -


Steve Muncy, NI5V  - ni5v at arrl.net
Dallas, TX USA
QRP-ARCI #10330  FISTS #7412  QCWA #30705  AMSAT #33939
ARRL Life Member (and PROUD of it!)




On Dec 20, 2005, at 2:53 PM, Rick Prather wrote:

> I will worry about a virus in OSX when I hear of the first one!
>
> In the meantime, since Windows probably has you gun shy, you can  
> try ClamXav.  It should make you feel better and is freeware.
>
> I know of several people that claim that they have had only one  
> virus on their Mac in over 16 years and that is from a long time ago.
>
> Rick - K6LE