A matter of opinion i suppose....

[S0ULphIRE]

I run without an AV on my home PC and on my work laptop. TCPDump running in background (just in case), proper firewall installed/configured, and that's about it. Haven't had a virus on either machine yet, and that's going on 2yrs for the work computer and 1.5-2yrs for the PC.
My mum on the other hand has had a million, and even attracted a few hackers at one point. I'm not sure what exactly she does that's so different from me, but guaranteed there's something lol

 

[Nitestick]

So I read a lot on here threads in regards to help with a "virus". I have never had a virus or a worm or any junk on my PC. I have used various AV programs and even no AV at different times. I feel that a little common sense is all you need. I can run for months even years without a virus even running without AV. My question is do you guys agree or disagree?

I think you missed some keywords, you should be saying "no virus that I detected". Just because you didn't note any symptoms doesn't mean you haven't been infected. My rule of thumb is for low power devices I'll usually try to avoid installing antivirus and just keep them as secure as possible and use the common sense method, just so I'm not slowed down by the overhead of running security applications. For anything with some decent grunt I'll run AVG, Malware Bytes, Microsoft Security Essentials and some tweaks.

I mostly use my Asus Transformer for general browsing now, while I know there are potential flash and browser exploits out there, I think they're pretty limited in scope and likelihood of effecting me. As Slaymate said below it is reckless to presume that your browsing habits will keep you safe as any site can be hacked and be used as a malware platform. I've seen zero day exploits result in an entire shared server with ~3000 sites on it being taken over and all sites being modified in a single hack.

 

[Oreo]

I can't really avoid the whole piracy thing if i am to give a correct answer. If you download from what you know to be good sources, pirate software is very unlikely to give you a virus, as is porn.

I dont use AV/Firewall, and my PC runs fine. I did run AV a few weeks back because i thought i did have a virus, but i didn't. The only thing it picked up was 1 or 2 things i know are definitely not virus's.

So yeah, i would go as far to say you don't really need them anymore. Or maybe i've just been lucky for 3 years. I will say i have a very small amount of sites i visit. TF, Google, BBC, n4g, Apple, Microsoft, ISPReview, AV Forums, Engadget, Gizmodo, Macrumors, IGN + 3 or 4 other game sites, and 1 or 2 sites i won't mention My point is, very rarely do i venture outside of these sites.

 

[KSoD]

I'm just implying that most "issues" come from downloading torrents, using cracked game exe's, browsing porn and so on.... I don't use games or media I didn't buy and I am careful about what I do online. Like I said I have never had an issue but my friends who download games and movies and stuff from torrents and usenet get viruses all the time. If you don't click links that say "claim your free ipad" or steal software you shouldn't have any problems.

I wil say this. You dont use anything you dont buy and you are careful about what you do. That is the main reason why you are so safe. I venture to all parts of the internet. I ever done some very shady things in my time. I wouldnt have the collection of things I have if it wasnt for my shady activities online. While my infections have been few and far between even doing such things as downloading things online will not get you infected if you do it right.

Your friends are not doing it right if they keep getting infections. Plain and simple.

The truth is even viewing a flash file online now can get you infected. Some ads are infected on sites. It isnt that hard. I mean just read about the Black Hat Conventions that they hold every year. Safari browser and Apple have been getting hacked in just a couple seconds due to a specially coded site. All it would take is you visiting that site to be infected and/or taken over. So even using common sense isnt enough. Things like WOT are helpful as they can tell you if a site is in good standing or not, but nothing is guaranteed anymore. Heck even TF has a moderate rating according to McAfee Site Advisor last time I checked from a topic in this area from years ago. It lead to a site that was infected, and even after removing the problem, we were not re-rated.

Being careful only gets you so far. Knowing what your doing can assist you. But nothing is guaranteed. Anyone can be infected. No matter how much or how little they do online. My wife goes mainly on Facebook, shopping sites and checks email. Yet her computer has been infected a few times due to the ads that were present in flash format. I run the same security software on her laptop as I do on my PC yet she has gotten infected and I havent. She is careful about her browsing and has gotten infected, I am not careful and I have not. So it goes to show that even with common sense, it only gets you half way.

 

[strollin]

In our house there's six of us on the 'net. My wife, me, 2 sons and 2 daughters. Of all of us, only 1 of my daughters ever seems to get viruses. I have tried to talk to her about what she does to contract these viruses since I have the same AV and firewall setup on her computer as the rest but have never reached a conclusion as to what she does differently that causes her problems.

The only reason I know anything about virus removal is by removing viruses from other people's computers. If I had to rely on my own personal experience of removing viruses from my own machines, I wouldn't have a clue!

 

[PP Mguire]

I wil say this. You dont use anything you dont buy and you are careful about what you do. That is the main reason why you are so safe. I venture to all parts of the internet. I ever done some very shady things in my time. I wouldnt have the collection of things I have if it wasnt for my shady activities online. While my infections have been few and far between even doing such things as downloading things online will not get you infected if you do it right.

Your friends are not doing it right if they keep getting infections. Plain and simple.

The truth is even viewing a flash file online now can get you infected. Some ads are infected on sites. It isnt that hard. I mean just read about the Black Hat Conventions that they hold every year. Safari browser and Apple have been getting hacked in just a couple seconds due to a specially coded site. All it would take is you visiting that site to be infected and/or taken over. So even using common sense isnt enough. Things like WOT are helpful as they can tell you if a site is in good standing or not, but nothing is guaranteed anymore. Heck even TF has a moderate rating according to McAfee Site Advisor last time I checked from a topic in this area from years ago. It lead to a site that was infected, and even after removing the problem, we were not re-rated.

Being careful only gets you so far. Knowing what your doing can assist you. But nothing is guaranteed. Anyone can be infected. No matter how much or how little they do online. My wife goes mainly on Facebook, shopping sites and checks email. Yet her computer has been infected a few times due to the ads that were present in flash format. I run the same security software on her laptop as I do on my PC yet she has gotten infected and I havent. She is careful about her browsing and has gotten infected, I am not careful and I have not. So it goes to show that even with common sense, it only gets you half way.

Tisk tisk for not running adblock.

Been browsing on the internet myself since 2003 and have not gotten myself infected. I've also been on 4chan since around when it was created and nothing. Just gotta be smart. I've literally watched my best friend run into a hacked site and not even know anything was wrong till I started laughing. I almost thought this site was hacked when stuff started going missing but decided to read into it only to find it was a VB issue.

That doesn't mean I'm not protected in my own way. I don't keep ANY important or valuable information on my main PC that I browse with. All of my pictures, saves, music, files, movies, games, ect ect ect is located on my server which IS protected. As Soul found out, I can be reformatted and clean within 45 minutes to an hour and not even care if I was to actually get a virus. Just be a pain in the rear if it did happen.

 

[Oreo]

Tisk tisk for not running adblock.

Been browsing on the internet myself since 2003 and have not gotten myself infected. I've also been on 4chan since around when it was created and nothing. Just gotta be smart. I've literally watched my best friend run into a hacked site and not even know anything was wrong till I started laughing. I almost thought this site was hacked when stuff started going missing but decided to read into it only to find it was a VB issue.

That doesn't mean I'm not protected in my own way. I don't keep ANY important or valuable information on my main PC that I browse with. All of my pictures, saves, music, files, movies, games, ect ect ect is located on my server which IS protected. As Soul found out, I can be reformatted and clean within 45 minutes to an hour and not even care if I was to actually get a virus. Just be a pain in the rear if it did happen.

For some reason this reminded me of something. About 5 years ago my family bought my grandparents a Dell PC for Christmas, but they have never used a PC before so we bought them a book on PC's, just general tips and advice etc. But man, the security section on it was worrying. It said if you want to keep your Photo and Music etc from getting infected, don't put them on your HDD in your PC but store them on an external drive connected to your PC. I mean, what the **** ? in what way is that going to stop your files getting infected by a virus

 

[Kharn]

Well I don't run without AV or a Firewall but then again I am regularly exposed to hostile networks and considering that I never know what shape a network is in when I join it I would rather run them than not.

 

[PP Mguire]

For some reason this reminded me of something. About 5 years ago my family bought my grandparents a Dell PC for Christmas, but they have never used a PC before so we bought them a book on PC's, just general tips and advice etc. But man, the security section on it was worrying. It said if you want to keep your Photo and Music etc from getting infected, don't put them on your HDD in your PC but store them on an external drive connected to your PC. I mean, what the **** ? in what way is that going to stop your files getting infected by a virus

Lol yea that sounds pretty retarded.