Disable virus protection?

I think a couple of you folks might be missing part of the point. I'm not trying to get into a holy war about one vendor's AV product versus another. Obviously, I have very strong opinions on one vendor (me) against another. If another one was better I would have gone to work for them. That's the beauty of Capitalism (that's Free Market for those of you in Civ land); you can pick whatever you want. THIS isn't the point of my disucssion. If you choose my AV over someone else's then great.

The real point is: Pick one! I've seen numerous suggestions that simply say "Disable Anti-virus". Those are irresponsible suggestions to make. Just use something. Disabling AV during an upgrade is one thing, but none of the suggestion I've seen (here or on other game sites) make any distinction about WHEN you should do it. Only that you should. That's teaching people very bad habits. 99.9% of the time the AV product isn't at fault (nor is it "stealing" resources). Disabling AV at the slightest hint of performance problems can make things worse since all that malware out there also "steals" resources.

Obviously, lots of folks have complaints about how one AV over another works. Pick whatever you like and go with it. Perhaps we can even compile a "how to" guide to improve game performance while leaving On Access scanning in place. Of course, I can provide comprehensive (and safe) recommendations for my own products PLUS several of our competitors.

The points of this whole series of posts isn't to change your mind on WHO you pick. Just pick something. Turn it on and leave it on. When someone tells you to turn it off... IGNORE THEM. Tell them they are lazy and full of liberal. They are. There's no need to disable virus scanning (ever).

Merry Christmas to everyone!
 
If you are playing single-player, you can disable your Internet Connection, then disable your Virus Protection (in that order)--after playing, enable Virus Protection, then enable your Internet Connection, in that order. Of course, plutarch, the way you recommend is preferrable; however, most people aren't going to understand that as well, sadly...

I actually always disable my Internet connection when I am not using it anyway--would you leave your doors unlocked when you're not home? Even with virus protection, Windows machines are vulnerable to viruses ~15% of the time...not to mention all of the other crap that can be hurled your way.

I don't mean to advocate any software above another, having relatively little experience with other brands...however, McAfee Internet Security Suite has been wonderful for my use. It is very easy to virtually unplug your Internet (clicking a couple places on the taskbar to modify the Firewall instead of actually doing the deed), and my computer has been very secure (even Tight or Standard security levels are very good...and it is easy to allow games still--and only the games you want to allow...). I also think Firewalls and Privacy Managers are, these days, even more beneficial than virus scanners. I can stop bloody Microsoft from sending data it gathered on me over the Internet, and other incursions of programs that seemingly would not need Internet access requesting it, then sending personal information such as name, address, phone number, and e-mail address without my knowing about it... Privacy Manager lets me put that to an end quick. Also, with young children, it is helpful to be able to limit the hours they can access the Internet by absolute means (ie, they can access from time A to time B, and otherwise McAfee disables it completely and asks for the admin password to enable it again...) Privacy Manager gives this functionality as well, plus adware protection.

I'm not familiar with what others offer, but those are features that are on my list as some of the most desirable... Depending on whether you offer them or not, it may be a useful feature list to consider: I need to limit Internet access to certain times and a certain total hours per user per week, detect any OUTBOUND access to the Internet (originating on my computer) as well as INBOUND access, and parse what is being sent to make sure name, SSN, e-mail, address, and phone are not among them unless I know exactly why they are being used...

At the same time, I also need to be able to easily ALLOW outbound Internet access to certain programs (namely, Mozilla...), and allow some personal information to be sent when I am the one that entered again...

Allowing me to lock my doors (disable Internet) easier is also a nice feature.

Oh, also, you forgot #7...(somewhat in jest, but there is quite a bit of truth to it ironically)
7) Use something other than Internet Explorer for web browsing. (Alternatives include: Mozilla (Standard or Firefox), Netscape, Opera, etc)

Sam
 
Gailainne said:
I would suggest that you never click on a button on a pop up window,yes or no, either right click delete on your tool bar or click on the top right X.
Click to expand...
I would modify this slightly. ALWAYS right-click on the popup ON THE TASK BAR and choose to Close the Window. Soemtimes, they disable the title bar, and put their own phony title bar that is actually a part of their hyperlink in its place--so you think you are clicking X to close the window, but you are instead following their ad...
 
What I usually do is disconnect my Internet connection, turn off AV and that´s it. I have AVG free, and is not very resource consuming, so I usually leave it.
 
ButSam said:
If you are playing single-player, you can disable your Internet Connection, then disable your Virus Protection (in that order)--after playing, enable Virus Protection, then enable your Internet Connection, in that order. Of course, plutarch, the way you recommend is preferrable; however, most people aren't going to understand that as well, sadly...
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I do (and recommend to others) if they have performance issues with a game and aren't using their net connection for multiplayer, of course. Getting folks to minimize the number of other programs running in the background is one of the main troubleshooting tips you can offer when the game starts acting up. Some programs just don't work well together. If you aren't connected to the net, and you aren't opening up something that hasn't yet been scanned, then you'll be fine.

Education is the key. Some people just don't understand how to minimize their risks.
 
I agree that security should not be compromised, I came very close to chucking out a perfectly good computer that that I believed had a serious hardware fault after contracting a nasty virus a few years ago (my fault, opened something I shouldn't, hard lesson learned!). Anyone who doesn't know what they are doing should leave their AV product running at all times or unplug/disable the Internet before doing so.

I take my security very seriously these days - my armoury includes a hardware firewall on my router, a software firewall to stop programs 'calling home' behind my back and to 'lock' the Internet out when required, AV software, and an adware/malware scanner. I also keep Windows fully updated and, except for the operating system itself, avoid all Microsoft programs like the plague. IE and Outhouse Distress in particular are sitting ducks when it comes to the scumbags who write malicious code that target their security weaknesses.

I would add a #8 to the list and suggest everyone use something other than the free email program that comes with Windows and the associated Windows Address Book, both of which have always seemed to me to be very vulnerable to attack and the perfect vehicle for the latest virus to spread like wildfire to the wider world, from what I have heard and seen. OE is the virus writer's dream as people accept it too readily on their computers as a primary application without ever thinking to look at anything else. I would rather be one of the 2% of email users (or whatever) who do NOT use OE and be safe, thank you very much, I can live without pretty backgrounds and dangerous active content.

Just my two pence worth. ;)
 
I think the only reason they ask you to disable it is when you go through multiplayer. On my computer, whenever I go to multiplayer for the first time in a new patch, my anti-virus scanner kicks in 3 times.

- Popup window defaulting to "Don't trust Civ4!"
- 2 Zonealarm windows asking to allow/deny Civ4.

Now, if I have my game in full screen mode, I can not alt tab to the Norton window. So, I would remain frozen. Granted, windowed mode does help as you can access it. :)
 
Chieftess said:
I think the only reason they ask you to disable it is when you go through multiplayer. On my computer, whenever I go to multiplayer for the first time in a new patch, my anti-virus scanner kicks in 3 times.

- Popup window defaulting to "Don't trust Civ4!"
- 2 Zonealarm windows asking to allow/deny Civ4.

Now, if I have my game in full screen mode, I can not alt tab to the Norton window. So, I would remain frozen. Granted, windowed mode does help as you can access it. :)
Click to expand...

That would be your firewall giving you those messages (or, at least, the firewall component of Zonealarm), not an antivirus program.

The odd thing is, when you are connected to the net is the one time you shouldn't disable your firewall/av programs. Some firewalls allow you to individually or automatically set up access for programs that need to connect to the net before or during the access to avoid these issues. Unfortunately, to the average user, configuration of a firewall is still an 'expert' activity in many cases.
 
I disagree. Most of the time when I play civ4 I turn my virus protection off. Although virus protection is definitely useful, if someone really wanted to get into your computer, they would use a ud. Also, if you really know what you are doing, you wont get infected 99% of the time. Also, norton is crap. It uses way to much memory. I think it is something like 256-512mb. And windows itself uses about 256mb. Get nod32 or kapersky or avg.
 
I haven't had any virus protection for over two years , and I've never got a virus . But then again , I have ZoneAlarm , and I practice paranoid computing ( and I'm quite security-conscious in real life , too ) .
 
Gailainne said:
I would suggest that you never click on a button on a pop up window,yes or no, either right click delete on your tool bar or click on the top right X.
Click to expand...

Don't click that red x, it's only convention that that X means close. You could be telling the program to install spyware or what not when you hit it. Use alt-f4, or close it down in the taskbar.
 
These are allways fun discussions :)

I own my own buisness, our number one service is IT support for small & medium businesses. A good portion of the problems we fix are virus & crapware related. With the exception of some random power supply & HDD failures the overwhelming majority of any residential services we provide are also virus & crapware related. The record to date (for me) is 2200+ infected files on one home PC. Blah, blah, blah... We hear that all of the time, usually right after the complaint that Civ4 isn't working or is performing poorly on a "monster" machine built by an "experienced technician."

At home on this very computer I'm using to send this message I run NO ANTI-VIRUS software. I don't randomly browse the web, I don't receive a lot of junk email and when I do it goes straight to the big email bin in the sky. I don't run any of the "cute" joke programs that are so popular (and frequently infected) and I've been following this same practice on my computer for the past several years with no virus infections. And no, it's not, "no infections because I don't have AV software installed so I wouldn't know." It's no infections because I regularly scan these drives in another machine and have yet to find anything. My wife's computer is a different story but then she uses it differently. Does this mean you should run around with no AV software, no. It means that you should realize that it is nothing more than a potentially helpful utility.

You guys can relax, unload your AV software while playing a agme, even online. If anything is going to get you while you're playing a game you're already infected and the AV software isn't helping you anyway. Yeah, it is like driving a car without wearing a seatbelt, the difference is it's like driving it in your driveway rather than on the highway at 80mph. Don't fool yourself with the false sense of security you get from AV software, especially if you're using one of the more popular brands like Norton or McAfee. You'd be suprised how many viruses can disable those without you even realizing it. The seatbelt/helmet is a good analogy, after all which is better to wear a seatbelt because you might crash or to be more carful so the chances of crashing are reduced? I have a feeling people do view AV software as true protection and think it means they can go anywhere and do anything without risk, by that same token you should be able to ram your car into a brick wall at 80mph, as long as you have your seatbelt on you'll be fine. I don't know about you guys, but I'll stick to avoiding the brick wall rather than expecting to be saved by my seatbelt.
 
Plutarch, I personally think you're just spewing FUD here, particularly with respect to a desktop sitting behind a NAT, using a web browser other than IE. I know it's the company line, but jeez.

I have an unpatched Windows XP box, without active virus protection or a software firewall, and I have never gotten a virus. I run scans once a month with NAV and AVG.

I think it's a quite different situation if it's, for instance, a laptop sitting on a public network.

Generally, I think what Seven05 said is completely accurate.
 
Seriously all, Plutarch gives sound advise .
U really don't know when or where a virus may or may not hit ur pc .

Take me for instance, many years ago .
Got a collector's edition of AOE and got infected with a text virus;
the disk crashed terminally short time after and I lost many man hours of precious programming work; .
I actually tested the CD with a new reformatted disk, so I know the virus came from it and not the bios .
(also made a terrible scene at the Challenger Superstore after that -
the staff had the gall to suggest I had duplicated the CD for my own use -
I suggested a test on their server, and volunteered to do the installation myself ...)

At that time, I used to install new "trusted" software with AV off .
Now I know better - If it don't install with AV on, it don't install at all .

I admit I do hate NAV and NIS 2004, they're such memory hogs; but use them anyways .
I also hate MIE, but use it becuz, can't help it, I love shockwave . :)

gvibes - the "FUD" is justified . :D

Merry Christmas :)
 
plutarch said:
IF you want to make a performance-related change tell people to place an exception in the On-Access Scanners for the Civ4 Directory. Put that exclusion in to exclude writes from the "c:\program files\firaxis games\" directory. You can tell folks to make sure a scheduled (On Demand Scan) isn't going to occur while you're playing a game. But do not tell them to turn off virus scanning ever.[/FONT]
Click to expand...

A while ago, I had Norton's Worm Protection on. Every so often it would pop up with a "WARNING SECURITY ALERT! POSSIBLE WORM! Allow/Deny?" for Xfire, sometimes MSN messenger, and later Battlefield 2. Sometimes it would go crazy and pop up every 10 seconds. The worst thing about it was that it would minimize whatever you were doing (even playing a game that would crash if minimized) to give you this alert. No matter how many times you would click "allow," no matter how many exceptions you would make, it would still pop up. I eventually just turned it off. Haven't missed it. (I still do regular system scans and stuff)

So no, creating exceptions doesn't always work.
 
For those of you who think I'm drinking a bit too much from the company Kool Aid let me fill you in on something:

First, I have made every attempt to avoid mentioning my company or speaking poorly about any of our competitors.

Second, I haven't given anyone a call-to-action such as the following: "Run out to the store and buy the latest version NOW or you'll die!!11" or "OMG! You have to buy MY stuff over anyone else because we're better."

Third, obviously several of you are just too smart to get virii. You can click faster and you just know too much to get infected. As I've stated this advice is NOT for you. It is like giving advice to short people and the seven foot tall basketball player complains that the advice won't work for him. (For those on the inferior metric system 7 ft is roughly equal to about 15 meters or a trillion picometers or something.)

Fourth, I can't "sell" you something you don't want. If you don't want it, I don't want you to have it. It just creates too many headaches for me in the long run. Also, there's plenty of people in the world who are happy to have what I'm selling.

If I really wanted to make more money at this I would just get Dell, HP, Alienware, Gateway, IBM or whoever to sign up for huge deals to Pre-install the software on your PC. Or I'd go after your ISP like AOL, Comcast or whoever to offer it to you. I'd make **HUGE** commissions on that. I'd get a call of thanks from our CEO for landing such a huge account. And we'd have our software out there. If I were really motivated in this from the money game I'd certainly go this route. I wouldn't bother with a forum posting like this.

So if you want to attack my motives then go ahead. I have real thick skin.

Sheesh guys. Just don't wholesale disable virus scan. It is bad advice for almost every user except 7ft tall basketball players.
 
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