I think the best way to defend the virus is finely backup your important files and system. I don`t install any virus scaner in my computer, a ghost(software) instead. I backup my system the time when the system is quite good .All the processes only took 10 minites.Some important files uploaded to an online disk and my moving disk. When there is something wrong. It take just 10 minites to restore the system and less time to download my files.
In my opinion , there is no best Anti-Virus. When you use it, it take lots of resources of your computer,and must be updated newest.

Well, I'm like you, only that I'm not as bothered. I use a bunch of freeware programs like Spybot, Ad-Aware SE Personal & AVG. I suppose reformatting one's computer yearly would do well. When I reformat, my C drive is cleared, but not my other drives, so I store my files in those drives.

USB storage is super cheap these days so I suppose it's a must.

there's no such thing as 'best', because best would mean perfect and perfect doesn't exist. The only thing you can do is getting as near as possible.
Getting near perfect involves some strategies, like you said. My strategy is different. I use Avast as my on-access scanner, I used to have a second on-demand scanner installed to do a regular scan. I also do not use Internet Explorer or Firefox at all, I have Spybot S&D and Adaware installed and I regulary do a backup on DVD (only data).
I don't like the idea of creating a ghost image, it's of course a quicker way to install windows, but when I reinstall windows I also want to install the latest version of my software.

I don't agree with the idea of running an AV-less system at all. While using Ghost to restore your system is an excellent and very effective approach, there cannot be any comparison to having a AV / Anti-Spyware installed - even if a free one. I'd say not having one these days is rather foolish.

Keep in mind - you aren't infected by destructive viruses anymore. There's been a big paradigm shift in the modus operandi of viruses / worms etc. Rather than destroying the "host" they are designed to reap the benefits. You may have multiple copies of Ghosted images and / or other forms of backups handy, but think of it this way - a nice little malware gets into your system and starts mailing out all your personal info (login credentials, credit card info etc.) and you haven't got a clue about it. Why ? Coz you've been ignorant enough NOT to have an AV installed.

There may not be any "best" or "perfect" AV as wutske pointed out, but there definitely are good free ones out there - and pretty non-resource-hungry ones at that. I don't see any good reason why you shouldn't have one installed on your system... ???

Any thoughts on this ?

Cheers,
m^e

To tell you the truth, I haven't had an Anti-virus for quite some time. Its all because of the performance issues associated with any anti-virus system. I multitask quite a lot and during coding times, running more than 10 heavy applications is not uncommon. The 512 MB DDR is just not capable enough for smooth performance with them and the anti-virus running together. Although, once in a while (2 - 3 months), I do install an anti-virus, but only for doing a full PC scan.

The thought of having my PC infected by the spy-wares that you speak of, is really frightening.

Aside from getting a decent anti-virus system running, I believe there's one, golden rule for keeping your computer running without trouble and nasty virusses: A healthy dose of common "computer" sense. This means surfing with sense and using your computer with sense.
I'm gonna stop saying "sense" now.
However, I'm an a somewhat experienced surfer. SOMEWHAT, so I know what can be trusted and what cannot. Same for emails and filesharing. Next to that, a good browser, like a tweaked FF with adblock plus and a self-updating filterset can do miracles.
I instructed my dad (61, not too computer savvy, but still decent with 'puters) to do the same routine every few days: run adaware and ccleaner. I gave him firefox and finetuned it for him, and I haven't had a single problem with his desktop for more than a year, as opposed to before.

Bleh, I get Symantec Antivirus from my school for free, so I've been using that. It's really non-intrusive and doesn't use up a lot of resources, but the problem with it that I've had is that when a virus does happen to wander into my system, the antivirus is quick to tell me about it... But then does NOTHING to fix it before it runs amok and destroys my hard drive data. Some smaller things it will quarantine, but I've had some really nasty ones that will eat my hard drive like pacman likes pills. I don't get viruses like all the people I know that run computers. Like was mentioned above, you have to use common sense when computing, especially since there are so many ways that people will try screwing with your computer. All it takes is one file to screw you up, and you're out of luck. This is also mentioned above: constantly keep your backups up to date, so you don't lose any important info. I remember years ago before I kept my data backed up on a regular basis, I got a nasty bug and had to wipe my drive, and found out afterwards I lost about 100 bookmarked sites that I'd never be able to find again

Of course, I tend to go overboard with backups. I have probably 20 dvds from the past 2 years sitting on my shelf with backups on them. Instead of cloning, I just burn the files and folders, but this leads to data redundancy, because I tend to use the same files after I back it up, which updates them and I end up having multiple versions of the same file in all my backups, but I can't throw away the old backups because they have unique files on them.

I'm planning on consolidating all my data, because I'm tired of sifting through dozens of dvds trying to find the files I need. I hope the higher end data storage comes up like HD or Blu Ray, so I can finally get all this stuff onto one disk and throw everything else in the shredder and get some of my desk space back!

I can't agree more with what m^e says. It's stupid not having an AV program installed, not only because some viri will send your information to some weird people, but also because some viri can make your computer a zombie. Maybe your computer is now sending thousands of spam mails (btw, if they track you down, you can get in some troubles with the authorities, innoscent or not) or maybe it's waiting for the next DDOS atack to the Microsoft website ...

@turbopowerdmaxsteel: the performance hit of a virus scanner isn't that great anymore. Yes, it does use like 40Mb of memory, but that won't make the difference. When you do a lot of coding, you can also set your virusscanner to ignore any movie files and temp files created by the encoder.

@Herbert, yeah duhu, that's typical Norton behavior. It's a slow resource hog and it sucks at keeping viri away from your pc. I'm not saying other av software is perfect and will stop every virus, but usualy they do better.

This post has been edited by wutske: Apr 7 2007, 12:06 AM

I have never backed up my files. Actually, I don't even know how too. But, I do agree that at least some sort of anti-virus protection is needed. I use a free one, AVG, and it does a good job. I havent had any problems with viruses in a long time. I also use Ad-aware and Spy-bot and that helps too. Before, when I didn't have an AV, I was under attack all the time. So I do believe it is very important.

I think the only time that not running an AV on your (especially Windows) system would be alright is if it were in no way connected to the internet, and you didn't use flash drives or CDs/DVDs with anything on them that wasn't checked first on a computer with an AV. If you're totally isolated then it could work, but almost no one is in today's world. So it's suicide. And just relying on one thing isn't going to help either if something determined gets to work. A multilayered defense exponentially increases your protection.