Antivirus Subscription expired - good grief!

[Gandalfs_beard]

Dear all,

Sorry to bother you all with my inadequate mac knowledge but I really do need to pick someones brain. I noticed my Norton anti-virus subscription has expired on my Mac OSX. Apparently I must buy a new subscription key. However as I am a destitute student, I have only a few pennies to feed myself let alone purchase software. Where am I to find a subscription key code? I would be grateful for any pointers in the right direction.

Yours Sincerely,

Trampy student of a
creative persuasion

[John A]

Sorry, subscription keys cost money, and if you find one, it's either already used by someone else, or it's illegal. The money you pay is for Norton continually releasing updates to protect you against the latest viruses.

My advice: Norton Antivirus will continue to function, even without a subscrption. It won't stay updated, true, but with the amount of Mac viruses out there these days, it's hardly worth the subscription. And as long as you aren't doing anything stupid (such as downloading random files from unknown sites), you shouldn't get yourself in trouble.

Hope this helps

[pty]

You don't need AV on Mac OSX.

To install software you have to enter a password. So long as you think before putting your password in the little box your computer will be safe.

[Gandalfs_beard]

Sorry, subscription keys cost money, and if you find one, it's either already used by someone else, or it's illegal. The money you pay is for Norton continually releasing updates to protect you against the latest viruses.

My advice: Norton Antivirus will continue to function, even without a subscrption. It won't stay updated, true, but with the amount of Mac viruses out there these days, it's hardly worth the subscription. And as long as you aren't doing anything stupid (such as downloading random files from unknown sites), you shouldn't get yourself in trouble.

Hope this helps

Righteo. I know viruses are very rare on mac OSX but lately I have been experiencing problems. Sometimes the fan will be running really fast & loud like there's no tomorrow when I'm not doing anything particularly amazing, just browsing the net. It never used to do that.

Normally the mac switches the fan on when I'm using my software programme (In Design, Illustrator, Photoshop) I thought perhaps I had some kind of bug messing interfering. I've noticed that it has crashed a few times too, something it's never done before. I wondered whether it may have something to do with downloading music files from Limewire but I don't think it should as I'm notified if I'm downloading a corrupt file.

[jbennet]

what sort of mac is it?

there are known problems with iMac and Macbook fans
also there suopposed to come on during cpu intensive apps like photoshop to keep it cool

[John A]

Make sure you keep your Mac updated with the latest SMC and firmware updates. As jbennet pointed out, many of the Mac models have fan problems.

Also, don't use Limewire to download music. ;) It's illegal, and a lot of viruses (on Windows, at least) can be had from downloading stuff. So don't take your chances.

How long have you gone without a reinstall? Macs, like any other computer, need a reformat/reinstallation every once-in-a-while. If you'll forgive the biased-ness of this, you may want to check out this:
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread54207.html

[pty]

Righteo. I know viruses are very rare on mac OSX but lately I have been experiencing problems. Sometimes the fan will be running really fast & loud like there's no tomorrow when I'm not doing anything particularly amazing, just browsing the net. It never used to do that.

Normally the mac switches the fan on when I'm using my software programme (In Design, Illustrator, Photoshop) I thought perhaps I had some kind of bug messing interfering. I've noticed that it has crashed a few times too, something it's never done before. I wondered whether it may have something to do with downloading music files from Limewire but I don't think it should as I'm notified if I'm downloading a corrupt file.

If you're on Tiger it could be spotlight indexing in the background (I get that with beagle on linux from time to time).

If its Limewire thats slowing stuff down (could well be, the win version was infested with spyware nasties) I recommend tomato torrent. Low resouce usage and nice and simple. From what I remember Limewire was kind of crappy on Windows (but been a good few years since I used it)

[Gandalfs_beard]

what sort of mac is it?

there are known problems with iMac and Macbook fans
also there suopposed to come on during cpu intensive apps like photoshop to keep it cool

A G5 iMac OSX Panther

[Gandalfs_beard]

Make sure you keep your Mac updated with the latest SMC and firmware updates. As jbennet pointed out, many of the Mac models have fan problems.

Also, don't use Limewire to download music. ;) It's illegal, and a lot of viruses (on Windows, at least) can be had from downloading stuff. So don't take your chances.

How long have you gone without a reinstall? Macs, like any other computer, need a reformat/reinstallation every once-in-a-while. If you'll forgive the biased-ness of this, you may want to check out this:
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread54207.html

What's SMC? Yes I do keep it updated with the various software updates.

As for Limewire, hmm I'm not sure whether I can stop downloading completely! I need my muzic! Actually my Mac seems to be ok now, I ran Norton, it found some kind of strain virus on two of my word documents, it's found them before. It comes from the computers in my uni funnily enough.

Thank you all for your wise words of internet jargon.

[John A]

What's SMC? Yes I do keep it updated with the various software updates.

I'm not completely sure - it's got something to do with the EFI and booting and stuff. I doubt you lack an update, since the SMC updates are downloaded via Software Update, but here's the latest one I think:
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imacearly2006smcfirmwareupdate.html

[ViolentCloud]

I was in a similar situation a few months back (also a student). It's worth seeing if your university offers any kind of technical support to students, or even better if you can get small grants from student services. That's how I payed for my new subscription key.
Just plan a good way of justifying it to them!

[jbennet]

yeah, college gets me a lcience for mcaffee enterprise client ed. for like a tenner as they dont want us putting viruses on the network with VPN

[DontWasteMyTime]

When Norton expires, it stops *ALL* protection. Not just "no new virus definitions".
It continues to run forever... but only to display the constant annoying "you should update" pop ups.

It's a rip off.

[PhilliePhan]

It's a rip off.

How is that a rip off? If somebody stops paying me, I stop working.
Wouldn't you? :)

[dioioib]

Well you could always use ClamXAv if you are really worried.

http://www.clamxav.com/

It is free and will detect a large number of virus'. I find it is really only an issue if I am downloading .exe's for my virtualized version of windows / boot camp. Even then there is no effect on OSX.

Before it was mentioned that fans were coming on and system was running slow. I would say that is more likely your system overheating and causing poor performance. Run disk utility and repair your system permissions. That fixes most problems. You could also be experiencing a SMART disk failure on your hard-drive or at least be heading that way, or even have a bad or miss matched ram dimm. It is very unlikely you have a virus unless you gave a program your root password and basically installed it yourself.