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Peradventure · May 16, 2006, 07:04 PM

I'm haven't been able to download virex security updates I think there's something really wrong with my G4 - when I click the start button in the virex window, I get a window that tells me that my .mac account needs to be update - my .mac account is fine otherwise. I open mac preferences and.....nothing works. If you can help, please do.

P

Big Mac · May 16, 2006, 07:13 PM

Why do you think you have a virus? At this time, there are still essentially no known viruses coded to attack Mac OS X. If you cannot get Virex to work but remain worried, there's a freeware alternative - ClamXav.

icruise · May 16, 2006, 07:28 PM

You don't have a virus.

Peradventure · May 16, 2006, 08:31 PM

hmmmm.... I think I have a virus b/c my PC friends can't download any files I send as attachments unless I turn them into PDFs, and again, I haven't been able to download updates since December...........

msuper69 · May 16, 2006, 08:32 PM

Virex is no longer offered on .mac.

wataru · May 16, 2006, 11:56 PM

Originally Posted by Peradventure

hmmmm.... I think I have a virus b/c my PC friends can't download any files I send as attachments unless I turn them into PDFs, and again, I haven't been able to download updates since December...........

Right, like those are symptoms of a virus...

ghporter · May 17, 2006, 01:21 PM

Your friend's PC mail app is configured so that he can't accidentally download mail attachments that could contain viruses. That has nothing to do with your computer, guaranteed. There have been no new Mac viruses since December-because nobody's taken the time to really write one that can be distributed. And from what I hear, Virex is not the best choice for Mac antivirus anyway... Dump it, get one that has support and a good track record, and stop worrying.

parsec_kadets · May 17, 2006, 02:27 PM

If your friends are using Outlook then that's the problem, not that you have a virus. Outlook looks at the attachment and if the file extension is one that's on it's magic list of extensions that could POSSIBLY, in some way, have a virus, it doesn't let you download it. It doesn't perform a virus scan to determine if it actually does have a virus, it just assumes every file with that extension is infected. You can prove this by changing the extension to .abc, e-mailing that to your friends, then telling them to change it back to the original extension. The file doesn't change when you do this, just the name. If it was actually infected it would still contain the virus.

Strix · May 17, 2006, 03:18 PM

Apple used to update their server with the Virex DAT files, but it was never updated on a daily basis.

You can download the latest Virex DAT files direct from McAfee:

http://www.mcafee.com/apps/downloads...ent=enterprise

This will download a .gz file, which once decompressed you can installed as a normal package file.

Somewhere on McAfee you can also subscribe to email notifications of the latest updates, which used to come through daily.

I did used to use Virex, but recently switched over to ClamXav (I found Virex to be a bit of a resource hog on the old iBook I had).

Why do I use an anti virus program? Well, I receive a lot of emails & files from work, and work isn't renowned for being totally virus free. Also one day there will be a virus, and I don't want to be caught with my trousers down.

Strix

jasong · May 17, 2006, 06:03 PM

The fan on my PowerBook is louder than it was yesterday, I have a virus, don't tell me otherwise. I read C|Net, I know Macs are susceptible.

Big Mac · May 18, 2006, 02:12 AM

haha

Peradventure · May 18, 2006, 09:43 AM

Thanks for the mockery: wouldn't downloading a trojan or any of the others that people worry about, gum up the system even if it doesn't pose the same threat it does for a PC? As for opening up my files on a PC, I never can- the PC tells me there's a file missing and it does download the file, but it comes up as some sort of botched mac mail page, nothing like the word file I created. Maybe this has something to do with mac word.

BTW, I did fix my problem. My passwords didn't match. And I don't read Cnet. Thanks.

ghporter · May 18, 2006, 10:57 AM

The only way a trojan would affect you is if it was built to affect OS X. There are none in the wild right now, and the few that have been found have been so poorly written that they didn't do much more than worry people.

So which passwords didn't match?

JKT · May 18, 2006, 06:54 PM

Originally Posted by Peradventure

As for opening up my files on a PC, I never can- the PC tells me there's a file missing and it does download the file, but it comes up as some sort of botched mac mail page, nothing like the word file I created. Maybe this has something to do with mac word.

If you are running OS X 10.4.x, don't use Virex - it isn't compatible with 10.4. I would download the Virex uninstaller and get rid of it. You'll experience more problems running Virex than it will ever solve. I would get ClamXav instead as recommended above.

For Word - what version are you using?

In Mail make sure that you have "Always Send Windows Friendly Attachments" selected in the Edit>Attachments menu. It sounds like the encoding is incorrect and Windows is too stupid to work out what it is. Also, do your files have the correct three letter extension (e.g. .doc) at the end of the filename? If they don't Windows can't work out what they are.

onlykaria · May 18, 2006, 09:38 PM

Originally Posted by Peradventure

Thanks for the mockery: wouldn't downloading a trojan or any of the others that people worry about, gum up the system even if it doesn't pose the same threat it does for a PC? As for opening up my files on a PC, I never can- the PC tells me there's a file missing and it does download the file, but it comes up as some sort of botched mac mail page, nothing like the word file I created. Maybe this has something to do with mac word.

BTW, I did fix my problem. My passwords didn't match. And I don't read Cnet. Thanks.

hmmm well seems like he's not the only one being a cranky puss.

eeeaa · May 18, 2006, 09:46 PM

Originally Posted by ghporter

Your friend's PC mail app is configured so that he can't accidentally download mail attachments that could contain viruses. That has nothing to do with your computer, guaranteed. There have been no new Mac viruses since December-because nobody's taken the time to really write one that can be distributed. And from what I hear, Virex is not the best choice for Mac antivirus anyway... Dump it, get one that has support and a good track record, and stop worrying.

Just to be clear about one thing...
There was no Mac virus in December.