31 Dec, 2011, Joseph Locke wrote in the 1st comment:
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Hi all-

Just got a new Mac Book Pro. I've never used Mac's.

Ever.

I like my Linux, especially my Arch, and I like my Windows development environments. That said, I have a Mac now and I don't want it to get botched. I am already having some trouble with my browsers, trying to login to sites like Facebook. I can open facebook, try to login, and then it hangs. If I was on a windows machine, and assuming my cookie settings and such were configured correctly, I would view this as symptoms of browser hijacking and/or a virus.

So my question to you – any of you savvy mac users here at Mudbytes – is what you use for antivirus on your mac and why you would suggest it for me? If it helps, I consider AVG, CA (e-trust), and ZoneAlarm to be satisfactory tools for the job. I consider Norton, McAffee, Avast, and Avira to be unsatisfactory.

I appreciate any response, I know it's not specifically MUD related but I'm betting there's someone around here with the knowhow to guide me in the right direction.

Thanks.
31 Dec, 2011, Runter wrote in the 2nd comment:
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Which browsers are you having trouble with?
31 Dec, 2011, Joseph Locke wrote in the 3rd comment:
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Safari and Chrome. Haven't dabbled with Safari much prior to installing Chrome. However, I rebooted my router and my machine and opened Chrome in an inPrivate browsing session. Managed to get into facebook on a dummy account. So, I'm not exactly sure what the issue was… session management problems (multiple logins across two browsers/cookie trouble/https)? Still leery about security, even though everyone at the Mac store says, "Ohh, you'll be fine. Viruses target Windows." :sad:
31 Dec, 2011, Joseph Locke wrote in the 4th comment:
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On that note, any Mac specific suggestions for browsers? I use Chrome a lot on Windows, and chromium/firefox based forks on Linux. Opera showed some promise the last time I checked it out, but I value speed, stability, and minimalist environments more than fancy features and WoW like keyboard macros.
31 Dec, 2011, Runter wrote in the 5th comment:
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I highly doubt your new macbook already has a virus. Most users never use virus protection software on osx (myself included) and have never even had malware issues. Probably something else going on here.
31 Dec, 2011, Joseph Locke wrote in the 6th comment:
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It went through someone else's hands before it got to me. A young girl, college student, into mp3 ringtones and clicking the ads on facebook. She specifically searched for "mac mp3 converter" which seems like a pretty hot search term to me, especially if you aren't the type to really investigate who you're downloading software from. It wouldn't have surprised me, but so far, it seems to be running alright.

On the other hand, what about preferred browser for Mac?
31 Dec, 2011, Rarva.Riendf wrote in the 7th comment:
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Never ever trust a machine that has been in other people hands….Reinstall it from scratch.
31 Dec, 2011, plamzi wrote in the 8th comment:
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It's not so easy to mess up OSX. I would very much doubt that your problem is related to anything like a virus or malware. One thing to try is to clear your existing cache and cookies, which may be trying to authenticate someone else. If that fails, remove Chrome and install it again. If that doesn't help, try installing Firefox for Mac. I'd just retire Safari, since it has many known issues.
31 Dec, 2011, Rarva.Riendf wrote in the 9th comment:
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plamzi said:
It's not so easy to mess up OSX.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pwn2Own

Actually it is as easy if not easier than oher OSes…thing is a keylogger could have been installed. How would you know. And that has nohing to do with the OS itself. If the computer is now your, why bother, reinstall it.
31 Dec, 2011, David Haley wrote in the 10th comment:
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I would agree that you should reinstall it if possible. OS X is just as easy to install malware on if you're downloading and installing something yourself.
31 Dec, 2011, plamzi wrote in the 11th comment:
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Rarva.Riendf said:
plamzi said:
It's not so easy to mess up OSX.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pwn2Own

Actually it is as easy if not easier than oher OSes…thing is a keylogger could have been installed. How would you know. And that has nohing to do with the OS itself. If the computer is now your, why bother, reinstall it.


What makes OSX harder to mess up by a casual user has nothing to do with how secure it actually is relative to others. The fact that it has such a small share of the world market naturally translates into a lot fewer attacks by hackers who are out to get as many systems as possible. Here's a good general article on this subject.

I've used OSX alongside Windows for the last few years, and have never had to reinstall it because of software issues. By contrast, I had to reinstall Windows on two of my systems in the same time period just to get rid of a particularly nasty new rootkit. I was just trying to help the OP avoid a reinstall, as it may not be necessary to resolve the problem he is seeing.

As for keyloggers, you might have one installed on your system right now–you'll be safer if you reinstall daily. Or you can spend a few seconds thinking about whether the source of this machine is likely to be someone trying to steal your secrets and decide that it's highly unlikely. Point is, indulging your paranoia can be a lot of unnecessary work.
31 Dec, 2011, Rarva.Riendf wrote in the 12th comment:
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Quote
What makes OSX harder to mess up by a casual user has nothing to do with how secure it actually is relative to others. The fact that it has such a small share of the world market naturally translates into a lot fewer attacks by hackers who are out to get as many systems as possible. Here's a good general article on this subject.

I agree, but it is unrelated. When you buy a house you change the keylocks….Even in a relatively clam neighborhood. Cause you have no idea who the previous owner may have lended the key.

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'I've used OSX alongside Windows for the last few years, and have never had to reinstall it because of software issues. By contrast, I had to reinstall Windows on two of my systems in the same time period just to get rid of a particularly nasty new rootkit. I was just trying to help the OP avoid a reinstall, as it may not be necessary to resolve the problem he is seeing.

Wonder how you got rootkit installed…..but since a coder like you got them, I cannot see how you can trust a foreign computer to log into your bank account…(Never had rootkit/virus isntalled, maybe cause I'am 'paranoid'…as you are saying…) Sure you can solve the problem. Ask yourself if it wont be faster than to relaunch the intall process than to find what is the reason of the problem, does it actually worth it….(and what would be next problem…)

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Point is, indulging your paranoia can be a lot of unnecessary work.

Can be but at least I am not suffering a reinstall process like you….so in the end, just checking md5 of what I install from internet on my computer may be less time than what you lose reinstalling when you spot a rootkit…and a lot safer as well. (working atm on a two years old install of window seven that is as fast as it was on the first day…)

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As for keyloggers, you might have one installed on your system right now–you'll be safer if you reinstall daily.

Actually it would be safer to just launch a live cd to check for it, but hardly use cause I am not THAT paranoid. Enough to never had any antivirus detect anything though.

That and I do not disable the UAC.
01 Jan, 2012, plamzi wrote in the 13th comment:
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Rarva.Riendf said:
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Point is, indulging your paranoia can be a lot of unnecessary work.

Can be but at least I am not suffering a reinstall process like you….so in the end, just checking md5 of what I install from internet on my computer may be less time than what you lose reinstalling when you spot a rootkit…and a lot safer as well. (working atm on a two years old install of window seven that is as fast as it was on the first day…)


You don't go to the woods, you don't get attacked by bears… I've made a similar calculation to yours and decided in my case the chips stack the other way around–what I get from living dangerously far outweighs a bi-annual reinstall. BTW, I'm getting a wonderful diversity vibe from knowing someone who only downloads stuff that has a checksum :)
01 Jan, 2012, Runter wrote in the 14th comment:
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On the other hand, what about preferred browser for Mac?


I use Chrome. I regularly use the other browsers to test software and have no issues there either in OSX. I'm going to echo what everyone else has said. Reinstall OSX if possible.
01 Jan, 2012, Chris Bailey wrote in the 15th comment:
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I re-install the OS on all of my Windows based machines about every two months. I just can't help but feel that is starts slowing down, despite my best efforts to keep it running fast. That being said, I've never needed to re-install OSx or any other Unix based architecture except for when I screwed it up myself (happens frequently). If it were me, I would re-install it anyways because I just enjoy clean slates. =)
01 Jan, 2012, Dean wrote in the 16th comment:
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Chris Bailey said:
I re-install the OS on all of my Windows based machines about every two months. I just can't help but feel that is starts slowing down, despite my best efforts to keep it running fast.


That's somewhat of a bad habit there. :devil:
01 Jan, 2012, Chris Bailey wrote in the 17th comment:
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Yeah, it is. There is one good side to it though; I make sure to back-up important information frequently.
01 Jan, 2012, Runter wrote in the 18th comment:
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well, if you were to partition your hard disk such that windows is one drive, and your important information (or just about everything) is on another then it wouldn't be much of an issue to format and reinstall windows just on that small partition without worrying about losing data.
01 Jan, 2012, Chris Bailey wrote in the 19th comment:
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That's what I did before I upgraded to wiping the whole disk clean every time.

EDIT: I should add that I use a lot of old hardware and have had several mechanical disks fail in past. (Not helped by my constant formatting, I'm sure)
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