OS X firewall and anti virus

Please no stone throwing if you can avoid it!, and very sorry for this
long post.

I'm a PC user since IBM DOS due to work. I've been using MAC's off
and on, but mostly off. My in-laws have always been on MAC's (MIL -
university, FIL newspaper). I've always loved the MAC and don't
understand why Jobs didn't sue Gates at Windows 3 instead of waiting
until Gates started getting a little better at imitating the MAC user
interface (maybe because he was too busy laughing at how bad Windws 3
was).

Anyway, my Father-in-law passed away and left me with the care and
feeding of my MIL's IMAC. He had Norton on there long ago, but didn't
keep it up to date. She either downloaded something weird or more
likely simply screwed up a bunch of settings in OS X because she was
used to OS 9 on her old machine (she was running it emulation mode for
months after he died).

So given my PC background and lack or OS X knowledge at the time, I
assumed a virus and was duely instructed to go get a new version of
Norton which I did a year ago. The subscription expired and they have
resisted all attempts at updating her subscription despite having
taken her money online. (As an aside the real problem was probably an
constent accumulation of files in a temp area that wasn't meant for
that, I fixed that once but eventually she buggered it up again and it
took a MAC expert that used to work with her to determine the only fix
was to upgrade to the latest OS X version, which he did about 12
months or so ago).

I have finally reached the point with Norton (Symantic) where I can no
longer even keep their products running on my PC based machines, so I
have moved on Avast which doesn't have a MAC version.

I have read in hear of the lack of need for a anti virus program.
However as has been noted in the group, she needs to protect her
grandchildren from themselves on their MS machines. So I need to get
something on there, and am loath to do any further battle with
Symantic.

Is the product at the Apple site (CLAMAV I believe it is called)
sufficient to do the trick. Can it be configured to run automatically
in the background and get regular updates?

Complicating my situation somewhat is the fact that she has just
updated to high speed access from dial up so I have concerns regarding
the need for a firewall (I run Zone Alarm on all my PC machines and it
get's a pretty good workout from hackers and spyware).

Any recommendations for a firewall as well?

Thanks in advance for any help and for putting up with such a lengthy
post from an "outsider".

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Application Errors
    ... One of these machines is a brand new Lenovo ... This phenomonon appears to have started around the time DST updates were ... fact is that whenever I reboot Norton firewall is disabled at startup each ... Besides firewall also behind firewall with NAT. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Looking for an alternative to Norton AV and internet security
    ... >I've had endless probs with Norton. ... Ugh - I've had endless problems with Zone Alarm on several machines ... I have NAV on all my machines and have never yet had a problem! ... I don't use a software firewall at all - I let my router handle it. ...
    (uk.comp.homebuilt)
  • Re: If I suddenly disappear...
    ... >>> firewall is the NAT firewall on the router, ... The thing that had hit her box had ubggred up Norton AV and ... > some netty stuff that Mac OS 9 doesn't easily support (torrent d/ls ... The PC has 3 firewalls (router, XP and a software one), one AV ...
    (uk.rec.sheds)
  • Re: OS X firewall and anti virus
    ... grandchildren from themselves on their MS machines. ... Mac ... ClamXav is a Mac OS X front end for clamav. ... The built in firewall on the Mac is sufficient. ...
    (comp.sys.mac.apps)
  • Re: Firewall advise
    ... On Thu, 26 Feb 2004 18:14:49 GMT, Limonzitos wrote: ... > Personal Firewall installed on the 2 machines, I'm planning to get a router ... > protection or do I keep the Norton firewall on my machines? ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)