How can I be protected from "Viruses" and still have a "FAST" gaming rig?

[Se7en01]

I usually set up my comp so that it loads NOTHING at start and turn off services that take up resources so that my comp runs fast and gets the best performance in games.

However, with all the new viruses I want to be protected but not at the expense of slowdowns in gaming.

What is the best program to use and how do I set it up so I can be protected from viruses but still have my computer FAST for gaming?

 

[PowerMacG5]

I run Norton Systemworks 2003 Pro, and have not noticed any slowdowns in games due to it.

 

[orion7144]

You have to give alittle. When we are talking 50-100FPS, dropping a couple is not going to hurt. Sure it will hurt benchmarks but will not be very noticable in game play.

 

[Fuzznuts]

Originally posted by: Se7en01
I usually set up my comp so that it loads NOTHING at start and turn off services that take up resources so that my comp runs fast and gets the best performance in games.

However, with all the new viruses I want to be protected but not at the expense of slowdowns in gaming.

What is the best program to use and how do I set it up so I can be protected from viruses but still have my computer FAST for gaming?

well heres what i do i run my own mail server with 2 AV scanners on it. on the same box i run iptables to firewall off my lan. then on the desktop machines i have norton 2003 with auto protect turned OFF. i simply scan each download before i open it. volia enough security for a home environment and no loss of speed at the desktop machines.

 

[LiLithTecH]

Use a:

- ROUTER
- simple FIREWALL (i.e. free Zone Alarm),
- unbind any network shares from TCP/IP
- use common sense when opening e-mail

 

[CTho9305]

Most of the time, AV software only slows down file access. When youre in-game, there shouldn't be all that much going on, or you need more ram. Firewalls might slightly increase ping times.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Unplug yourself from the internet and turn off your anti-virus when gaming.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Don't use anti-virus software. Many people can get away without it and never have a problem... however many can't. I suppose it's your call whether you can or not.

 

[Cerb]

Don't worry about it.
3Dmark2001 score: 9675
...w/ NAV off: 9723
less than 1% difference. If that's too much, you're just plain crazy. That's about what you get for tweaking RAM or similar things...it won't make that much difference.

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: CTho9305
Most of the time, AV software only slows down file access. When youre in-game, there shouldn't be all that much going on, or you need more ram. Firewalls might slightly increase ping times.

...anyone worried about <10ms ping differences needs help.

 

[Mem]

Unplug yourself from the internet and turn off your anti-virus when gaming.

Little hard to game online then ,anyway what I do is run behind a router and firewall,I make sure I don`t download files while gaming(when I do they are scanned) so the simple answer is turn your AV off while gaming or close real time scan off.

 

[NEVERwinter]

if you have a considerably fast CPU (maybe 1.5GHz and up) you wont notice any slowdowns even if you running default services and some background programs

 

[Burninator]

Why settle for the free crappy version of Zonealarm? You can find many places with keygens for ZoneAlarm Pro and it works GREAT.

-ZoneAlarm Pro
+
-Norton Anti-Virus 2003
+
-router
+
Windows XP built in firewall

havent ever had a worm, virus, or trojan

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: Burninator
Why settle for the free crappy version of Zonealarm? You can find many places with keygens for ZoneAlarm Pro and it works GREAT.

-ZoneAlarm Pro
+
-Norton Anti-Virus 2003
+
-router
+
Windows XP built in firewall

havent ever had a worm, virus, or trojan

Yeah, suggest illegal activities on a public forum! That'll do it!
NAV 7.6
Win2k SP4
Smoothwall on a P200 w/ 32MB RAM.

No worm, virus, etc., and not even when I ran it for almost 5 months w/o NAV.

 

[yhelothar]

lol @ burinator...
hope you enjoy your vacation


NAV takes up HUGE amount of resources on my system... mostly when I open a folder.. it has to scan the entire folder everytime I open it.... BIG SLOWDOWNS....Everything runs fine when I turn off auto-protect though.

 

[Nothinman]

NAV takes up HUGE amount of resources on my system... mostly when I open a folder.. it has to scan the entire folder everytime I open it.... BIG SLOWDOWNS....Everything runs fine when I turn off auto-protect though.

That would be an OS bug then. NAV only scans files when something calls open() on them, if explorer is doing that for everything (probably because of the web preview sh!t) it's not NAV's fault.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Mem

Unplug yourself from the internet and turn off your anti-virus when gaming.

Little hard to game online then ,anyway what I do is run behind a router and firewall,I make sure I don`t download files while gaming(when I do they are scanned) so the simple answer is turn your AV off while gaming or close real time scan off.

He never mentioned online gaming, just gaming in general

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Burninator
Why settle for the free crappy version of Zonealarm? You can find many places with keygens for ZoneAlarm Pro and it works GREAT.

-ZoneAlarm Pro
+
-Norton Anti-Virus 2003
+
-router
+
Windows XP built in firewall

havent ever had a worm, virus, or trojan

Or you could *gasp* buy it. :Q

 

[EeyoreX]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

NAV takes up HUGE amount of resources on my system... mostly when I open a folder.. it has to scan the entire folder everytime I open it.... BIG SLOWDOWNS....Everything runs fine when I turn off auto-protect though.

That would be an OS bug then. NAV only scans files when something calls open() on them, if explorer is doing that for everything (probably because of the web preview sh!t) it's not NAV's fault.

Not only that, but how many games open files with Explorer when you are gaming, online or off? I don't notice any difference with NAV enabled or disabled on my system.

\Dan