I have McAfee Virusscan, and in the help notes McAfee give a warning in clear print "If you must stop ActiveShield (i.e. McAfee's real-time AV scanner), please ensure that you are not connected to the Internet." So personally I prefer to go with what they advise and leave my AV program running if I'm flying whilst I'm online.

I am actually more afraid for the Windows updates than I am of getting a virus since I use a good virus and firewall protector Trend PC Cillin. I remember when SP2 hosed my FS9 on my last PC, and from that moment on I shut off autoupdates.

I too have a low-end computer. I experimented with disabling my Norton Ani-virus 2003 and found it made no difference to my frame rates so I leave it running always.

On if on-line, off if off-line.When on Vatsim the threat is not Vatsim, but the open ports which some viruses will find.If a virus gets on the computers of other people on your ISP broadband local segment - the virus can scan all ports for your firewall and come through ANY which are open.Your ISP local segment is just like a small company local area network. How much of your computer security to you trust to the guy next door?I run Norton and have never had a problem. Shutting it off gives me about 2-3 FPS improvement in performance.I turn off Automatic Live Update and E-Mail Scanning while using FS. I leave on Auto-Protect and Script Blocking.Norton stopped "Trojan.Tooso.Q" this morning - so I'm happy.Avast is $178.65 per year for the same protection as I'm currently paying for Norton - which is $165.00 per year.

Antivirus off (with FS Autostart), but firewall still on. I'm not downloading anything other than weather files, so the virus threat is fairly low. I never, ever turn off my firewall though unless my computer is physically unplugged from the Internet.

For years Ive turned off antivirus programs when flying, by using FSAutostart, which also loads it when you stop flying. But, if you run other programs in the background, like reading email in long flights, would keep it loaded. There is a LOT of junk email loaded with virii, Avast catches half a dozen and -more- every day on my system. IT goes to my popmail account, and checks for it before it is ever on my system, no matter who sent it, it gets deleted without reading. All downloads are checked in downloading, and again all zips in the download folder before opening. Used Norton for over a year, it slowed down my entire system, and dont believe it is any better than Avast which is faster and free. It also gets updated much more frequently with data updates daily. It was a real bummer trying to remove Norton, and took some time to get it all removed. The difference in my system, means I'll never use it again.

So how about this in thinking...If your computer only has an OS like windows xp sp2 on it and FS and nothing else including any spyware or antivirus programs are you safe? I mean its only FS and nothing personal, or music and picture files an doesnt XP sp2 now have a built in firewall and anti virus app?Kilstorm

I use AVG.I like it because it uses very little system resources and for my system, I notice no difference with it on or off while using FS9.I also use Zone Alarm Firewall Free Edition. With these two products I havn't had a virus or other threat get through for the last couple of years.Just my two-cents!Scott :-)ATP/CFII/DA20 Type Rated - Instructor Pilot - USAFA (KAFF), Colorado Springs, CO & at KCOSAOPA #00956593, since 1987Background in Corporate, Airline, and General AviationB.S. Degree in MISGamming System Specs: (Built this one myself)AMD Athlon-64 3000+ Gigabyte K8NS nForce3-250 Chipset 8x AGP Main Board 1GB DDR400 PC3200 Memory 160GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive 16x DVD-ROM Audigy 2ZS Gammer Sound Card (Set at BASIC acceleration)5.1 Channel Surround Sound Speakers256MB GeForce-5700 8X AGP Video Cotytech Gaming CaseCH Products Yoke, Rudder Pedals, Throttle QuadrantSaitek Cyborg Gold Joystic for Helo's & Stick equipped aircrafteDimensional Force Feedback HeadsetsSaitek Eclipse KeyboardWindows XP Pro SP2Home Network for using the Instructor StationFS9 Sliders maxed with other settings at their best quality positions.Average FPS: 25

I use Authentium's Command AV Software :D www.authentium.comIt has a memory signature of less than 6MB, and yet it has the biggest virus database in the business ..... even bigger than Norton and Symnatec (sp?)

>So how about this in thinking...If your computer only has an>OS like windows xp sp2 on it and FS and nothing else including>any spyware or antivirus programs are you safe? I mean its>only FS and nothing personal, or music and picture files an>doesnt XP sp2 now have a built in firewall and anti virus>app?>>KilstormI personally don't trust the default XP firewall. It is better than nothing, but still isn't perfect. Do yourself a favor and at least get a freeware software based firewall like zonealarm. www.zonelabs.comThe problem is when someone finds a hole in Windows and is able to exploit it, you are totally vulnerable until a patch is released, downloaded and installed. There is just too much stuff floating around many ISPs to take a chance. Sometimes, the only way to fix infected machines is a total re-install.

I ALWAYS have it enabled and it's no great drain on resources.Same with firewalls and other security stuff.It takes only one incidence of you forgetting to turn it back on to get your machine infected and turned into a spam or DDOS zombie.Better safe than sorry, and that one fps more or less isn't going to do anything to your enjoyment.

I guess I will be contrary and say turn it OFF. In fact, I haven't had anything stopped by AV in a couple of years. Now, I never use IE or Outlook, so that probably helps. I used to get maybe 10-15 emails a day with virii payloads, but they were so obvious. Since I switched ISP to earthlink, I haven't gotten a single virus in email. I keep my email reader for text not html or images and that helps. I don't run scripts in emails.Looking at ntfilemon logs after an FS session I saw the AV was intercepting every file read by FS. It might not affect frames, but surely affects texture popping/fuzzies.If someone worked out an exploit for VATSIM, I'm having a hard time seeing how AV software would stop that anyway. Same thing for something like ActiveSky.If you're concerned, run a full scan after FS session is complete.Just my .02.scott s..

I agree. I've only ever had one virus a few years ago but it killed my PC and trashed my hard disk. I'd never risk it again!