Do I need antivirus and a firewall?

[stowpirate]

Do I need antivirus and a firewall in Linux or is it just an MS Windows problem? Never sure about this one as I have never really had a problem with Linux and Windows. However on my dual boot second OS Windows XP I have avg anti virus, XP firewall, ms security advisor, MS Defender and spybot. So why is Linux safe and do I have anything to look out for? Or should i install a firewall and antivirus software just to feel safe?

[puba62]

Straight from the Mint wiki... this should explain

http://linuxmint.com/wiki/index.php/Doe ... e-firewall

[molom]

Linux doesn't need a anti-virus. The funniest thing I've seen was when I was a newbie and really liked Lindows/Linspire and they were selling a Linux anti-virus, so they can just suck your money and give you a program that is practically useless. There are like 6 linux viruses and they don't even affect Debian. So you are practically safe with Linux Mint.

[stowpirate]

I notice that mint Software Portal has both a antivirus and firewall available for download but I think after reading the posts and other information I will not bother to install them. Thanks for the help.

[Noob Saibot]

I would recommend guarddog as it passes the Shields Up! test and using ipblock as well.

[MagnusB]

Iptables comes with a basic installation of Mint, so you have a firewall at install. Just use firestarter to configure it if you want to be a bit more "secure":

Code: Select all

sudo aptitude install firestarter

Firestarter is just a GUI used to configure iptables, no need for it to be running for the firewall to be "in effect". As for the necessity of a firewall is debatable, if you have a decent router that should have a built in firewall, your ISP probably has a firewall "in the line", so that makes it at least 2 walls before your computer, and a local one is more a matter of taste and the stealth mode capabilities.
As for AV or AS, it is a complete waste of resource and space on a linux box, most known spyware and virus only runs on Windows, and do not work on OSX or Linux/Unix/BSD/Solaris etc, one of the benefits of using a *x OS. You could occasionally delete your temporary internet files to clean out tracker cookies though, those are platform independent..

[paradigmX]

A firewall is always a good idea whether your on Windows, Linux, or Mac. A Firewall allows you to prevent access to your computer without your permission or the permissions set in your firewall.

Anti-virus in Linux is ok to have, but not required, the amount of Linux viruses in existence are next to nil in comparison to windows viruses. You may catch a windows virus through wine, but the chances of it running well enough to do any damage is also pretty small.

if your the paranoid type, then i would say yes to the anti-virus, if not i wouldn't worry about it too much