Originally posted by Chairboy
Spiffykraits, you are incorrect. MSblaster, sobig, and a bunch of other worms don't require you to open anything. Telling people they don't have to have AV running all the time is irresponsible and incorrect.
I'll take issue with that one. AV does not need to be running all the time.
If you protect ports 13x, and 443, from the get-go, then you have just plugged up the biggest security holes you can have.
With the above, MSBlast cannot get to your machine (unless a system on the LAN has it, then it is matter of blocking th 4xxx port that it used).
SoBig can only be had via email. When getting your email, by all means you should have the AV enabled.
The problem with AV programs running when you are playing a game, is they tend to false trigger on the network packets and will cause AH to CTD. Most of the time you cannot get past the login for AH if you have the AV running. Other times, you will get severe packet loss.
Run the AV when you need to, email, surfing the web, but when gaming, all the above programs should be shut down anyways. You can safely shut down the AV as well.
One other thing; AH requires ports 2000-5000. And you canont get a virus/worm on an open AH port. That would impossible. Worst case is a disco.
