canuckster

The short answer to your question is yes.

First of all, I use Yahoo mail for everything (friends know my address hasn't changed in 9 years), so I've never been susceptible to having an attachment automatically opened (ie by Outlook, for example) -- I have to do it myself.

Secondly, on the few occasions when I receive an email from a known source with both a) an attachment that isn't something obviously safe (jpg, txt) and b) subject or body text that sounds way too generic ("here's that file you asked for" or "check this out"), I save it to disc, then open it into a text editor where its first few characters will tell me whether it is what it says it is. Takes maybe 10 seconds more, doesn't cost me a thing, and I don't have to worry about whether my antivirus definitions are up to date.

Once I even phoned the person to ask if they'd really sent me the email.

All in all, I've probably needed to take these steps maybe a grand total of a dozen times in four years -- every other piece of virus/worm-containing email was so easy to spot that I just deleted it sight unseen.

One other thing I should mention is that I am behind a router, so I certainly benefit from its protection (and without a router I would definitely use something like ZoneAlarm) -- but that to me is a different issue from anti-virus software.

And now please excuse me while I step onto this soapbox:

In my opinion, the overwhelming majority of problems due to computers' becoming infected by viruses or worms can be blamed more on overdependance on AV software than on the viruses themselves. I'm a perfect case in point; with the one exception I mentioned in my first post (never to be repeated, I can assure you!) I've lost zero time to viruses -- except for the ones other people let into the systems I was using (ie the network at my place of work).

Why did they allow these systems to be compromised? Because they believed that the AV software would take care of everything for them. There's nothing they need worry about; they don't need to be suspicious of any attachment or download because the software will prevent them from harming themselves, right?

And all it took me -- and I don't think I'm any sort of Wunderkind here -- was about an hour's worth of keen attention (and of course I actually had to find the info all by myself, since computer manufacturers don't even try to help you -- I guess there'd be potential liability issues).

I don't advocate that everyone dump their AV software; I realize I'm in a minority of people who aren't afraid to be called a geek for something as simple as this. But the alternative -- which 97% of the computing world seems to follow -- just seems an unnecessary extreme. It just seems like so many sheep following the path of least resistance -- which ironically often rewards them with more problems than if they'd just paid some extra attention to how they use computers.

Okay, I'm finished.