Do these programs play well together ?

[eyes-open]

Hi all,

Is anyone aware of anything in the following combination of programs that would result in one blocking the effectiveness of another:-

Ad-aware
Spybot Search & Destroy
Spyware Guard (real-time protection disabled)
Spyware Blaster
WinPatrol (for those rare occasions IE is used)
Microsoft Antispyware Beta (take over real-time from Spyware Guard)

Assume these compliment an AV program, Firewall, a variety of occasionally run programs like stinger or CW Shredder etc. The machine will be running Xp(SP2) and the default browser 'Firefox', default mail client 'Thunderbird'.

The background to the question is that whilst I'm happy with the various layers on my PC (although since Microsoft's Antispyware I'm not sure Spyware Guard is necessary anymore ?) I have now to set up my Mother's new machine. So I need to help protect her machine without burdening her with any unnecessary duplication.

Bearing in mind that the machine in question is to be used for on-line banking amongst other things I must err on the side of caution. That being said - I'd welcome any advice, observations about the above combination.

Thanks for taking the time to read

[richrf]

Hi eyes-open,

I have all of these products and have no problems running them with each other on my XP XP2 512K, 2.5 GHz machine. I think the key to protection is the AV that you choose because that will really be your first line of protection.

Rich

[eyes-open]

Cheers richrf

I'd prefer my Mother to go with Nod32, but initially i'll put AVG on whilst she decides what she wants to do.

So - nobody thinks this combination is overkill - or has created a gap which a different combination could close ?

[richrf]

HI eyes-open,

WinPatrol may be a bit overwhelming for you Mom. I would recommend using NOD32, if this is one of your choices. It is relatively easy to learn, and I think, especially for someone that is not an expert, that having the best possible AV on a system really helps in the long run. Keeping malware off the system should be the top priorty in these situations. I would also recommend adding a good anti-trojan (either Ewido Free for on-demand, Ewido licensed, or BOClean) to augment the capabilities of either NOD32 or AVG.

Hope this helps,
Rich

I think your MOM should go with the proactive approach.

My strategy is to keep malware off before they can execute.

So I run the following

1) KAV - The best out there , It's my first line of defense. In my experience not much can get pass KAV in my experience. It catches everything from viruses to worms to spyware.

2) PG - This catches malware early in the execution stream before they execute. Rootkits also cannot install.

3) RD - In case anything gets past PG,KAV, this allows me to catch malware when they try to autostart.

I believe in a layered strategy so that if any one layer fails, the rest can catch it. In my experience, nothing gets pass KAV anyway. I've done periodic scans with Ewido, MSAS, Anti-trojan, and they all find nothing except for a few cookies.

[The Hammer]

NOD is really not for the average home user. To many configuration options for Mom. Try Bitdefender Standard instead. It is easy to configure SIMPLE interface and offers very good protection. Whenever a "average" computer user encounters NOD they have to "go to school" to learn how to use it. Thats "average" not geek.

[richrf]

Hi,

With NOD32, I just set it up for real-time scanning and auto-updates and usually that is enough. I'll show the person how to do an on-demand scan. As long as there is someone there to set it up.

Of course, the tricky part is false-positives, but every product I've tried that has a large database of signatures or heuristics is going to give off some false positives.

I set someone up with KAV 4.5 (reputed to have a terrible interface - which it has), and it just runs.

Rich

Originally Posted by The Hammer

NOD is really not for the average home user. To many configuration options for Mom. Try Bitdefender Standard instead. It is easy to configure SIMPLE interface and offers very good protection. Whenever a "average" computer user encounters NOD they have to "go to school" to learn how to use it. Thats "average" not geek.

How about Panda Titanium Antivirus 200? With truprevent it's a contender for a top AV position and has excellent antispyware abilities (Aaron is with them).

And Panda surely has the least configuration options of all the AVs out there, so no need to fiddle.

Personally I think it doesnt matter if there are a lot of options, as long as the defaults are sensible, the average user can just ignore them.

But I guess the defaults for NOD are not sensible? At least from the paranoid point of view.

[eyes-open]

Well thanks for all your replies, they're all appreciated.

I'm personally comfortable with Nod32 and feel that once I've configured it for my Mum she should find it a very unobstructive and effective program.

There doesn't seem to be any particularly negative comments about the package I'm considering placing on her PC. Although I would agree with the observation that more low-level registry protection should be in place. I am drawn to PG for this, although I have yet to buy it for myself.

I've considered adding PrevX to the mix, although when I tried it for myself I found it to be 'overly busy' in the early stages and so have avoided including this in my 'starter package'. Although it may be added in due course.

Many thanks to all who have been kind enough to help

Edit: Just to add a quick note to mention that I have now bit the bullet and bought PG. Together with re-installing PrevX. It's early doors, but there's no obvious point of conflict as yet.