Smart to have multiple virus scanners + firewalls?

Hey moderators and fellow members,

Is it smart to have multiple virus scanners/AT and firewalls.

FOr virus scans, like one on demand and other memory resident + protecting?

And is it smart to have two firewalls going at once?

 

Re: Smart to have multiple virus scanners + firewa

Hi,

AV/AT:
If you have the money for it, it surely isn't a bad idea to have one AV resident and another one (or even more) for on-demand. Of course when you do a full system scan with your second AV, you have to temporarily disable your resident one (don't forget to enable it after the scan by your second one).
Same goes for AT.

Firewall:
Best advice: run only one at the time, or otherwise you could have conflicts and could end up lesser secure than you would want to be.
Nevertheless, there are combo's (of mostly a bit older firewalls) which you can run in tandem; but I have to say that most people advice against it.

 

Re: Smart to have multiple virus scanners + firewa

I think it's smart to have at least two of everything - AV, AT and firewall, merely from the standpoint of being able to cross-check alerts/alarms.

FI, every single AT I've ever read about has, at one time or another, come up with a false alert on something. I have all programs set not to  automatically 'fix' or 'delete' anything - it gives me a chance to check out whatever the problem is from another source to see if it confirms a possible infection of some type. If it doesn't, it's generally best to wait awhile and see what pops up on the net about it.

Ditto for AT programs.

I don't recommend running two of anything on-access, run one on access and the other on demand only. (This is not to say that it can't be done. I run AVG and NOD32 simultaneously with no problem, other than resource-wise. But it could be that I've not seen any problems from doing it due to the fact that I've never had an alert while both were running, too. I'd hate to see each cripple the other while they're trying to figure out who gets to do what to the virus/trojan/whatever that lights them up).

I've heard of two firewalls being run at once, but only by people who were extremely savvy, and even they said it wasn't necessary/desirable unless something really hairy was going on 'Net-wide (think CodeRed).

This is especially true in the case of rules-based firewalls, where you'd have to pick each individual programs' strong points to let it guard in one program, while not letting the other program be trying to do the same thing.

It gets too complicated for the average user, it's wasting resources like crazy and the whole thing has the potential to go down the tubes just when you need it the most to have two similar programs running on access at the same time.

The K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid) principle probably holds truer in this scenario than anywhere else.

HTH Pete

 

Re: Smart to have multiple virus scanners + firewa

I think I can answer my own post now. I tried running two on-access virus scanners and my computer crashed and I had to DELETE the virus scanner otherwise I could not boot into windows.

 

Re: Smart to have multiple virus scanners + firewa

       Fatpizzaman


         don't know if this will ever be useful to you......the next time.....(hopefully there wont be a next time)..your computer crashes due to such a conflict.... you may consider trying this if you don't want to delete a program.................boot in safe mood.....go to msconfig...start-up........an unchecked the program you believe is causing the problem...this will stop the program from starting at start-up..........an then a user can boot in windows an correct the problem.

       perhaps you already are awear of this....but will post just in case.

 

Re: Smart to have multiple virus scanners + firewa

Hi fatpizzaman!

I think it is not a matter of smartness here. Do you think a single AV and/or AT and/or firewall program can provide 100% protection when you are surfing the net??

If yes, which single combination of each software would anyone recommend? I mean 100% protection!!!

I'm using NAV2002 and AVG on-memory without any problem so far. This combination has been discussed at dslreports.com forum and proven rock-solid. On top of that I'm also using the on-demand AV scanner (set to) that comes with Fix-It 4.0 Utilities as a back-up.

As for AT programs, I'm using The Cleaner on-memory and SWAT-IT on-demand. I'm waiting for ANTS to be released before ading to my on-memory collection.

Now, coming to firewall. Curently, I'm using Sygate PF and am waiting for OUTPOST v1.1 to be released to replace SPF. Unlikely I would use 2 firewalls as the tendency to crash is greater here.

So, the decision is still yours to access your needs and the protection level you required.

 

Re: Smart to have multiple virus scanners + firewa

A small thought:  you could use an old or second-hand PC as a hardware firewall while keeping your software firewall on the local machine.  You'd have the best of both worlds then - a rule-based fw on the cheap box and an application-level fw on your main machine.