Spyware, viruses, & security : Can You Really Have 2 Anti-Viral Programs on One Computer?
huh?
by trojan destroyer - 9/22/08 2:15 PM In reply to: Yes to Avast.. by jjuujjYes you may be full of praise for avast but you havent actually answered the guys question about running 2 antivirus apps at the same time, lol, and while were on this topic avast dosent hold the highest detection for detecting viruses, i'm afraid that honor belongs to AVIRA which is also free check out http://www.virusbtn.com/news/2008/09_02.xml
Avast or Avira
by btljooz - 9/23/08 10:49 AM In reply to: huh? by trojan destroyerOK, first off, the poster you answered was merely commenting on my post, which was commenting on an answer given to the original question. There is no reason to malign him for that.
Second, I have used both Avast and Avira on separate machines at the same time to compare the two before deciding on one or the other. Therefore, I have experience with both programs. (Do you? 
) BTW: I quit using AVG several years ago when it became bloated and allowed my machine to get such a bad infestation that I had to replace not only the software but the hardware as well. 
That was back when it first became fashionable to hack innocent web pages and infest them with stuff that would infest anyone happening to land there.
Through my experience with both programs I have found Avast to be much superior to Avira. Avast may use a bit more resources, but [at least] it doesn't plant a tracking cookie on your computer with an extremely annoying splash screen (that can NOT be disabled) every time you boot up like Avira does. Avast is a much stronger and more multi-faceted solution than Avira because it is designed to look in more targeted areas of the computer with much stronger heuristics. It also updates in more frequent intervals. I have it set to update every four hours, though it can be set to do so more frequently if desired. In addition, Avast is much more customizable to fit the particular needs of the user whereas Avira uses a more generic shotgun approach.
ONE stinking link does absolutely nothing to prove anything one way or the other. I suppose you believe everything you see advertised in just ONE place and fail to investigate any further, eh?
As for one possible solution to the original question, I have always preferred to use one on-board AV program and back it up with an on-line scanner so that benefit is derived not only from two separate virii databases, but so that if the machine gets infested with something which disables its on-board arsenal, the on-line scan should most likely (at very least) find the problem and either fix it or show me where to look to do it manually. In addition to the on-board and on-line AV solutions, two different anti-spyware solutions, a file shredder (which is used to overwrite the infection's files permanently) and a third party software firewall are included in the anti-malware arsenal and physically wired behind a fire walled router. I have found this to be quite effective! 
The infestation I experienced the other day [while in a chat room for the first time in over a year] was the only one I've had since I quit using AVG. Avast cried and disallowed enough of the thing that I could manually finish the job. What Avast couldn't show me, Spybot Search & Destroy did. Because of the fact that these two programs look for different types of files, one backed up the other. This made what could have been a catastrophic instance requiring a week to rebuild the system into a mere two hour job of researching, finding and Erasing the rest of the files contained in the infestation that anti-malware progs alone could not. After finding and cleaning the files I needed to do manually I ran the F-Secure on-line scanner I gave above and it came out squeaky clean! 
In addition to computer programs, I use "best practices" by disabling on-board e-mail apps and using web-based e-mail only-NOT even opening spam before simply deleting it, NOT downloading files of any kind except for the few downloadable programs I use, being careful of where I go on the net while doing my research, etc., etc., etc. ..............
If you get right down to it, my laptop running PCLinuxOS 2007 (which I'm writing this from at the present moment) is much more secure than my desktop which has Win XP installed! 
This is because Windoze is an extremely large target for nefarious miscreants simply because M$ has flooded the market with its "product! This leaves Linux to go on its merry way. 
...For the time being, that is.
NOW, does THAT "actually answer the guy's question about running two anti-virus apps at the same time" good enough for you? I sincerely hope so. 
just the facts mam
by trojan destroyer - 9/23/08 4:40 PM In reply to: Avast or Avira by btljoozFirst off MATE get your facts straight, i didnt malign any 1, if you actually take the time to peruse my comment you will find that with the insertion of a LOL, the entire thrust of my comment was lighthearted and not intentionally used to upset any 1, and going over your POST again and again, any intelligent person will see that you DID NOT ACTUALLY ANSWER THE GUYS QUESTION, the original question was regarding whether 2 and i repeat 2 antivirus apps can be installed and run AT THE SAME TIME, not whether or how many different applications you have tried on your system and found 1 product to be better then the other
And yes i have extensive experience with ALL of the commercially available antivirus and antispyware apps out there, having tested norton, kaspersky, avira, avast, avg, f-secure, sophos, bit defender,mcafee, microworlds e-scan, nod32, norman, spybot search and destroy, superantispyware, malwarebytes, etc as just a sample, on deliberately infected machines which my job reqiuires as im an independent software tester for a major malware research company
Not that i have to justify myself to an obvious Avast fanboy, tech wannabe like yourself i will point out to you that its not just 1 "stinking link" thankyou...........heres another 1 http://www.av-comparatives.org/, you might want to check that out and be embarresed that Avast rates as a mediocre "standard" compared to Avira which scores an "advanced plus" in its detection and abilities as a far superior antivirus application, like i said you might want to check THE FACTS out first before you reply in future to posts....The very fact that you mention that you got infected while using Avast, lol, and that the excellent product Sybot search and destroy had to "finish the job" really goes to show how well Avast is protecting you, hehe, what a joke, Avira would have proactively stopped you getting infected in the first place because of its proven in the wild detection of new or old trojans and viruses that at the moment is far superior to any product in the market out there AND THAT IS A FACT, I would rather put up with an "annoying" ad served by their company and KNOW that i am completely safe as i serf the net
And no, i do not have any loyalty to Avira over avast or any other antivirus app out there as i clean customers computers for a living and actually dont rely on antivirus products per se to aid me, us "professionals" know that in order to do a thorough job you have to root them out of the registry and deregister the viruses and trojans DLL files for any hope of a successful clean
Finally! this simple question rightly deserves a very simple answer...NO!! NO!! YOU CANT AND SHOULDNT HAVE INSTALLED 2 ANTIVIRUS APPICATIONS ON YOUR MACHINE, SIMPLE AS THAT, END OF STORY, END OF POST, if you want a second opinion UNINSTALL FIRST your existing antivirus app first, and then and only then install another antivirus product.....us "real" techies know that antivirus apps install at the kernal level so they have services and drivers running even when you disable them and thats where the system slowdowns and conflicts arise...best advice ONLY HAVE 1 ANTIVRUS INSTALLED AT,A TIME, AS MUCH ANTISPYWARE APPLICATIONS AS YOU WANT, AND THE OCCASSIONAL ON LINE SCAN IS FINE
hope this helps analyzerbunny, and trust GEO2003 what he had to say as well and youre be right
what i run with no probs ever.
by wayne561965 - 10/1/08 6:57 AM In reply to: just the facts mam by trojan destroyerwell i run norton 2007 internet security and system mechanic 7 and i use privacy guard and spyware doctor and agv all together with never a single problem all actively running together.
so from my piont i can see any problems at all to be honest i just think it depends what your computor is like to certain programs and how they all react together.
so far i have just been lucky you might say but all the same i get loads of alerts from them all and each on does its job correctly as i run another program then the same again to see if its removed and always seem successfull removing things when they appear unexpectedly.
anyway thats me done about what i run on my pc thanks folks.
amazing
by trojan destroyer - 10/1/08 2:10 PM In reply to: what i run with no probs ever. by wayne561965Well, well, you are running at the same time norton antivirus 2007 which is a well known system hog, system mechanic 7, which apparently uses the kaspersky antivirus engine,and which DOES slow your computer down, and is so buggy that they had to release system mechanic 8, and avg antivirus, and spyware doctor, i presume youre talking about the 5.5 version, and yet you have encountered NO problems?......your computer must be a hextuplet core running at 10 terahertz overclocked, with 24 gigs of ram,with a 5 terabyte raptor hard drive running at 25000 rpm, and a nvidia geforce 99999 with 30 gigs dedicated vram memory, with 1000 stream processors, shadow clock speed 50 gigahertz with liquid nitrogen super coolers on board, lol
Research
by DADSGETNDOWN - 10/5/08 3:24 AM In reply to: huh? by trojan destroyerYou should research WAY more than 1 website.
There's alot more than just detection rate to consider also.
Not saying it's bad...
Only One Anti-Virus
by hogndog - 9/22/08 2:26 PM In reply to: Can You Really Have 2 Anti-Viral Programs on One Computer? by analyzerbunnyI've heard enough stories to convince me all that you need is one anti-virus appliication, my choice is Avira its both light weight and quite effective with automatic updates + its free. Anti-spyware I use two applications SAS and A-Squared. And to top it off a Comodo Firewall + Comodo's Memory Firewall, all free! I see another poster bring his issue about two anti-virus applications is 100% correct, they will become confused and take it out on you computer.
Thanks,
hogndog
Two anti-virus program in one PC
by atshwa - 9/22/08 4:02 PM In reply to: Can You Really Have 2 Anti-Viral Programs on One Computer? by analyzerbunnyI have installed both AVG and Avast on one PC for years. It works well.
I also help friends installed both program. No problem!
Can you really have 2 AV programs on one computer?
by drbooth - 9/22/08 5:56 PM In reply to: Can You Really Have 2 Anti-Viral Programs on One Computer? by analyzerbunnyThat is a fairly simple question and deserves a simple answer. No.
It is commonly known that it is not good practice to have two AV programs running on one computer....
Dale
No....The better way is here...
by yoeyar - 9/22/08 7:07 PM In reply to: Can You Really Have 2 Anti-Viral Programs on One Computer? by analyzerbunnyDun install two AVs......
1) Avast! AV
2) Spyware terminator
3) COMODO Firewall.
4) Adware as a backup.
That's perfect!!
But both Spy Ter and COMODO will make U troublesome....
But..
U will see how they work....
All are free.
Regards,
Generally, NO.
by Tarq57 - 9/22/08 7:56 PM In reply to: Can You Really Have 2 Anti-Viral Programs on One Computer? by analyzerbunnyAs stated above, the AV's install at the kernel level, and even when inactive, still have services and drivers running, which can and do interfere with another AV.
As AV's become more advanced - and they have, particularly recently - they are more likely to conflict with each other. What I'm saying is that what folk might have gotten away with a year or two ago doesn't necessarily apply now.
You might get away with it, you might not. If you don't, the first clue might be when the two AV's lock up should real malware be detected. Not a good time to have a locked up computer.
A better solution is to have one AV installed. Avast is good. Avira is good. NOD32 is good. AVG...some folk like it.
When you want a second opinion, do an online scan (many available, as indicated in answer#1) or download and run the standalone DrWeb Cureit scanner, which is very good. Just pause the realtime shield of your resident AV while running it.
Did it for years, works well for me
by FatCatPeter - 9/22/08 10:56 PM In reply to: Can You Really Have 2 Anti-Viral Programs on One Computer? by analyzerbunnyI have no machine where I depend on one manufacturer claiming that just one product can offer full protection. Look at the tests, there is no such thing as 100% detection/protection.
Let me put it like this - ever since we had been hit by a zero-day attack some years ago, we have been using several anti-(virus/spy...) programs on the same machines. Even though we were protected by the anti-virus scanner of a VPN and a scanner running on the local machines, the bug hit us - simply because both scanners were updated _after_ we had been hit. We used a third application to catch the bug; obviously the updating schedule of that application was more effective.
Another aspect that you might want to take into consideration is that none of these applications catches all bugs. So, as they work differently, chances are that the bug not caught by application A might be caught by application B (which has been the case on some of our machines).
Even running a scan with, let's say Adaware or Spybot Search & Destroy, might trigger a bug to be caught that (strange enough) could not be detected by the very anti-virus application when doing a full scan before.
Looks like one way to probe files lets a certain bug jump, other ways are not effective for this bug but might be for others.
Last not least the question of stability and speed. Depends on what you use your machine for. Usually the machines are overpowered for office use, anyway. So a certain slowdown by the constant scanning does not really matter. If you feel you need more speed - switch some stuff off (but not all).
Stability - well, it is a no-brainer:
- Machine runs stable even with half a dozen of protective applications guarding your machine - great. You can't have enough protection!
- Machine gets quirky - just spend a little time to identify the conflicting application(s) and switch it/them of. Or just use one (as suggested in other replies), so nothing lost
We have been doing this for years now and from my experience speaking, compatibility and/or stability seems to be more a matter of hardware components than a matter of several protective applications running at the same time.
On my private machines (desktops and laptop) the following is running in memory: AVG and Avira (anti-virus), Spyware Doctor (Google pack version), and the Tea Timer of Spybot Search & Destroy (does report attempts to change the registry). Works well for me.
you make good point fatcatpeter
by wayne561965 - 10/2/08 2:07 PM In reply to: Did it for years, works well for me by FatCatPeterat last someone who feels exactly as i do and runs a pc like i do and has some really valid points made here too.
well said my friend.
Firewall, Anti-Virus verses Anti-Spyware/Anti-Adware
by GoodTimeCharlie - 10/15/08 9:19 AM In reply to: Did it for years, works well for me by FatCatPeterOne needs to keep in mind the difference between products. Generally:
1. Firewall products monitor communications ports ... They must run at (are hooked into) the operating system level.
2. Anti-Virus products monitor a lot of things: File reads/writes, Software installs, E-Mail activity/attachments, Registry changes, Some network activity, Browser add-on install attempts, etc ... To provide 'real-time' protection they must also run at (hooked into) the operating system level, however they do not need to do so just to do an 'on-demand' scan of your system.
3. Anti-Spyware/Anti-Adware tend to look for attempts to access or execute known 'bad' program files, etc ... they are almost always run on-demand thus you may have multiple products installed as they will be self-contained in their own directory (not in the operating systems directory); however, some products offer real-time protection (IE: SpyBot S & D "TeaTimer") and the 'real-time' functions must be run at (hooked into) the OS also.
Each of these toolsets may 'modify' specific parts of the operating system by replacing the operating systems default program with their own (ie: inserting the 'hook') ... I say MAY because obviously a product designed to be manually fired up from an on-line site or the local C: drive usually does not modify the OS, but those products that 'run in the background' (ie: are started when you boot the PC) typically do hook into OS files.
Given this:
4) If you install multiple products that are designed to 'stay within their world' (ie: a firewall product that does not include a built in anti-virus tool and an anti-virus tool that does not include a firewall) you will be OK; however,
5) if you install multiple products that: a) hook into the OS, and b) overlap in function (ie: 2 anti-virus checkers) they may overlay each others 'hooks' in the OS and you may not be OK.
6) keep in mind that every product installed will also modify the system registry (often used by the OS to find the program to be executed for a specific function), reconfiguring it to 'point' to that products executables when a certain condition occurs (ie: an 'open .exe file') ... thus the 'registry hooks' can also be reconfigured multiple times.
Additionally, should you install 2 anti-virus products, when you uninstall one of them, you may really be left with a mix of program files & registry entries that may trash your system effectively.
Note: due to anti-trust laws, etc., the Microsoft defender/firewall tools can 'exist' with other products; however, you should configure your system to have the Microsoft products disabled or you may run into problems and/or have horrible response issues.
I say this based upon working over 40 years as an IT specialist.
Goodtime Charlie, VA
EXPLOTABLE....INCOMPATIBILITY CAUSES EXPLOITS
by fratmetaphysics - 9/23/08 12:33 AM In reply to: Can You Really Have 2 Anti-Viral Programs on One Computer? by analyzerbunnyHaving multiple conflicting applications could result in exploitation of your defense system. It could delay detection of a virus infection attempt....or it could avoid detection. I've tried out virus pairs.....anti spyware and anti-virus pairs....firewall, anti-virus, and anti spyware pairs......It actually depends on your needs. If you want to go speedy with your surfing , I suggest that you stick with one anti virus, one anti-spyware, and one firewall. Try Avast with A-Squared Malware...I tried it out with a system 32 Trojan....their scans both detected it......one Trojan detected by their relative scans. For the firewall, try out Sygate firewall. If your windows firewall is not integrated with your internet connection sharing...try out zone alarm, and turn off the windows firewall.
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