anti-virus programmes

[karbun]

Please help.
Is it O.K. to run two anti-virus programmes together ,so that if one misses a virus, hopefully the other one won't. Sort of belt and braces. Or is this just being stupid?
Thanks in anticipation,
Karen.

 

[TonyKlein]

Hi Karen,

It's not a very good idea, as the two programs will dispute eachother the right to quarantaine or repair infected files, which might result in nothing being repaired or protected at all.

Same thing generally goes for firewalls, incidentally.

Cheers,

 

[karbun]

Hi Tony,
thanks for the advice. I'm after some more advice now. Which of these two anti-virus programmes would you consider to be the best?
GRISoft's AVG anti-virus or Computer Associates Innoculate IT.
Both are freeware.
Thanks in anticipation,
Karen.

Originally posted by TonyKlein
Hi Karen,

It's not a very good idea, as the two programs will dispute eachother the right to quarantaine or repair infected files, which might result in nothing being repaired or protected at all.

Same thing generally goes for firewalls, incidentally.

Cheers,

 

[TonyKlein]

Both have a good reputation, but InoculateIT isn't officially available as freeware anymore: http://antivirus.cai.com/.
It has been replaced by eTrust, which is shareware.

For an independent opinion on some free security tools and much more, take a look at http://www.wilders.org/free_tools.htm

Good luck,

 

[Del]

I have used the eTrust antivirus software for 2 months. It has found or isolated 3 different virsus's on 3 different computers in this time. I'm sold on it and will gladly pay the 20 bucks U.S. the first year and 10 bucks there after for it.

It has caught and stopped a virus on one computer that was already infected, stoped and isolated one that was a network virus and caught an email virus on the third..

This is the company that Inoculate was bought by.

Del

 

[karbun]

Del,
thanks for the advice. I have Innoculate IT installed on my computer so I shall stick with that now.

Regards Karen.

 

[Del]

Hi Karen,
It's fine to stick with it, but I heard they were no longer suppling signature updates, and it that is true, it will soon be outdated and not of the best security for you. At the rate new viruses come out, you should be getting updates several times a week.
Just be careful you don't get behind and end up with one of the newer viruses.
Del

 

[karbun]

Hi Del,
I am managing to update Inoculate IT O.K. so until I encounter any problems with this feature I'll just stick with it.
Karen.

 

[Del]

Hi,
Just as a follow-up. I emailed eTrust and they have reseleased a Beta for WinXP and say it will be supported very soon.
They have a eTrust EZ Firewall, eTrust EZ Deskshield and eTrust EZ Antivirus. I'm trying it now and all seems to work fine.
I'll keep you posted.
Del