Is there such a thing as "overprotection"?

[underwhere]

I recently reinstalled my system from scratch (Windows 2000) in the process of installing a new hard drive. Prior to that, my Norton Systemworks subscription had run out and I was looking for another tool that could help with anti-virus protection since current versions appear to have minimum system requirements beyond my wallet capabilities and current computing power. After stumbling upon a trojan program first, I eventually found aVast antivirus which seems to work pretty well. These days, it seems that no solution can really be a catch-all solution anymore, and while I have found aVast to be pretty darn good, Spybot s&d comes highly recommended by a number of sources. I'm not inclined to spend the money to upgrade Windows as I find 2000 to be the most stable Windows release yet, and my hardware probably won't support any newer versions of Windows which seems more interested in memory hogging than feature producing if I am to believe the reviews I have read.

So, onto my questions: Is it possible to install too much anti-virus/anti-spyware/anti-whatever software on your computer? I do realize that each piece of software requires some computing resources, so there is a performance hit no matter what I do, but should I be concerned about limiting that by not having too many such software packages on my computer? Are there any known incompatibilities between s&d and any of the several commercial and/or freeware software packages out there which aim to allow for safer computing? The only thing I am currently using is aVast Antivirus.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[drragostea]

So, onto my questions: Is it possible to install too much anti-virus/anti-spyware/anti-whatever software on your computer? I do realize that each piece of software requires some computing resources, so there is a performance hit no matter what I do, but should I be concerned about limiting that by not having too many such software packages on my computer? Are there any known incompatibilities between s&d and any of the several commercial and/or freeware software packages out there which aim to allow for safer computing? The only thing I am currently using is aVast Antivirus.

You would only need one AV and firewall. Installing too much will not only cause conflicts but also a resource problem and strain on your OS. Thing is that, you won't get extra protection by installing more than one AV or firewall. Computers do not work that way. Personally, I find avast! to be quite flexible and a robust AV. It's light on resources and offers a variety of Resident Shields.

Problem is that, you're missing a firewall ; ). Some (good) firewalls that I(&this forum) recommend is ZoneAlarm, Comodo Pro, and Sunbelt's Kerio Personal Firewall.

It's never to late to get more than one AS (anti-spyware). Spybot-SD works fine. In addition to that, I would add a layer of SpywareBlaster.



underwhere, spyware. : )

[Terminator]

I have Avast! 4.8, ZoneAlarm 7.1 Free (Vista Edition) and SpywareBlaster 4.1 and they all work happily together with no conflicts. I also occasionly run Microsoft On-demand Malware remover just to be sure.

[caterwaul]

While starting to read your post I was prepared to recommend Avast and found that this is exactly the AV program you selected. Excellent choice.

Avast does not protect against spyware which is why Spybot is recommended as long as you "immunize" with Spybot.

Antivirus protection, spyware protection and Firewall are all recommended as others have posted. You should NOT have more than on Firewall of course and also it is clearly NOT recommended to have more than one Antivirus other than a backup that does not actively "protect" but is used only to verify viruses in cases of a "false positive" perhaps. But of course verifying viruses can be done on-line with many Antivirus engines for this.

I use Avast for my Antivirus and use Spybot "immunized" and SpywareBlaster for spyware protection. I use Clamwin as an "inactive" virus program to double check for viruses at times (Clamwin does not have "active protection" anyway. I have actually never used a firewall but that does not say that I don't recommend one.

I would add that I have very limited resources with only 96 RAM, WIN98SE OS, PentiumII, 400 Mhz.

[Greyfox]

Avast does not protect against spyware...

caterwaul,

That's technically not correct. The current version of Avast! (version 4.8) includes both anti spyware and root kit detection, as is the trend for a lot of AV products.

That said, Avast! is primarily an AV product, where as Spybot is a dedicated spyware/malware product and they do work nicely together.

[Terminator]

caterwaul,

That's technically not correct. The current version of Avast! (version 4.8) includes both anti spyware and root kit detection, as is the trend for a lot of AV products.

That said, Avast! is primarily an AV product, where as Spybot is a dedicated spyware/malware product and they do work nicely together.

Greyfox is absolutly correct as the Anti-Spyware features are included from v4.8 upwards.

Another good program (albeit a little on the old side) is AnalogX's Script Defender which has saved my neck on a couple occasions and plugs the hole in Avast! free's defenses i.e. no script defense as that is only included in the paid for version.