Free PC Security: Layered Security Part 2
October 5, 2009
Having previously covered layered pc security to protect computers using two of the newly released offerings from IObit and Microsoft along with Avast Antivirus, WinPatrol, RegProt, Threatfire, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and the Web of Trust browser addon, I decided to run further tests.
This time, I disabled Threatfire and WinPatrol completely. I also disabled Avast, IObit Security 360 and Microsoft Security Essentials one by one so that only one was running in realtime, the rest being disabled. I also had Malwarebytes free version, which is an on-demand scanner.
I visited a number of malicious sites with various viruses and malicious downloads initially with Avast only enabled.
I then moved on to disabling Avast and enabled Microsoft Security Essentials and visited the same sites, and then disabled MSE and enabled IObit Security 360 and again visited the same sites.
It is very important to note that if you have Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Pro, SUPERantispyware Pro or any other realtime antivirus / antimalware / antispyware suites such as Norton or McAfee that you do NOT use IObit Security 360 or Microsoft Security Essentials as you will experience problems as the programs will conflict and can also lead to false positives and system instability.
The same applies with IObit Security 360 and Microsoft Security Essentials, install one or the other and NOT both.
Golden Rule:
1 realtime antivirus only
1 realtime antimalware only
1 firewall only
As for on-demand scanners, you can have whatever you like, but for most users the free versions of Malwarebytes and / or SUPERantispyware will be sufficient.
The majority of antivirus programs will alert users to malicious sites, the Web of Trust addon will warn users if the site is good, bad, or mediocre and in the case of malicious sites if Web of Trust warns that it is considered dangerous simply close the browser window and if experiencing popups of any form hit Alt+F4 to close the browser completely.
Antivirus programs do NOT stop many of the malware downloads, simply because they are not viruses. They may well be Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUP's), .bin files, backdoor downloads, exploit packs and so on.
Antimalware programs can pick up most of these either on download or on execution, even so, using a combination of an antivirus and antimalware with realtime monitoring gives users greater pc security.
Malwarebytes is considered one of the best on-demand scanners which removes many threats and also removes PUP's that antivirus and antimalware programs don't.
I would NOT rely solely upon IObit Security 360 OR Microsoft Security Essentials to offer all round protection.
Also remember that each computer is configured differently, so users also need to play around and find what works for them and be comfortable using it.
Related Posts and download links, all are free:
* Layered Security
* Avast Antivirus V5
* Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
* Microsoft Security Essentials
* RegProt
* Superantispyware
* Threatfire
* Web Of Trust
* WinPatrol 2010
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