Is more than 2 Firewalls and Antivirus ok?

[Guest]

As you would know XP Home has it's own Firewall but I'm wondering if it is ok
to have another Firewall running as well.

I'm about to update my antivirus with either Nortons or McFee of which both
have a firewall. So are both ok or should 1 firewall be turned off.

Also, are 2 antiviruses ok to run together. After installing either Nortons
or McFee I'm thinking of having AVG as a second 'backup'. Is this Ok.

Thanks for any advice

Geoff
From DownUnder

 

[Guest]

its probably best to have 1 anti-virus and 1 firewall
because 1 antivirus system and a different system (eg norton & McFee) could
be at war together!

 

[Richard Urban [MVP]]

You only need one "good" firewall.

You can have two antivirus programs installed but you must only allow ONE of
them to perform real time scanning. Turn off this function on the one you
don't want to use.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

To avoid conflicts and error messages, only use one (1)
firewall and one (1) antivirus program.

Internet firewalls: Frequently asked questions
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/firewall.mspx

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| As you would know XP Home has it's own Firewall but I'm wondering if it is ok
| to have another Firewall running as well.
|
| I'm about to update my antivirus with either Nortons or McFee of which both
| have a firewall. So are both ok or should 1 firewall be turned off.
|
| Also, are 2 antiviruses ok to run together. After installing either Nortons
| or McFee I'm thinking of having AVG as a second 'backup'. Is this Ok.
|
| Thanks for any advice
|
| Geoff
| From DownUnder

 

[Rock]

As you would know XP Home has it's own Firewall but I'm wondering if it is ok
to have another Firewall running as well.

I'm about to update my antivirus with either Nortons or McFee of which both
have a firewall. So are both ok or should 1 firewall be turned off.

Also, are 2 antiviruses ok to run together. After installing either Nortons
or McFee I'm thinking of having AVG as a second 'backup'. Is this Ok.

Thanks for any advice

Geoff
From DownUnder

Have only one firewall running. Use one other than MS' built in
firewall because that only monitors inbound traffic, but not outbound.
For antivirus have only one program actively scanning. The second can
be installed and run on occasion as a second check but don't have it
active in memory.

I would recommend against both McAfee and Norton products. Norton's AV
is ok but heavy on resources. There are better products. For firewalls
there are free and pay offerings from Sygate, Zone Alarm and Kerio. For
AV there is AVG (free and pay), Avast, and EZ Armour. Nod32 and
Kaspersky are excellent.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

Generally, one firewall is sufficient, and running multiple ones can
sometimes cause unresolvable conflicts.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Guest]

Thanks everyone for the good advice. Will do as suggested.
Geoff

 

[Kenny S]

if you have a good antivirus you dont have to worry about outgoing traffic
thus the XP firewall is enough, and in my opinion the best option for most
users.



--
Kenfucious said:

Michael Jackson has been vindicated.

The truth is one, you must accept it. Reality is not a point of view, since
if everything was a point a view, then the theory that everything is a point
of view, is just a point a view and not something real.

 

[Yves Leclerc]

Only one software firewall should be running. Having two will slow down the
PC too much. You can add a second firewall but it should be "hardware"
based and usually comes on a router. Also, Windows SP2 firewall is useless.

You can have multiple anti-virus systems but you should only have one that
is actively monitoring the traffic on your PC. When two are actively
monitoring, everything slows down.

My personal experience, McAfee anti-virus slows down your PCs too much.

if you have a good antivirus you dont have to worry about outgoing traffic
thus the XP firewall is enough, and in my opinion the best option for most
users.



--
Kenfucious said:

Michael Jackson has been vindicated.

The truth is one, you must accept it. Reality is not a point of view,
since
if everything was a point a view, then the theory that everything is a
point
of view, is just a point a view and not something real.

 

[James]

Only one software firewall should be running. Having two will slow down the
PC too much. You can add a second firewall but it should be "hardware"
based and usually comes on a router. Also, Windows SP2 firewall is useless.

You can have multiple anti-virus systems but you should only have one that
is actively monitoring the traffic on your PC. When two are actively
monitoring, everything slows down.

My personal experience, McAfee anti-virus slows down your PCs too much.

Funny... but I've had the XP firewall enabled and run the Trend Micro
Firewall without any noticeable change in speed or any glitches. I've
been doing this for almost a year now and when I go to Shields Up I'm
completely invisible. Perhaps that combo plays well together?

 

[R. McCarty]

I would think that the first Firewall LSP would take on most
of the work of packet filtering. The second one would just
pass on the filtered content. It would be interesting to examine
the 2nd firewall's log and see what if any actions it is taking.
I guess also, it depends on how each Firewall is set to handle
the allowed/blocking actions Probably running two firewalls
is no big deal, but there must be some network performance
hit, even if it's not readily apparent. My other question would
be if you run two firewalls, how do you determine which one
is filtering before the other.

 

[Rock]

if you have a good antivirus you dont have to worry about outgoing traffic
thus the XP firewall is enough, and in my opinion the best option for most
users.

AV programs don't catch spyware though some are getting a bit better in
this area still they don't do a thorough job, and no program can protect
against the person clicking to install software that has spyware
attached. That is where the outbound traffic filtering is needed. If
one practices safe hex and doesn't install scumware then sure XP's
firewall is ok but for the average user having a firewall that monitors
outbound traffic is good, smart protection.