When you think about the number of viruses that you can catch just by walking around in public, you know you may need more than one remedy to cure them all. The same can be said about your computer system and the number of viruses that are streaming to it each and every day. The best way to look at the need for more than one antivirus program for your business is to consider how you handled your business before the computer age.
[Read also: The Essentials of Antivirus Protection]
Is Your Computer Well Protected?
You wouldn’t consider leaving your files lying out on the street and you would never think about storing your files in an open drawer at the local library. However, unless you have adequate online protection of your computer files, that’s exactly what you are doing. It seems that every day, if not several times a day, someone or some program is trying to hack into your files through malware, adware or by injecting your computer with spyware, often inside a Trojan horse. While many antivirus programs do a great job, not all of them can catch everything that gets in.
Even those with firewalls are not immune to virus infection, some of which can not only track your movements and steal information, they can cause physical damage to your computer. Additionally, with the increased use of portable systems linked to your computer, the potential for even more damage increases.
Features
When looking at your antivirus software consider the features it offers. Blended attacks and rootkits seem to be the new rage among hackers and not all software offers protection against these threats. The effectiveness of the software as well as its ability to understand the definition of viruses is another important consideration. Verify your software has the ability to be proactive in identifying a potential threat, being able to recognize the behavior patterns of viruses and stop them before they can attack your machine.
[Read also: 5 Worst Computer Viruses in History]
Another aspect of your software is how well it works on different scales. There is a big difference between virus protection for your home computer and that which is configured to protect a large corporation with several systems connected at once. Especially for those using cloud-based servers, the scale of the protection software is important.
System administrators are more likely to maintain your virus protection if it is based through a simple, central console. Its ease of use and configuration will better ensure it is updated regularly and should offer a no nonsense approach to how it is set up. Additionally, any antivirus software you use should offer full support and technical help if there is ever a problem, and not all software packages include the kind of help you might need.
Ensure Updating of Software
There is no such thing as a set-it-and-forget-it antivirus software program. That would be like going to a doctor that finished their education in the 1980’s and has no knowledge about current medical cures. Antivirus software should offer continued cures for all of the new viruses that are employed every day. One final consideration is that most quality programs are subscription based and you need to ensure the subscription doesn’t expire. If you have more than one antivirus program, ensure they are all updated and subscribed to before they expired.
[Read also: Why You Should Update Your Antivirus Software Frequently]
How many antivirus programs are you using? Do you think there’s a need for more than one antivirus program? Tell us what you think in the comments.
About the author : Ilya Elbert is a blogger for ComputerHelpToday.net and AllItSupported.com. She promotes good backup habits and strong computer passwords.
I am using only one antivirus ever since. My main reasons for using only one antivirus program is that using two will slow down my PC and it will cost me a lot more. If I will be push to use two or three, I will switch to MAC instead.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Richard. Keep visiting.
Safe browsing habits and safe browsers help more then a good antivirus. Both ie9 and chrome 17 feature .exe malware checking/blocking and phishing site protection. I use Microsoft security essentials and that’s all that someone needs.
Yes that’s true Brad. I came across one blog post written by a fellow blogger that says : “security is a process and it shouldn’t be technical”. Staying alert and safe browsing are the type of “process” that should be practised when using the computer. These steps are sometimes better than a good antivirus as prevention is always better than cure.
I agree that one anti-virus is not enough to protect your internal network from viruses. For me having multiple anti-viruses installed in your computer can reduce the chance from being infected.
Thanks for the opinion Liane. But some think that using more than one antivirus program would slow a system down. What do you think?
I knew a guy that didn’t use anti-virus a few years back. I would tell him are you crazy. I guess he thought his computer was invincible or something. I wouldn’t think of not having it. Then, we have malware protection, firewall, and a few others. I guess you can never have too much protection when it comes to your computer and personal info.
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Couldn’t agree with you more Ray. When it comes to computer protection, I don’t mind to have more
actually now days there lots of types of viruses, spywares and so many so one antivirus could not protect from them. But If you use genuine windows then try security essentials from microsoft. Its nicer than others.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Puneet.
With only 1GB of RAM, I guess it’s better to have only one anti-virus, coz some anti-virus use a lot of memory.
Why not upgrade to more RAM and use more than one antivirus? That way you’ll get faster performance and more protection. How about that Rosie?
To me it all depends on what your computer can handle. There are many antivirus’s that offer multiple features plus like was said above IE9 and Chrome 17 have the malware protection feature. I stick with one antivirus because I like a fast computer. I don’t like things slowing me down.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Gabe.
I am using one antivirus for my computer now. So far, it is working fine. In the past, I used two antiviruses but I had to uninstall the other one as it slowed down my computer’s speed. Anyway, nice post you got here, Peter.
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Thanks Bhing. Glad that you dropped by
Hi Ilya, your title really grabbed me, so I thought I had to read on to find out why you thought you need more than one!
I read your article and took your points into account, but I feel that my antivirus ticks all the boxes, it updates every day (can be set to update more/less frequently) has a firewall and antivirus, has a interpretable quarantine, and a load of settings that I can fiddle with to change how much/how thoroughly it scans.
That said, I do compliment it with the windows security essentials, just for maximum security
Thanks for the article!
Christopher – Technology Bloggers Admin Team
Christopher recently posted..Why does superfast broadband matter?
Ilya is not obligated to respond to comments as that was the initial deal before she submitted her guest post to us. Anyway, nice to hear from you Christopher and thanks for the comment
Hi Christopher
I agree with you that most antivirus today ticks all the boxes mentioned in this article. Especially the last paragraph of the article which says “…no such thing as set-it-and-forget-it”. I don’t think antivirus nowadays need to set to update. By default it should be updated as frequent as it can without any settings.
However, regarding the MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials), it does not come with it’s own firewall where it’s firewall feature is actually the Windows Firewall. Lastly, it casts a little doubt in the AV protection capability especially in the recent AV test. Perhaps you might want to check out the test report and see how it performed compared to the commercial ones
You can get the report from one of my blogpost below:
http://www.itscolumn.com/2012/02/recent-av-test-shows-that-kaspersky-is-worth-paying/
Have a good day Christopher
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Interesting stuff Alan. I would agree that MSE is not sufficient, but it is just on, I don’t really use it as an antivirus, I have another one, a proper one!
When I said update I mean that it automatically connects to their database and refreshes its index of known viruses/files every time my PC starts, and then every 60 mins, although I can change this time.
Thanks for the reply, I am off to check out your article now
Christopher recently posted..Tips to improve your mobile SEO
I use only one software at a time, although I admit that I’m a bit lazy switching between softwares.
My “default” is Avast. It’s the one that came with the purchase of my unit. I like the automatic updates.
So far, so good.
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Hi there teecup, glad that you dropped by. Where have you been? Yeah Avast is one of the well known antivirus software out there. I’m sure there’re many also installed more than one antivirus software in their system but only activated one of them as “default”. Thanks for the comment
Before, I was using two antivirus at the same time but it occurred to me that the computer started behaving badly and since then, I haven’t tried to use two again. The power of most antivirus these days is not up to what the viruses has. May God help
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No matter you’re using two antivirus software or only using one, just remember to update! That also helps
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Olawale.
Yeah Only 1 antivirus is enough for your computer safety. It may yield in good processing speed but you have to make sure it is being updated regularly.
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That’s right! We must make sure to update our antivirus software to keep our computers safe from the latest and newly released viruses. Thanks for the comment Gaurang.
Nice article. I’m using AVG Internet Security 2012 and it do perform well. Any anti virus suggestion I can use as my second option? Thanks
How can you have more than one anti-virus software installed? Don’t they tend to clash? Whenever I’ve tried to install additional antivirus software, I’d get a reminder to either disable or uninstall the current software to prevent an incompatibility.
Becca,
I’m not sure if they’ll clash but I think this article basically is trying to tell us to have a mixture of “security product” such as, antivirus, spyware/malware remover programs and firewall to better defend our systems from all possible security threats and not just about antivirus software alone.
I would back Becca up there, as I know that some anti-viruses can clash. They each think the other is acting suspiciously, and you get conflict!
Christopher recently posted..Scientists grow artificial meat
Yes, having multiple antivirus softwares installed will lead to conflicts. Using an internet security suite offers you much more protection against malwares and spywares, internet intrusion, and phishing. Saves you the time and money of getting multiple softwares.
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well, guys i don’t think you really need to use two anti-virus products to be secure!
one of the best things you could do is to switch to an alternate operating system like linux or macintosh.
as far as windows is concerned just use a quality anti-virus like bitdefender,avg,avast or kaspersky.
along with an anti-virus make sure to have a good firewall.some anti-virus products like avg have built-in
firewall protection.make sure to install one or two quality anti-spyware products like,spy-bot search and
destroy,superantispyware or spyware terminator.
and by the way, stay away from free games,torrents,porn,warez,crack software etc. and you will find yourself
pretty much secured!
I have Trend Titanium Security – a two-year cover. I used Microsoft Security Essentials but it wasn’t enough on its own. Although I continued with TTS and dropped MSE I had the niggling doubts one was not enough – then I changed my broadband provider to BT which includes McAfee. McAfee say I should drop one of the other antivirus programmes as it can cause problems… well, the pc’s a bit slower but I feel safe and that’s more important to me.
Thanks for sharing an informative article. Your tips and facts are really helpful to prevent the virus.