Any advantage to Security Suites?

[Bonesdad]

I'm behind a router firewall, running WIndows firewall and have Kaspersky AV v 10 running on all PCs, updating regularly (2x/day). My Kaspersky AV is about to run out, and I'm looking at other AV progs now to see if Kaspersky is still in the top 3. Is there any advantage to running a security suite over just an AV, esp if I'm behind a couple firewalls? BTW, looking at Avira Free to replace Kaspersky, since it's free and seems highly recommended here at AT.

 

[jasonjas]

In my opinion, firewalls are worthless when it comes to viruses/malware.

Firewalls block only things that are known, such as ICMP requests (ping) and requests to access information within those firewalls.

A virus however doesn't ask for information, it just travels in with the other data and then causes havoc on the inside-out. Most firewalls don't care about the inside-out data unless it's through a port that isn't frequently used.

For that reason, antivirus is still needed. Any antivirus will do. Just don't go with the crappy ones that see windows files as being malicious and horrible. Avira works good for windows systems and will do what you need it to do.

You can still get a virus using a paid version of antivirus. Nothing is completely secure and knowing what is real vs fake is the best line of defense.

 

[lxskllr]

I don't see the point of running a suite. I use router firewall, Windows firewall, and Avira. I never have issues.

 

[Bonesdad]

I don't see the point of running a suite. I use router firewall, Windows firewall, and Avira. I never have issues.

That's what I've always thought too, but they are so prevalent these days, I wondered if I was just blind to something. OK, I will ditch the paid Kaspersky and go with Avira for a while.

 

[lxskllr]

That's what I've always thought too, but they are so prevalent these days, I wondered if I was just blind to something. OK, I will ditch the paid Kaspersky and go with Avira for a while.

It's just companies trying to expand their market, and make more money. People aren't gonna want to pay more for the same features, so they add features to get more money.

 

[Khyron320]

Suites just add crap you dont need and on top of that its becoming more and more apparent that AV is becoming ineffective.


Backup often vista/win7 offer great full restore backup options.
Run a basic AV package this will make your PC run smoother. I dont care how fast your cpu is. Open up sysinternals filemon and just watch how much IO norton 360 uses... its just insane.

Just because cpus have gotten faster doesnt mean we should keep stacking more and more crap on them to make them feel like 7 years ago.

 

[VirtualLarry]

My systems run much better WITHOUT anti-virus.

Hell, I put Webroot AV + AS on my Win7 box, it was worse than getting a virus!

System hangs, web browser problems, problems using windows auto-update, you name it.

I cannot believe that they "tested" it on Win7. Just because it doesn't blue-screen doesn't mean that it works properly.

 

[thescreensavers]

webroot is shit thays why you had thouse issues.

I personally just use anti-vir free best detection rate out of any AV

 

[Schadenfroh]

No, unless you want a "one-stop" interface for everything, which is not that much of an advantage.

Router's hardware firewall + Windows Firewall + Microsoft Security Essentials + up-to-date applications / OS + common sense = protected.

However, if you are "into" fully-integrated security suites, Norton Security Suite that is free to Comcast customers is very nice and efficient with system resources (light-weight).

 

[lothar]

No, unless you want a "one-stop" interface for everything, which is not that much of an advantage.

Router's hardware firewall + Windows Firewall + Microsoft Security Essentials + up-to-date applications / OS + common sense = protected.

However, if you are "into" fully-integrated security suites, Norton Security Suite that is free to Comcast customers is very nice and efficient with system resources (light-weight).

The best security suite on the market. :thumbsup:

 

[Bonesdad]

The best security suite on the market. :thumbsup:

indeed, though common sense should be at the top of the list...

 

[RebateMonger]

I know they are a PITA for people who have to work on PCs. I can't count how many times I've been asked to fix things like:

"My VPN no longer works" - answer = Security Suite Firewall
"I can't access file shares anymore" - answer = Security Suite Web Proxy Server
"I can't acces the Internet anymore" - answer = Security Suite Firewall

 

[seepy83]

There's way too much security suite bashing in this thread, and not enough mention of the reasons to run one. I'll give you a couple -

Defense-In-Depth - Depending on how valuable the data on a particular computer is, you might want (or need) to run a suite of security tools on the host in addition to any network-based protection that is in front of it. The days of relying on a hard exterior (firewall at network edge) for protection are over. If I can pop your firewall and you don't have anything protecting your hosts behind it, then it's game over.

Laptops connecting to untrusted networks - Take your laptop that doesn't have a software firewall running on it and connect to some WiFi hotspot...where's your protection now?

If security suites are properly configured, then they don't cause any problems. The problem is that most people don't know how to properly configure them, so they get frustrated and uninstall it or turn off some of the services it provides. And I'm not surprised by this...a business would never let an end user build their firewall configuration, or manage the configuration of the security software that it deploys, so why should we expect someone with a PC at home to be able to properly configure a tool that does basically the same things?