Will two different internet security programs conflict with each other? If so how?

Question

Will two different internet security programs conflict with each other? If so how?

Answer 1

You really aren't supposed to have more than one internet virus protecter/spyware protecter/firewall on one computer. I personally wouldn't try doing that. I don't see why you would want to have two.

Answer 2

Anti-Virus

Most anti-virus programs operate in two modes:

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      Scan: the utility examines memory and files on disk for traces of malware. This involves actually examining the contents each file for things that "look like" viruses.

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      Monitor: often referred to as "real time" monitor, the anti virus program is continually running and scans files as they are downloaded to your machine, notifying you nearly immediately if the file you just received contains something that looks like a virus.

There's nothing at all wrong periodically running an anti-virus scan with more than one anti-virus program. The key here is that it's just a scan - it starts, it scans, and then it's done. There's no opportunity to come in to conflict with another anti-virus program.

Real time monitoring, on the other hand, is another story. When you install most anti-virus programs they often automatically install and enable their real-time monitors. Running two or more real-time anti-virus monitors at the same time is very likely to cause a conflict. That conflict could result in error messages, crashes of the anti-virus programs, or other types of failure.

So it's certainly OK to have more than one anti-virus program installed, and it can make sense to run a scan using a different program from time to time, but you must make sure you only have one real-time monitor enabled at a time.

"Running two or more real-time anti-virus monitors at the same time is very likely to cause a conflict."