Anti-Virus tandem… Panda Cloud and another…

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Can Panda Cloud antivirus be used with another freeware antivirus that has Real-Time scans disabled?

I read that Panda is excellent with real-time incoming threats while internet is connected, but weak in rooting out existing viruses. I had also heard some use Panda Cloud together with another antivirus that has Real-Time scans turned off. This is to prevent the two Antivirus programs from fighting each other.

[*]Is this a sound strategy for Windows XP, Vista, or 7?
[*]If yes to first question… Which complementing antivirus might be best? (I did not see in Avira a ability to disable real-time scanning)

I appreciate any guidance.

Thanks,
Tony

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Can Panda Cloud antivirus be used with another freeware antivirus that has Real-Time scans disabled?

I read that Panda is excellent with real-time incoming threats while internet is connected, but weak in rooting out existing viruses. I had also heard some use Panda Cloud together with another antivirus that has Real-Time scans turned off. This is to prevent the two Antivirus programs from fighting each other.

[*]Is this a sound strategy for Windows XP, Vista, or 7?[*]If yes to first question… Which complementing antivirus might be best? (I did not see in Avira a ability to disable real-time scanning)

I appreciate any guidance.

Thanks,
Tony

Tony,
Yes to question 1. You should never run more than one AV program in real time. You can have a second ( or third ) program as a standby and run it “on demand” but not at the same time as another.

So far as recommending an AV program, you can get many answers to that one. Personal choice and all that.
I use Avast free version and find it does a decent job. Others will tout another that they have had good results with.

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Uranium ,

Thanks, I appreciate your help. Is running an antivirus “on demand” the same as turning off the “real-tme” scan option?

-Tony

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Uranium ,

Thanks, I appreciate your help. Is running an antivirus “on demand” the same as turning off the “real-tme” scan option?

-Tony

That should do it!
What you want to do is have the program available but NOT running in the background. When you want to run it you just start the scan process.

BTW, my name is Bob, not Uranium.

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Thanks Bob… sorry for the wrong name.

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Thanks Bob… sorry for the wrong name.

Not a problem. I’ve been called worse!

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Avira is a top 3 free antivirus in the world right now. Its detections are at the very top with a 99.8% detection rate according to AV Comparatives. Good thing is that it has a free version as well. Bad thing is it has a nag screen every day when it updates, but dont let that deter you. You can disable it easily.

The issue with cloud based AVs is that your net may go down and cause it to be out of date. If you keep an real time protecting up to date and going the loss of net wont be an issue. Everything will be up to date and accessible.

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The issue with cloud based AVs is that your net may go down and cause it to be out of date. If you keep an real time protecting up to date and going the loss of net wont be an issue. Everything will be up to date and accessible.

If you have lost your internet connection won’t any a/v potentially be out-of-date? No matter how it is described all anti-malware programs require an internet connection to keep signatures up-to-date. All are updated on some frequency decided upon by the software vendor. No anti-malware solution that I’m aware of is continuously updated.

Back to the Panda Cloud solution. The FAQ section at PANDA CLOUD PROTECTION, What is?[/url] describes deployment and update scenarios. The only thing it does not say is the frequency with which the signature file is updated.

Joe

--Joe

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If you have lost your internet connection won’t any a/v potentially be out-of-date? No matter how it is described all anti-malware programs require an internet connection to keep signatures up-to-date. All are updated on some frequency decided upon by the software vendor. No anti-malware solution that I’m aware of is continuously updated.

Back to the Panda Cloud solution. The FAQ section at PANDA CLOUD PROTECTION, What is?[/url] describes deployment and update scenarios. The only thing it does not say is the frequency with which the signature file is updated.

Joe

To some extent, but Im under the impression that with a cloud based AV you dont get real time protection.

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According to the PC Magazine review, the free version of Panda Cloud Antivirus comes with a small, basic set of signatures and also caches past detection results. Thus, if you were offline and launched a program or accessed a file you had previously scanned, as long as the hash/checksum/signature (not sure which they use) for the file had not changed, it would be deemed safe.

It not so clear what would happen if you were offline and you access a file that is new (e.g., from USB flash drive) or had changed from the last scan: would the program tell you it is unable to scan the file? Would it just remain silent?? We probably need an actual user to try it out and report back. Or it might be in the forums: http://www.cloudantivirus.com/forum/index.jspa.

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Thank you to all who responded… To my knowledge, cloud type antivirus offering is a relatively new addition to the consumer choices available. I was wondering if this antivirus breed might open the door to the otherwise unwise “tandem” use of antivirus softwares.

I initially loaded Panda Cloud and Avira (free version) on clean Vista SP2 computer and ran for a couple of weeks. No conflicts, no system drag that I could tell. Unfortunately, I did not see where i could disable Avira’s real-time, I was not comfortable on this point.

Anyway, I since moved that system to Windows 7, I did not want to duplicate my Vista “tandem antivirus” experiment without some feedback from users more advanced than myself. I appreciate the discussion.

-Tony

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