avast and free extra protection

:smiley:
hi, avast community,

I have heard good comments about three security companions (freewares) to use together with avast home edition.one I read that matousec rated the firewall dynamic secure agent (dsa) as 100% in the firewall tests and you may download at http://www.privacyware.com/dynamic_security_agent.html
the second one everyone knows, It is the theatfire from pctools and the third one is the drivesentry (drives firewall). I woud like to know if I can use together with comodo firewall memory and comodo personal
firewall ? perhaps cfp conflicts with drivesentry and you may choose one of them ? If you have some suggestions about extra protection in order to enhance the avast home, It would be great. but I appreciate only freewares. I think Iā€™m a little paranoid with malwares and invasions nowadays.best regards.

???
8)

My configuration: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=28395.msg231962#msg231962

I donā€™t know where you get that ā€œI read that matousec rated the firewall dynamic secure agent (dsa) as 100% in the firewall testsā€ from as this ā€˜firewallā€™ doesnā€™t even feature in the top half of the test results where Outpost Pro 2009 came top with 99% ???

www.matousec.com/projects/firewall-challenge/results.php

In fact it does rather poorly, see image 1, image 2 shows latest version number from their site and they are virtually identical, so there would be no change in the test results with such a minor update 0.0.0.1 addition to the tested version.

The 23 must be a typo as Iā€™ve downloaded the file and it shows 22 when you look in the ā€œAboutā€¦ā€ window once runningā€¦

It confirms the Tested version and makes the results look very poor, no way would I use this as my firewall. A 62% success rate is much less than the 100% mentioned by carioca.

@ carioca
So it is a moot point as if it is a firewall then the same general rule applies to firewalls as anti-virus applications, only one resident application, so it wouldnā€™t be recommended together with comodo.

DSA is a HIPS, not a Firewall.

Then you would have to consider comodo as it too has HIPS and the same principle would apply only one or there could be conflict.

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/benefits.html

:slight_smile:
hi, davidr, tech and all budiies,
thanks for the reply and instructions. perhaps I misunderstood about dsa because itā€™s a hips and not a firewall in fact. I have two more questions:1) what about the drivesentry? because it has been too much praised nowadays. Is it a good combination with avast or just redunct? t2) what about threatfire because everyones recommends that security software Itā€™s considered as a good antivirus auxilar . Is that right? thanks for the hints.Iā€™d really appreciate it because It was very helpful. best regards.

a lot depends on how much horsepower and ram you have
quadcore and 4 gig and a DSL gets different advice than a pentium with 256 mb on dial up
what OS?

Modern firewalls often come with [abbr=Host Intrusion Protection System]HIPS[/abbr] and the term HIPS itself is rather loosely applied, which seems to be the source of the confusion. :stuck_out_tongue: For the definition of HIPS, please read [b][u][color=blue]this. You may find classifications [b][u][color=blue]here useful as well. The same site also has [b][u][color=blue]a table comparing HIPS apps and , on which you can see [b][u][color=blue]DriveSentry, [b][u][color=blue]ThreatFire and [b][u][color=blue][abbr=Dynamic Security Agent]DSA[/abbr]. Some information seem to be old and you may like to check boards such as [b][u][color=blue]Wilders Security Forums, for updates.

DriveSentry seems to be anti-virus/spyware as well as being HIPS. So, I wonder if it is compatible with Avast!

:slight_smile:
dear buddy,
congratulations for the complete explanation! I appreciated too much.best regards.

hi, tech,

I liked your windows xp configuration like this as follows:

quotation:

"

  • Antivirus: avast! Professional. Smiley
    • Antivirus (on-line scanning): Kaspersky
    • Firewall: Comodo.
    • P2P protection: Peer Guardian.
    • Antispyware (on-access): avast! only.
    • Antispyware (on-demand): SpyBot, SuperAntispyware, Spyware Terminator.
    • Immunization: SpywareBlaster and Windows AdvancedCare.
    • Monitor: WinPatrol (now, disabled).
    • Antirootkit: avast! and TrendMicro antirootkits (both on-demmand).
    • Browser protection: Finjan Secure Browsing. Dr. Web anti-virus link checker add-on.
    • Backup: Acronis True Image for full partition backup/restore. And the best on-line backup service: Mozy."

obs: fyi I stressed ā€œpeerguardianā€ just to enphasize it.

thus, Iā€™dlike to ask you if peerguardian conflicts with comodo firewall 3.0? Is it must and effective or cfp covers the p2p connections? donā€™t you think itā€™s redunct? Itā€™s a pitty we cannot speak into our native languages,but we have forum rules and this thread might be concerned to newbies and others. Iā€™m now beeing a little off topic and tell you Iā€™m not using xp too much nowadays because Iā€™m a linux user mostly. but I cannot leave the windows xp totally yet, because of my children and wife have been preferred it. they donā€™t like gnu linux too much because they donā€™t get it and some games like thesim2 does not work.however,there is another linux game similar. thanks for your hints.best regards.

ps: my configuration is very like to yours.except Iā€™m using threatfire. may I ditch it?

It does not conflict. It blocks that rogue (false) P2P sites connect to your computer and, as far I know, block some software to be downloaded (possibly non-legit ones ???) and use the bandwidth making your downloads slower.

Itā€™s a HIPS application. You can test it. Some users donā€™t like it (make things slower, could mess some installations, firefox extensions, etc.). Other users say it is a ā€˜must haveā€™ application.