Sorry if these have been asked before , but i have read that if you are using Avast Free & Online Armor Firewall Free that you should disable some protection modules ( In OA) as they are redundant !!! The article also went on to say to disable Web Shield & Program Guard (which also disables key logger protection) in Online Armor .
My question is does Avast 6 free provide Program Guard & Key Logger protection ?
You can use safely both programs with all the shields enabled - provided that you set mutually exclusions (it’s very important).
Having said that, I have actually removed some shields from Avast and disabled the Web Shield of OA in my system. Mainly to save resources (Avast Behavior/Script Shield) but also (OA Web Shield) because in the past I experienced some slow Internet browsing - issue now solved as far as I know.
However, in my opinion the only shield that might seem redundant if you are using OA HIPS with Avast it’s the Avast Behavior Shield.
My system:
Win XP Pro SP3
Avast! Free AV 6.0.1367 (Behavior/Script Shield removed)
Online Armor Free 5.5.0.1557 (Web Shield disabled)
*Avast!/OA mutually excluded
In short, no. Avast does have a file system and web shields with an auto-sandbox.
OA Free does provide Program Guard and anti-keylogger. As an OA Free user I highly recommend using both with the proper exclusions.
Likely he refers to all the “program guard” features you can find in OA’s HIPS. Obviously those layers of protection are not provided by Avast Free which “basically” is an AV and not a HIPS software.
