My computer is used to conduct a lot of financial transactions, ranging from paying bills to eBay trading. As a result of media alerts and news stories I am very conscientious of potential security threats. For this reason, I am in the process of upgrading my security software but am wondering how much is enough or is it a case of ‘the more the better’. For years I have relied on Norton System Works (current version) and ZoneAlarm Pro. At the moment I am trialling eTrust Pest Patrol Suite and the ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite. Are these products sufficient to provide adequate protection against viruses, spyware, adware, and theft of personal data, or is it best to choose one product to provide total security. In your column I have read previously that it is beneficial to engage multiple anti-spyware and anti-adware detection programs. Is there any benefit or detriment in running two antivirus programs simultaneously? The computer is running Windows XP Professional.

It is good to see you are security conscious, as this is a very serious concern for all networked computers. However, more often than not the adage ‘the more the better’ is not such a good idea. Normally, only running one of each type of security package (e.g. one virus scanner, one firewall) is the recommended solution. This is because running multiple packages which perform the same function can cause conflicts between the software. For example, when you install ZoneAlarm, it automatically disables the Windows Firewall to prevent conflicts. Likewise, it is not recommended to run multiple third-party firewalls (e.g. ZoneAlarm and Norton Internet Security) due to potential conflicts. This also stands for antivirus software packages. You might be wondering why I often recommend users run multiple antispyware programs, such as Ad-Aware SE Personal and Spybot Search & Destroy. This is because these programs are generally not resident (i.e. don’t constantly run in the Windows background). With non-resident programs you can run the program, conduct a scan, and then exit the program. Therefore, you can safely run each program individually without the other programs running at the same time (which could potentially conflict and interfere with each other). In contrast, antivirus scanners are resident, as they have real-time scanners which are constantly monitoring the system for potential infections. Therefore, multiple resident virus scanners could potentially conflict with each other.

Now, onto the topic of choosing a security package for your computer. This decision is very much personal preference. As a side note, I have noticed that many of the new generation security packages are very bloated. I much prefer the traditional slim and small footprint security packages we saw a few years ago in contrast to these newer packages. That said, I have not yet had the opportunity to review any of the new versions of security packages, so I cannot offer an opinion on which would be the best. However, I suggest you read reviews on the internet of the latest security software packages to see what other people are saying. This is what I always do before purchasing new software and hardware. In particular, I pay attention to reviews written by actual users, since these are the people who have to live with the product and will often give a very frank opinion. The first good place for user reviews is CNET Reviews (reviews.cnet.com). Search for the product, and make sure you look at both the editor review and, most importantly, the user ratings and user opinions (click the ‘Read User Opinions’ link). Another good source of user reviews is Amazon.com (www.amazon.com). View the page for the product, and it should contain customer reviews.