Is Zone Alarm Pro compatible with Kaspersky Anti-V Personal Pro?
I have Zone Alarm Pro v4.0.146.029 firewall. It was a pure Firewall
play at one time but my build-level from 2003-OCT does include an
email security filter called MailSafe.
My build-level, call it z, is no longer the latest.
When installing an Anti-virus (AV) program I selected a finnish AV
product called F-Secure AV 5.41. There was an incompatibility
between the two products at their respective build levels.
Using the trusty LIFO rule I UNinstalled F-secure.
I am now considering a Russian AV product called Kaspersky Anti-Virus
Personal Pro V4.5.0.94 instead--call it k.
ZoneLabs Customer Care, makers of Zone Alarm Pro, say they have not
tested their firewall with this Kaspersky brand so they can make no
claim of compatibility or warn of incompatibility.
Kaspersky Sales in the UK said they are compatible with Zone Alarm Pro.
I have seen some web forums or articles (<3) where they refer to
F-Secure's "Kaspersky engine" (actually it was spelled Kapersky but I
treated that asa typo). This concerns me because my machine went into
a hang/loop state during the F-Secure install and I needed advanced
Microsoft tech support to get back in action. If F-secure and
Kaspersky are both supersets of a common "core" or kernel then I risk
ending up with a repeat of the hang/loop or worse.
Q) Is Zone Alarm Pro build z compatible and interoperable with
Kaspersky Anti-virus Personal Pro build k?
FYI Note: The rationale for such uncommon AV choices was three-fold:
They are (I hope) each pure Anti-virus plays that should not overlap
with a firewall's functionality.
They were each rated highly effective in their ability to suppress new
viruses based on heuristic rules of how a virus is likely to behave.
Any virus that specifically targets the AV software itself
would be devastating so being outside the "monoculture" of the two
main AV products might be an extra margin of security.
I need something more than a vendor generic testimonial of
compatibility as ZoneLabs/F-secure tech support websites never did
post warnings.
I run Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1. |
Clarification of Question by
grthumongous-ga
on
11 Jan 2004 23:39 PST
By indirect means I was led to a forum on download dot com discussing
AV products whereby a respondent named Craig recently opined that
F-secure used three (3) AV scanning engines:
"or F-Secure (F-secure is a slow scanner, but this is because it uses
3 scanners: AVP by Kaspersky, F-Prot by Frisk and Orion by F-Secure.)"
cited comment by Craig 2004-JAN-04
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Request for Question Clarification by
techtor-ga
on
14 Jan 2004 23:41 PST
Hello Grthumongous,
I believe the two programs should be compatible, since they are
different types of programs. One is an anti-hack program, while the
other is anti-virus/anti-trojan. It's possible that conflicts in the
installation are caused by other memory-resident programs running in
the background while you are installing. Perhaps you should turn all
of these, including Zone Alarm, off while installing. Have you tried
installing again? Anything else you've noticed?
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Clarification of Question by
grthumongous-ga
on
15 Jan 2004 10:06 PST
Techtor,
You make an interesting point. When I tried to download F-secure I was
given two choices: an aggregated download of approx 20MB or a staged
download of a stub followed by other, smaller parts later. Since I
had DSL I figured 3 minutes to wait was trivial and I selected the
first choice. Or so I thought.
I had *intended* to download the big file, reboot with no ZA and no
internet and begin the actual install.
Naturally I had the ZA firewall active for the big download. After a
few moments the installer or stub began installing code. It was as if
the second, phased download was in progress.
Bottom line was that ZA was active, internet connection was open while
the F-secure install commenced and hung. I do not want to try it
again. It may have worked with the big donwload/offline install but a
dozen ZA users reported similar symptoms on the Zonelabs forum. I
never to determine if it was because ZA was active *at install-time*
or if they are just plain incompatible.
For Kaspersky or any other products I would typically download with
the firewall active, then reboot with NO firewall and stay offline for
the install. If Kaspersky supports this kind of install then fine but
I still need to know if the ZA build-z and Kaspersky build-k are
compatible and interoperable.
Clear as mud now? :)
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Request for Question Clarification by
techtor-ga
on
19 Jan 2004 08:26 PST
Hello, sorry I'd been off a while. I'm not familiar with the F-Secure
product, though I assume it's something other than the Kapersky engine
that makes it conflict with Zone Alarm Pro. Maybe F-Secure has its own
firewall that competes with Zone Alarm for the use of resources? I am
not able to test this though, but you might try installing Kapersky
itself already and see if it works. Also, did you say you downloaded
F-secure and it tried to install something by itself? I find that
strange since I am familiar with only downloading happening when I
download programs, and they install something only when I execute
them. Anyway, your described procedure for installing stuff is a good
one.
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Clarification of Question by
grthumongous-ga
on
19 Jan 2004 13:39 PST
Techtor,
The F-Secure product I chose was supposedly a pure AV product with no
Firewall, in contrast to their integrated suite called something like
F-Secure Internet Security which is a combo. However in one half
duplex email dialog with their tech support they asserted that the
product I chose had a firewall and that I should simply UNinstall the
redundant Zone Alarm Pro. I never did reconcile this apparent
inconsistency which at the time I dismissed as "translation errors"
between English and Finnish.
In the matter of the download they had two styles, a big one and a
phased stub plus increments. I intended to choose the big one with
consequent OFFline install but possibly ended up with the latter with
its dynamic install and pull of components from the vendor website
thru the ZA firewall.
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