Anti Virus or Anti Customer
What I've witnessed in recent years is the secret battle that’s being waged between antivirus and firewall software. The loser in this battle is undoubtedly the customer.
In the past 10 years I have used at least 10 antivirus programs and probably trialled twice as many looking for a decent one that’s effective and doesn’t cause me grief.
Antivirus programs were once just there to give your computer networks and PC’s protection from malicious computer viruses. But in the past two years many of the big names like McAfee, Norton and Trend Micro have begun offering Antivirus with integrated Firewall solutions.
Some people may see these integrated solutions as a bonus since it’s like getting two functions for the price of one (well almost). You don’t have to install a separate Firewall, it comes with the Antivirus program.
The problem I have with this is that it removes my freedom of choice and that’s something I do care about. You see most of these combined antivirus and firewall solutions, don’t give you a choice.
If you have another firewall installed the antivirus software will ask you to remove the other firewall. If you don’t uninstall your firewall, you can’t install the antivirus software.
This smacks of Microsoft and the attempt to force Windows customers to use Internet Explorer as the only Internet Browser or to use Windows Media Player as your only video and audio player.
We all know what happened to the battle that Microsoft had with that strategy, it was seen as anti-competitive, ant-customer and anti-freedom of choice.
Yet Antivirus software companies are quietly doing exactly the same thing and getting away with it.
My first experience of the problem was with Trend Micro, who about 2 years ago introduced the first offering of a firewall with their antivirus. At first it was optional, you could choose to install it or not. Later that changed to you not having a choice. If you didn’t uninstall any existing firewall you could not install their antivirus software.
My solution to the problem was to look else where for another antivirus software. But the choice is becoming more limited as they all progress toward offering integrated antivirus and firewall solutions.
I have used the same software firewall for many years and never had any cause or reason to change it. The firewall is Zone Alarm Pro and it has many features which simply cannot be matched by integrated antivirus solutions.
The antivirus software I have used for the past 18 months is Panda Titanium 2005 and 2006. It’s one of the best antivirus software’s I have ever seen and also incorporates anti-spyware and auto-dialler detection. As well as recognising over 100,000 known viruses, it also detects viruses in the wild without needing an updated pattern file.
They also have an excellent email virus warning system and one that advises about security vulnerabilities in other vendor’s software and hardware. This service is almost worth the price of the software.
It also has an integrated firewall, which for now is optional, but how long will it be before they too remove the freedom of choice ?
If they decide to remove my freedom to chose my own firewall, or anything else for that matter, I for one, will be looking yet again for another antivirus software.
My advice to antivirus software vendors is stick to what you do best and stop trying to be all things to all people and in the process removing the customer’s freedom of choice.
If a customer wants to use your firewall they can, if they don’t want to use it stop trying to force them. Its anti-customer and these days customers have a choice as well as a voice. It's called the Internet and Blogging.
Tony Simpson
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