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JohnMcGu's avatar
JohnMcGu
Follower
Aug 20, 2020

Shopping for new router... I already have McAfee LiveSafe... Do I need Armor w/ Bitdefender

I'm a long time Netgear customer shopping for a new Netgear Router... mainly to get ReadyCLOUD.   In my home I have several new PCs, a 3 TB WD MyBook connected via ReadyShare, and several iPhones, a smart TV and Apple TV.   No other IoTs.   I am very happy with my long term subscription to McAfee LiveSafe... and checking with their technical chat line, they claim I don't need Netgear Armor + BitDefender... in fact it's not wise to run 2 anti-virus solutions.   Seeing some of the other posts on NetGear Armor, it looks like I certainly don't want to switch from LiveSafe to the NetGear bundled security product(s).   Any comments about this?

 

1 Reply

  • AbhayB's avatar
    AbhayB
    NETGEAR Employee Retired
    Aug 21, 2020

    Hi JohnMcGu,

    Let me clarify. NETGEAR Armor has two components - one that runs on the router to protect most of the traffic going to the Internet, and the other - Bitdefender Security software suite - that runs on iOS, MacOS, Windows, and Android devices.

     

    The router component blocks access to URLs and IP addresses that are suspected of phishing, spam, etc. from any device within the network - it can even be your printer, a botnet on an infected smart device (smart TV), a Chromebook (where you can't install 'anti-virus'), etc. It also periodically scans all connected devices on your network to see if it has any open vulnerabilities - weak password, open ports, etc. and let's you know. 

     

    While we believe Bitdefender Security solution is better and have won more awards, installing it is still optional. Of course, now you also have an ability to use bundled VPN applications that give you 200MB free data per day per device on iOS, Android, MacOS, and Windows as long as you have NETGEAR Armor subscription.