Home Shield Pro and Other Security Measures Be Causing Issues

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Home Shield Pro and Other Security Measures Be Causing Issues

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Home Shield Pro and Other Security Measures Be Causing Issues
Home Shield Pro and Other Security Measures Be Causing Issues
2023-06-12 15:41:28
Tags: #Security
Model: Deco XE75  
Hardware Version: V2
Firmware Version: 1.2.5

This is a long one, so strap in folks... I recently signed up for TP Link Home Shield Pro because I figured why not give it a shot... However now I'm wondering if it's not only redundant to other security I have in place, I'm also wondering if it could be causing conflicts and/or slowing connectivity. 
 

In addition to TPLink Home Shield Pro I also have Active Armor protecting my network, which is free through my att internet service and also protects my att wireless service by blocking spam, scam calls, and provides some level of VPN protection on my iphone. Finally I have the avg internet security suite running on my computers, phone etc because I've had it for years and subscribed before att rolled out active armor for free and before i had a tp link mesh system which is where home shield came in.  Last but not least you have apple rolling out features like active relay and Private WiFi address functionality etc etc etc.

 

So with all that said, I'm wondering what I actually need and should keep, and if there are security measures i should stop using bc if there's redundancy there it will only bog things down.  However it's all so convoluted at this point that I can't seem to sort through whether all this security is good, or just redundant, and if redundant what I should keep and what should i get rid off. For example, my AT&T equipment is a modem, router, and wireless gateway all in one. However that said, in order to setup my Deco XE75 mesh system, I had to disable the Wi-Fi and the routing capabilities of the the ATT box to let deco take over. So with that said is there really a conflict between Att Active armor and Home Shield pro or is Active Armor really only protecting my "modem" and I need Home Shield to protect xe75 router and node and the rest of my network? Then when it comes to avg, is that necessary because it's important to protect things at the device level (and for Vpn capabilities on my computers) or is device level protection unnecessary since I'm on my home network and it's presumably protected by active armor and home shield pro?

 

I never planned to have all these different security packages... it just sort of unfolded that way. ATT rolled out Active Armor for free, but I'd been using AVG prior to that and just never really thought of the potential redundancy. Then when I bought my deco system I figured I might as well checkout Home Shield Pro. 
 

The bottom line is are all these security measures protecting different things, and do they play different roles in protecting different devices/aspects of my network, or is it all super redundant? If it's redundant which app(s) should I keep and which should I deactivate? 
 

Any advice would be MUCH appreciated! 

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Re:Home Shield Pro and Other Security Measures Be Causing Issues
2023-06-12 19:42:18

  @Lampdl,

You would have to look at the specifics of how ATT Active Armor works on your Gateway, however protection features, such as those in homeshield, require that the host device be in router mode. This allows the router to see the traffic going to and from each device. If the service does work at a Modem-level, it would only be looking at external traffic for threats - However I would be willing to bet that your ATT ACtive Armor is either not operating or is working in a limited capacity.

 

Your best bet is to use the protections that are offered on your router, as you can guarantee the safety of traffic and devices, even if a threat has found another way into your network.

 

For your Antivirus on your PC, this is really up to you. These services are known to slow your connection and PC, but do offer additional protections. For this reason, it is important to look at what your Antivirus is offering beyond Windows Defender, and to determine if your specific Antivirus is worth any slowdown in performance. If your slowdown is excessive, you may look into other more recent Antivirus services that may be more lightweight in nature.

 

It is worth mentioning that while your PC is protected under the umbrella of HomeShield, this will only protect your devices from malicious network traffic, if a threat or virus manages to find its way onto your PC, Windows Defender or AVG will work to protect your files and isolate the threats from both your PC and the rest of your network. 

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