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i am running XP Pro. It has a firewall in it. i also have a cable modem and am told it has a fire wall in it. i also run Zone Alarm. Not the pro version..the free one. Do i need all of these? i don't seem to have problems, but my cousin says i am overdoing it. Zone alarm tells me it stops so many things, i hate to dump it.
Thank you for your help.
You are running two types of firewalls. Hardware and software. Zone alarm and the fire wall that comes with XP are software, and can be thwarted the same as any anti-virus software can. Having multiple firewalls could cause conflicts with your networking connections, though not always. The one on your cable modem should be verified. If you have verified it, and know it is there, and enabled. That firewall is actually more robust and harder to crack than is a software one.
One way to decide what one to keep would be to read up on users experience for each one. One place to do this would be cnet.com They have a user rating section for things like zone alarm and such. Just search your product, and see what they say. Choose the better option.
Happy networking.
ID
From what I have read on firewalls, Zone Alarm is better than the XP one. I am just using the XP on my other computer, coupled with avast! Anti-Virus program (freeware)
After having installed it, I have absolutely no problems with viruses or adware/spyware anymore.
Only problem I have had with firewalls, are with my wireless router. It won't let Limewire through.
I would, out of principle, advise you to choose FOSS or freeware for any program. But, that's your choice.
Another great Anti-Virus program is AVG. I have tried them both, and I have talked to IT professional saying that both of these programs are better than Norman, Norton, McAfee. It's at par with Panda (don't know if this is freeware, FOSS or proprietary software. I know it was free once.)
Of all the people I have chatted with, I have the feeling that about 50-70 % of them has Zone Alarm installed. The reasons are generally: It's free, and it's better than the built-in firewall of XP.
So, you're in good company when running it.
If you wish a cleaner, better-running computer, I suggest testing Auslogics BoostSpeed. It's not a whole lot of money for it, and with it, you can do a whole lot of tweaking easily, without worrying too much about destroying the system.
(Sorry about going off-topic, but generally, when someone asks me for help with computers, I wish to do a complete system-makeover to make it as easy and good as possible, because there's generally alot to do for people on computers, though they tend to concentrate on one thing at the time.)
Thank You very much *smiling* i do run AVG but i will be checking into the other things You suggested.
Hi there rora
First i would like to say that if you are talking just about the cable modem itself, then that is not a "firewall", you have been slightly misguided, the cable modem is used to translate messages from your computer (Which are in digital form) into (analogue frequencies) so that it may be transferred across the cable line, then once the message that you send reaches its intended destination, the modem on that side of the line will translate it back into digital format so that the recieving computer can understand it.
As for using Windows ICF (Internet Connection Firewall) and ZoneAlarm together, i would not worry about this unless ZoneAlarm is causing you problems to get on the internet; with todays technology, running more than one firewall application should not show any system performance problems. (Better to be paranoid now, than wishing later on that you had been!)'
Right now i have two firewalls on my local machine, then from there i go through an internal router (This has some firewall protection) and then from the router, i am using an old desktop as a Hardware Firewall, then finally i get connected to my external cable modem, so that i may browse the internet.
So after reading this rora, i bet you don't think you are overdoing it now? Lol
So to conclude, firewalls alone will not stop unwanted intrusions if you like, but will deter the script kiddies(Clueless amateur crackers) who are looking for easy prey, and any trojans or worms (Well as long as you keep you firewall up-to-date :D )
Regards
Alex.
The firewall that comes with XP is very basic ---better than no firewall at all ---you will find Zone Alarm much better
Thank you all very much. i am going to keep my Zone alarm.
Merry Christmas.