Installed SP2 (XP) today - Already have a firewall (question)

[Giacomo]

I notice that the Windows firewall is turned on (I previously had this
turned off since I am running Zone Alarm Pro). I presume I can safely turn
this back off. I'm noting alot of issues since installation this morning.
1) My Exec Software Diskeeper has frozen.
2) My popup blocker has disabled a few more features than ZA already blocked
a) I tried to register on a site and they used the "type in the numbers
in this picture" technique which may use popup technology. The picture
refused to display and I was unable to register.
3) My pages seem to load very slowly. I am on a DSL and am accustomed to
fast loads. It may be the defragger... can't tell just yet.
4) I really like the v5 Windows Updater. This is a great feature!

This is all I have so far.

Jamie

 

[Nathan McNulty]

Here are a few answers for you. If you already have Zona Alarm Pro
installed, Windows Firewall is not necessary, but it will not cause any
conflicts either. So you can chose if you want to disable it or not,
but it won't affect anything. Second, there are some incompatibilities
and problems with Zone Alarm and SP2, but this is only with non-updated
ZAP software. Make sure that you are running the latest version. Also,
Microsoft recommends that you uninstall any pop-up blocking software as
they may conflict with their built in one. You can disable either one,
but I would recommend removing the old one. Finally, IE offers to show
you the blocked pop-up at your command and is much faster than previous
versions. Your internet speed should actually be faster now. I am going
to guess it may be other software slowing it down.

Also, for your diskkeeper software, check for available updates if
possible

Nathan McNulty

 

[Giacomo]

Thanks Nate. Removing my Pop-Up blocked did the trick.
Giac

 

[james.fiddler]

One of the new improvements in SP2 is that the firewall
is turned on by default. If you have Zonealarm, you can
safely turn off Windows Firewall, although you may get a
message in the system tray warning that the firewall is
off and that your computer may be at risk. the important
thing is to have a firewall. I uninstalled Zonealarm
before I upgraded to XP just to give the Windows version
a try. I have noticed that the SP2 version is far better
than the original. It blocked 3 attempts to access the
internet from Messenger and Yahoo! Browser in the first 3
hours, and asked me if I wanted to unblock, which I did.
Windows Firewall seems to be a bit better than Zonealarm,
but then, I had the free version, if you are running pro,
then your results may be quite different. I don't know
anything about the issues involving Diskkeeper, it could
be a compatability issue, or the "type in the numbers"
type of security, since I haven't had occasion to use
them yet, but as far as DSL speed, I had the same issue,
but after defragging and changing the latency size the
issue was resolved. SP2 install seems to put some heavy
fragging on the hard drive. Visit PCPitstop
(www.pcpitstop.com) and run their tests (turn off the
firewall first, it will stop the upload test) and see
what your latency is. If the internet speed is slow, you
can run their autofix to change it. Click on "Typical
Latency" to bring the size up to 62,240. Then, restart.
That should fix it. I'm with you on the V5, much better
than V4.