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LarryG said:
I am using Windows XP Home Ed on my PC.
I downloaded Zone Alarm - free version.
Is it absolutely necessary to shut off the fire wall that comes with
Windows XP Home when using Zone Alarm?
Absolutely necessary? No.
But I would turn it off, for the following reasons:
1. You are running two programs instead of one, and therefore
using more CPU cycles than necessary.
2. Since the two are essentially doing the same thing at the same
time, you run the risk of their interfering with each other. That
risk is probably slight, since I've heard of several people who
have gotten away with doing it, but I wouldn't assume that the
risk is therefore zero.
3. There's no advantage to having both. It's like arriving in a
foreign country by airplane. If you go through immigration where
a clerk inspects your passport, there's no increased security if
a few yards further, you go through another station where a
second guard inspects your passport. It's just a duplication, and
therefore a waste, of effort.
