Firewall activation and blasterworm virus

[Rodney]

I have been trying to follow the instructions on the
windows.com webpage, to ensure I am not affected by the
blasterworm virus. I have had the following difficulties:

1- When I try to change the settings on my aol connection,
via control panel, to activate the XP firewall, nothing
happens. I guess my XP Firewall is therefore 'off'. How do
I switch it on?
2 - the web page advises downloading blasterworm
protection. How do I tell whether my pc has XP 32 or 64
bit?
3 - should I buy Norton's or Macfee's or other antivirus
software, in addition to the firewall?

Many thanks for any advice you can offer.

 

[David Jones]

AOL did not make their software and connections
compatible with the built-in XP firewall. You'd need a
different firewall program such as Zone Alarm.

You have the 32-bit version of XP almost assuredly.
Yes, you should be using an anti-virus program in
addition to a firewall.