firewall questions... need some advice rather quickly

[James]

1. A tech person told me today that I should activate Windows XP
firewall to run in conjunction with my Norton Internet Security (which
contains a firewall). Is this a good idea? Why or why not?

2. My wife's computer seems to run slower than mine. Her CPU is 800 MHz
(mine is faster) and I'm wondering if Norton is too much drain on her
resources. She has 320 MB RAM. Would the new suite from Zone Alarm which
contains a firewall and an anti-virus be less demanding on her system
resources?

3. Other suggestions? What about the free version of ZA and AVG? Would
this be as secure as either what she has now (Norton Internet Security)
or the Zone Alarm Pro suite?

Thank you for any help you can offer us.

 

[Phillips]

1. You don't need 2 firewalls since both accomplish, roughly, the same
tasks. The drain of resources and possible conflicts do not justify running
two firewalls.
2. 3. ZA free edition and AVG free is everything you need to run - I'd add
Spybot's "Tea Timer"; the 'free' editions are barebones that do what they
are supposed to for the average home user. The more sophisticated editions
have too many whistles and bells that can cause conflicts and use too many
resources.
Michael

 

[P.C.]

Install Zone Alarm 4.5 free version, instead of a later one (5.0 or 5.1). It
has been proved that ZA 4.5 is the most stable version, while other later
ones are unstable and still remain a number of problems.

After you install ZA 4.5, the program will ask you to update to a latest
version. Do NOT update unless you have checked ZA's forum and are sure that
no problem remains on the latest version.

Person

 

[Ken Blake]

In

Install Zone Alarm 4.5 free version, instead of a later one (5.0 or
5.1). It has been proved that ZA 4.5 is the most stable version,
while other later ones are unstable and still remain a number of
problems.

No, although there were problems with the 5.0 version, they seem
to be fixed in the latest version, 5.1.011.000.

 

[P.C.]

No. If you spend some time reading what people have posted on ZA's forum
(including the experts who seem to work for ZA), then you'll know ZA 5.1 did
fix "some" of the problems on the previous versions, but also create some
new trouble. That means some of the problems remaining on the previous
versions and the new problems all happen on ZA 5.1

Stick with ZA 4.5 unless you want to be one of the testers of ZA 5.1
Check ZA's forum.

Person

 

[Alex Nichol]

1. A tech person told me today that I should activate Windows XP
firewall to run in conjunction with my Norton Internet Security (which
contains a firewall). Is this a good idea? Why or why not?

There is no need to run the two in parallel: but if you are going to do
any maintenance on the third party one, enable the Windows one first so
as to ensure protection

2. My wife's computer seems to run slower than mine. Her CPU is 800 MHz
(mine is faster) and I'm wondering if Norton is too much drain on her
resources. She has 320 MB RAM. Would the new suite from Zone Alarm which
contains a firewall and an anti-virus be less demanding on her system
resources?

Very probably. That is in effect what I use - but I suggest
approaching it from the AV side, at
www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/
Which currently has a free one year trial of their EzArmor - effectively
the same thing. eTrust AV and the Zone Alarm firewall engine

 

[James]

James wrote:




There is no need to run the two in parallel: but if you are going to do
any maintenance on the third party one, enable the Windows one first so
as to ensure protection




Very probably. That is in effect what I use - but I suggest
approaching it from the AV side, at
www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/
Which currently has a free one year trial of their EzArmor - effectively
the same thing. eTrust AV and the Zone Alarm firewall engine

Thank you, Alex. Would the free version of ZA be sufficient for her? I
understand it will not block pop-ups and that is something we both want
to do. We're willing to pay for the Pro version if it will do
essentially the same thing and block pop-ups for us. Thank you for your
help.

 

[Alex Nichol]

Thank you, Alex. Would the free version of ZA be sufficient for her? I
understand it will not block pop-ups and that is something we both want
to do. We're willing to pay for the Pro version if it will do
essentially the same thing and block pop-ups for us. Thank you for your
help.

I think the free would be as good - coupled with a separate free pop-up
stopper, from http://www.panicware.com/product_psfree_download.html

The popup stopper in ZA is fair enough, but I have found the other
'Privacy'' things don't work as well as I would like, whereas the
Firewall itself is good. Just remember that when you deliberately run
something that wants to access the Internet, to check the 'always' box
then click Allow, and you will not be bothered again. Also that you
should allow General Host Process to access, but not to act as a server

 

[Ken Blake]

In

No. If you spend some time reading what people have posted on ZA's
forum (including the experts who seem to work for ZA), then you'll
know ZA 5.1 did fix "some" of the problems on the previous versions,
but also create some new trouble. That means some of the problems
remaining on the previous versions and the new problems all happen on
ZA 5.1

Stick with ZA 4.5 unless you want to be one of the testers of ZA 5.1
Check ZA's forum.

OK, thanks. I haven't seen any problems since upgrading to 5.1,
and don't frequent the ZA forum, so I hadn't heard about them.
Can you summarize for us what problems remain, and what new
problems there are?