Service pack 2 and existing firewalls

[Antrobus]

In all the news about SP2 I haven't seen any discussion about needing it if
Norton Internet Security or other firewalls are already installed and working
well (i.e., test OK in Symantec security check.) Will having both result in
problems like slowdown, interference of some kind? What firewall/antivirus
combos are best? Surprising that this isn't topic one in the news items.

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

The new firewall in SP2 is much better than previous versions. You can restrict it to specific applications, just like ZoneAlarm and others. A second firewall should be un-necessary.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/sp2chngs.mspx

 

[Mark]

exactly! No other firewall will be needed. Also note that McAfee Virus Scan
Online has integrated well into XP for years and least conflict. No issues
here with SP2 whatsoever. Cheers ALL and SP2 rocks!
The new firewall in SP2 is much better than previous versions. You can
restrict it to specific applications, just like ZoneAlarm and others. A
second firewall should be un-necessary.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/sp2chngs.mspx

 

[Gene K]

In all the news about SP2 I haven't seen any discussion about needing
it if Norton Internet Security or other firewalls are already
installed and working well (i.e., test OK in Symantec security
check.) Will having both result in problems like slowdown,
interference of some kind? What firewall/antivirus combos are best?
Surprising that this isn't topic one in the news items.

The word is that the XP Firewall is much improved; however, there is no need
to run two firewalls at the same time [system clutter, possible conflicts,
etc]. I have Norton's Internet Security 2003 and intend to stay with it.

 

[Tom Porterfield]

In all the news about SP2 I haven't seen any discussion about needing it
if Norton Internet Security or other firewalls are already installed and
working well (i.e., test OK in Symantec security check.) Will having
both result in problems like slowdown, interference of some kind? What
firewall/antivirus combos are best? Surprising that this isn't topic
one in the news items.

Two firewalls is redundant. You can either choose to continue to use
Norton Internet Security if you feel you are comfortable with that and
how to configure it, or you can use XP's firewall. Newer firewalls are
automatically detected by XP's built in security settings and if found,
the XP firewall will be disabled by default.
--
Tom Porterfield
MS-MVP MCE
http://support.telop.org

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup only.

 

[wpj]

In all the news about SP2 I haven't seen any discussion about needing it if
Norton Internet Security or other firewalls are already installed and working
well (i.e., test OK in Symantec security check.) Will having both result in
problems like slowdown, interference of some kind? What firewall/antivirus
combos are best? Surprising that this isn't topic one in the news items.

If your running broadband you want to get a router in place and a software
firewall. I recommend ZoneAlarm but that too has some problems. I do not
trust Microsoft for my security. I run a router with a software firewall
just in case.
Just a thought.

 

[Guest]

I do not have the update yet, but from what I have read the SP2 firewall does
not provide complete ptotection from programs running on your system. Does
anyone know if this is the case? Regardless of how good Microsoft's firewall
is, I still plan to use my other firewall as a backup. If that proves to be
too much hassle, I will move away from SP2 firewall till I know it is
reliable.

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

The SP2 firewall will protect your system from external attacks and internal leaks.

 

[JILL HUNTER]

After installing sp 2 this is what happens:

Of course having two firewalls is redundant and i get a "Page not Found" message...With the SP2 firewall everything works fine, I can surf the net just fine...but if i disable that and enable my Norton Firewall that I used before I get "Page not found"... Why is this? I am using a cable modem and since I paid for Norton Firewall (Int. Security) I'd like to use it...Some sort of conflict somewhere...help me with this annoyance...

Jill

In all the news about SP2 I haven't seen any discussion about needing it if
Norton Internet Security or other firewalls are already installed and working
well (i.e., test OK in Symantec security check.) Will having both result in
problems like slowdown, interference of some kind? What firewall/antivirus
combos are best? Surprising that this isn't topic one in the news items.

If your running broadband you want to get a router in place and a software
firewall. I recommend ZoneAlarm but that too has some problems. I do not
trust Microsoft for my security. I run a router with a software firewall
just in case.
Just a thought.