Sunbelt Kerio

For some 7 months now I have been using the Kerio Sunbelt Firewall; one with a license that enables the PC to be used as an Internet gateway - the rest of my computers the free version.

(As I am one person using a network for fun/the convenience ... no, really, for fun ... I feel that one purchased, the rest free is pretty fair, as the company offers a for free version.)

Now, the reason I got a firewall was, I got a bad case of trojan (+ some other stuff) that was helpfully resolved here. Everything was working just fine.

Then the hard disk broke down.

So, I installed a new one, got Win200 and all the programs in, Avast & Kerio for safety.

For a while things were ok. Then I introduced a new PC (well, not quite new, but a new operating system), and needed to go into Kerio Configuration and ...

eh, there was no Firewall. No icon, no possibility to start the Firewall, no Configure in the programs menu.

After a looooooong series of ideas from Sunbelt, today they gave in. As usual - blaming someone else - I must have a bad copy of Windows 2000.

But no, I don't. I've used the CD later, and it is ok., and so is the Kerio firewall on that PC. (And yes, there are even license badges on all the PC's I install to.)

Now - my question is: Do you think this is a case of some virus creeping through the firewall and Avast virus protection?

(I've ran the preliminary tests for virus/trojan removal here, and find nothing.)

Or is Kerio just not good enough?

If so, what can I use? I'm not looking for something expensive, as in a short time I will be getting optical fibre line with (if they don't lie) some kind of firewall included.

What I need is something that is not more difficult to use than Kerio ... some firewalls just shuts down my network (like Kerio is just now).

(I use two old "desktop" PC's, one W2000, one Kubuntu Linux - wifi neighbourhood Internet gateway for Ethernet network on the W2000;
one XP laptop-gone-desktop - sometimes wifi, most of the time Ethernet;
one XP laptop only wifi;
one (in a ffew days) Kubuntu laptop, hope-to-do-only-wifi);
one win2000 wifi laptop;
+ the occational children & grandchildren wifi laptop (W2000, XP);
and one printer on LP1, the desktop W2000, but should rather be on the desktop Kubuntu because the printer driver is better; one USB/Ethernet/wifi colour printer. )

When I get my fibre optical cable I will be putting three PC's directly to the router/Ethernet switch; the rest on WIFI.