Sygate Personal Firewall & microsoft updates

Hi
I have Windows XP and Sygate Personal Firewall and find that when the firewall is in 'normal' mode and the Microsoft update website is checking for the latest updates it always 'encounters a problem'. I have to change the firewall setting to 'Allow All' for it to retrieve the updates which is fine but always seems risky to me. Am I right in thinking this?

Is there anyway of setting the firewall to allow me to retrieve the microsoft updates without changing the setting to 'Allow All'?

Thanks

 

Ok, thanks - what firewalls do Majorgeeks recommend? And I take it I would have to uninstall Sygate before installing another?

 

Thank you, I will attempt this tonight. I have a couple more questions please:

1. I take it the uninstaller program is self explanatory once downloaded and will allow me to choose what I want to uninstall?

2. If I uninstall Sygate and then use the link to download the new firewall, won't my pc be at risk during that time? Is it possible to 'save' the new firewall to my pc before uninstalling Sygate, and then 'run' it after the uninstall?

 

Sorry, forgot to add another question:

I see Comodo is also an anti-virus software - I currently have Avast on my system, would I have to uninstall this as well? Plus I assume it is all compatible with Windows XP and with Spybot S&D, SpywareBlaster, and Ad-Aware SE on system as well?

 

Sorry, forgot to add another question:

I see Comodo is also an anti-virus software - I currently have Avast on my system, would I have to uninstall this as well? Plus I assume it is all compatible with Windows XP and with Spybot S&D, SpywareBlaster, and Ad-Aware SE on system as well?

 

All successfully done - thanks for your help, yet again!