ZA or WinXP firewall?

Recently purchased a new computer with winXP, the old box had 98SE. I used ZoneAlarm free with 98SE, but XP has its own firewall. How good is XP's? Good enough to forego the ZoneAlarm? I ask because I'm having issues with occasional websurfing slowdowns, and a look at ZoneAlarm forums show that this a continuing problem with the latest versions of 5.0 and above. Checking the XP taskmaster showed that ram and cpu had plenty to spare.

Should I uninstall ZA?

 

Hi. Not as good as 3rd. party software. Most newsletters say to switch off the XP firewall and stick to in you case ZA. Xp is very basic but does give some cover while people new to computing get started, it is not as good as com. firewalls.

 

The XP firewall only blocks incoming traffic, not outgoing. Go with something else.

 

The XP firewall is better han nothing...barely. go with Sygate Personal Firewall

 

Here is my question. Why do you need outbound protection, if your keep your OS clean of spyware and viruses?

I'm not arguing in favor of either firewall, but I find it weird when people get hung up on outbound connections, if they keep their machine clean.

 

Maybe some are more paranoid than others, or simply believe if it does more, it's gotta be better-the reason my car has power everything and my microwave has a 30 page instruction manual and half a dozen buttons that are as mysterious to me as Egyptian hieroglyphs. Importance, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Why ask why?

 

Well, look at it like this:

Firewalls essentially all serve exactly the same purpose. To prevent connections on the internet that you don't want to happen. The firewall market now seems to rely on "looking the part". i.e. if a program looks like it should do a good job, it does.

The XP firewall does essentially the same thing as all the other firewalls, except it doesnt have outbound protection (or at least, real outbound protection).

 

There are always new things that are being dreamed up that will get in that are not detectable. With outgoing protection, I will at least get an alert that that something's not right and take immediate action.

 

For Adrynalyne:

What if a key-logger gets on my machine before I run ad-aware or spybot s+d?
I have the programs but i'm not 100% anal about running them.

And thanks all for the info. ZA is gone, Sygate has replaced it.

 

The key there is simply this:

Don't let a keylogger get on your system.

I've never used a firewall with outbound protection, and I have never had a problem.

I don't use ad aware either.

 

"The key there is simply this:

Don't let a keylogger get on your system."

How?

Without going to more trouble than just running AA and SBSD?

 

By simply not downloading it

Be careful what you download, where you browse, and what attachments you open in email.

Your best friend is common sense

 

Of course what you say is true, but not foolproof. You can always get spyware from a supposed clean site. Therefore the need for AA and SBSD.

 

Not if you have security in place to prevent ANY spyware from getting onto your machine at all.

I've not known a single piece of spyware get past my Mozilla setup, ever, at all. The only things I'm vunerable from is files in installers, and I've got a scanner for them too.

 

What he said.

Not only that, even with IE, not once have I ever been infected with spyware that wasn't due to my own actions.

There is no magical little gnome in your OS that clicks 'accept' on a spyware prompt.

 

I bow to your experience and knowledge. It's true that I used to have much more problems when I first started using computers online and didn't know squat. And Firefox has reduced my problems to zero since installation. But a new angle is waiting to be exploited, just around the corner.

 

Hi, I was just quoting the views of the pundits. That seems to be the mean view of XPs firewall. I use Agnitum and have had pop up stoppers and advert stopping for ages.

It is up to exch of us to make up our own minds. Why dice a bought for firewall because M$ has given us another.