I need something easy to set up. How bad is Zone Alert???? Have heard that Nortons slows everything down..Still thinking about a single Firewall/antivirus package to make things easier..

 

me using zonealarm firewall which is license free for personal use.

have a look at www.grc.com and www.pcflank.com to test how open your PCs are without firewall, etc.

dont forget to install anti-spyware product like ad-aware (www.lavasoftusa.com) or pestpatrol (www.safersite.com) as well.

as for anti-virus, license free software are available from www.grisoft.com or www.housecall.antivirus.com.

 

Tiny Personnal Firewall is one of the best, and its free.
The main thing to learn is how to set up rules properly. To start with block everything, then when alerts appear requesting access, be very selective about the ones you set up using the rules.
By default block all ICMP incomming and outgoing, along with all port 80, 8080 and 8081, and then modify to suit your needs.

 

Watch out if you enable ad-blocking on your PC as it does severely disable your ability to post on Scoobynet. Not sure why, but the 'New Topic' button disappears from your screen.

I'm sure one of the technical types can enlighten us.....

Cheers
Kav