Resolved Totally Zone Alarm or Symantec?

I currently have ZA as firewall and Symantec (Norton) as antivirus. It's increasingly hard to get the two to work together. I'd like recommendations on going totally one way or the other based on other users experience, if possible, please.

Thanks
Barb

 

I have a router from Comcast, do I have a hardware firewall and don't know it? If not, please explain what you mean. I don't understand this part of your comment.

Thanks
Barb

 

Get rid of both, they are junk. If you are connected to a router, then your router's firewall will protect you better than even Windows firewall or a third-party security app like ZoneAlarm. If you travel and use your PC then be sure to turn on your windows firewall to protect your system. Finally, to fully protect your system from viruses and other malware I recommend you download and install Avast! Professional Edition version 4.8 and set your updates to download/install automatically which will keep your PC up-to-date and fully shielded from viruses, rootkits, etc.

 

Router Firewall vs. OS Firewall

Although you can run both firewalls, I don't agree that both a router firewall and OS firewall need to be running, in fact, your OS firewall may interfere with your router firewall. Of course there is no perfect firewall and there never will be.

 

Your are absolutely wrong. Software firewall may interfere with the router's internal firewall causing a sudden loss in the network connection. For example, see http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1099/kw/network connection/r_id/166.

Here are some technical support tips from NETGEAR, one of the largest makers of network routers:
If you do not have a router with a firewall, run a firewall product. (such as Windows firewall.)
If you have a firewall router, turn off the Windows firewall. (Windows may have turned it on without your knowledge.)
If you have a portable computer (and you are not logged in to your network router), it should be protected by a firewall at all times.

 

Disabling Conflicting Firewalls Such as Windows, McAfee, Norton, ZoneAlarm

Software firewall may interfere with hardware firewall.

Read this technical support link from NETGEAR:

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1111/kw/turn off windows firewall/r_id/166

Often two firewalls on the same LAN conflict. Both are trying to do the same job; the conflict may cause an otherwise good Internet connection to drop.

 

Just jumping into the middle of this discussion... to ask questions., of course!

I've been having issues and now they're getting worse (slowing down access, etc.)

I have a dsl Modem which has a "Firewall Settings" button. I have no idea if it is enabled or not, as I no (known) access to it as I have no (known) password.

(Short explanation: new phone company bought out old phone company lines and they've made changes to the modem...)

I have a Belkin Router for my home network (wired and WI-FI). It has a Firewall and it IS enabled (don't remember doing it, but obviously I must have at some point...).

Every XP computer I have has avast! and ZoneAlarm.

My one Vista computer (which has always given me the most problems) has COMODO. It also says I have Windows Firewall ON but NOT using the recommended settings...... I believe I keep turning it OFF but it seems to keep turning back on.

A laptop computer running Vista shows up at my house on a regular basis and I've installed COMODO on it, also.

Until a few months ago, I had avast! and ZoneAlarm on ALL my computers but that combo and Vista AND Windows Firewall (and apparently my router and modem) were causing problems. I changed all of them to COMODO which until recently seemed to be OK on my Vista computer, however as other issues came up on my XP computers I've recently changed them back, which seemed to fix almost all the recent issues (I believe that Microsoft security updates have and are causing 1 or 2 new minor problems but I can live with them until they get fixed).

DNS Address of the modem is 192.168.1.1
DNS Address of the router is 192.168.2.1

My ongoing issue (even before Vista) has been occassionally having my internet connection go down. The fix was to unplug the router, wait a few seconds, then power it back up. This would work 99.999% of the time.

My Vista computer has been getting slower and slower at startup. Apparently I have Firewall issues...

SO ...

Should I follow Arie (avast! and Windows Firewall) on my Vista computer?

Wait... that was a really stupid question... sorry...

What I meant was WHEN I go back to avast! on my Vista computer I should use Windows Firewall (with correct, updated settings) because my router has a firewall, right? And this hopefully will also get my Vista computer back out of the slow lane at start-up...?

Should I also do this for the Vista laptop? It is used primarily at my home (but does not live here...) and at school, and possibly at other WI-FI hotspots.

(I'll ask about any further recomendations for my XP laptop later.)

 

Just a comment... (Maybe it's an really an opinion)

My computer is partitioned, running XPSP3 and Vista SP2. I access the internet through a Linksys firewall/router and a Westell DSL modem. On XP I am using Avast antivirus and Comodo Internet Security, firewall only, Windows Firewall is disabled. Vista has Comodo Internet Security, firewall and antivirus, Windows Firewall is disabled. No conflicts, slowdowns, etc.

Deck, you may want to set your router DNS to 192.168.1.1 as well. I previously had set my router and modem DNS as you have them and did get slow downs. Just a suggestion.

 

Broni

My wife and I are behind a Linksys router with firewall and we also run a software firewall and have done so for years without a hitch. In fact, when we had our wireless network set up by the local computer technician, he insisted upon our installing the software firewall to go along the the hardware firewall. It works for us... that's all I know.

 

Thank you all for all info, suggestions, and help.

Barb