Waldo,
I decided to give Kerio's updated version 4.0.13 a second chance (tried an earlier version which was full of bugs
). It works for me and quite nicely too.
I am using it as freeware (no web blocking, etc.) but I get that from Firefox .8 so that does not matter to me.
I also get the added system security like System Safety Monitor (which was very flaky on my system
) or Abtrusion Protector (not free for those with broad band access :'( ).
Been using it for three days with no problems and system resources are similar to ZoneAlarm (about 18,000 k).
So, I think my protection has improved and the only reason I switched to Kerio was for the extra system safety monitoring as you suggested that I need but the recommended programs either didn't work for me or had to be paid for.
Thanks Waldo.