What firewall ?

[RUAL]

  Operating system Windows Xp Home with Avast antivirus.

     Is it better to stick with the XP firewall or to disable it and download Zone Alarm firewall.

 Rual

[lee16]

If your only looking for inbound protection i would highly recommend a router with a hardware firewall in it.
But for your specific question i will explain what each firewall you asked about can do, then you can decide what you would rather.

Windows Firewall:
Only has protection for inbound threats, so if a Trojan or similar is already on your pc the windows firewall can't stop it from accessing the Internet.
Also the windows firewall is not configurable really, and not to easy to access.

Zonealarm Firewall (i use this):

Protects you again inbound and outbound protection, has its own support forum, there is a free and paid version, you can change the level of security, quarantines suspect emails (only basic in free version), change the level of program control, easy to use and access, has Internet lock down for emergencys and can log what is going on.

--lee

[niko]

You can have a look to Sygate firewall (I use it with Avast! without any pb) You can choose between two versions: free or pro version.
I think Sygate is easier to setup...

[John-]

I am using Sygate too,.. + the NAT firewall from my SMC Router enabled.
I use Sygate,..cause I am used to it,...and cause it is simple in setup,...

I know that many people use Zonealarm,..but I am not that convinced about it,..had some weird experiences with it,...troubles in our network,...errors...ect,...

The Windows SP2 firewall is OK I guess,..however,...I read there are some malfunctions concerning the firewall in SP2 a while ago,...so they had to patch it,...again,...

I would recommend you a router,....so you can share your internet with other home users,...
Once it is set up,..you do not need to upgrade the firmware,..(well off course you can,...but most people I know,..do not recommend this, cause it might screw things up)

[Beaky]

Tried all of the free ones, before I settled on Sygate 5.6 which  runs well wilth Avast and XP Home!  Although a while ago there were some issues with updating Avast but these appear to have been fixed, I am currently using latest editions of both with no problems

Whichever firewall you chose to use is down to you in the end, but personally I would recomend that it is capable of two way protection, that way you will be able to monitor if there is anything trying to connect behind your back!

One word of warning though, a firewall will only give you a warning notice so its down to the User and the push of the mouse button to decide whether access should be granted or not.  No problem to me until one day my daughter downloaded one of those free media players (full of spyware).  "It kept asking me whether I should allow access to the Internet" she said, "what did you do?" I asked, "Oh I just kept saying yes" she replied

[John-]

  lol,...yes I know the issue of constantly clicking "yes".

The problem with firewalls is,..that many people (including myself I suppose) do not always know what the firewall excactly means,...
Which modest computeruser can honnestly say when the firewall alerts,..what it exactly means,...

Some alerts are pretty obvious: e.g. you installed MSN Messenger, and you want to connect to chat with your friends,...the firewall says "may I let MSN Messenger access the Internet?"  Off course you will click "yes" cause otherwise you will have no chat!

Others are not that obvious,... and after a while you do not pay attetion and autoclick yes,...because you "assume" it is safe

[ianb]

Another vote for Sygate here.

[mikel108]

WinXP Home+Sygate 5.6+Avast 4.5=Great for me!

[Neron]

I think Kerio personal firewall is the best,but it's very hard to tweak it.It's not easy.I'm using win XP P SP2 with win firewall.I like it but if i must,i will install kerio.For now i'm happy with it but the time will show...

[RUAL]

 :)Many thanks for replies. Will try Sygate free version. Must agree with Grunger regarding firewall alerts. I haven't got a clue what's going on most of the time. I take the opposite approach to Grunger though and say no to most alerts and hope for the best. Seems to have worked so far. Can't seem to find much information about what I should be letting through a firewall and what I shouldn't.

Rual

[Datagg]

Ive been using it for years now. I instal it in all my families comps and all the systems i build for clients. Its called outpost by agnitum. And a screamin deal is going on right now. if you purchase the program by Jan 10th, you will receive a lifetime upgrade key. This is an awesome deal, for upgrading is normaly $19.99 a year

Heres the link yall. I highly reccomend it

http://www.agnitum.com/christmas.html

Have a safe and very happy NEW YEAR