firewall question......?

Question

i have norton antivirus,norton personal firewall,spy sweeper,my ad blocker,and zone alarm personal firewall i hav 2 firewalls norton personal firewall and zone alarm i am going to install a Sygate personal firewall will these interfere with each other......if u r wondering y i hav so many its because i hav had problems with spyware and viruses and other online security problems and i hav had to do a recovery on my computer and i lost all data i do not want this to happen again!!!

Answer 1

Anyone who says to use two firewalls is without a clue. Use only ONE software firewall. Period! Multiple software firewalls WILL conflict.

Of the ones you've listed, Zone Alarm is the best, by far. It's the only application layer firewall in the whole lot.

If you want to feel a bit more secure and insist on using more than one firewall, use ONE software firewall and ONE hardware firewall. This is the ONLY way to use multiple firewalls.

Ignore the advice about using a Mac or Firefox in lieu of using a firewall. ANY OS can be attacked, and security is not limited to the browser; the entire OS is potentially vulnerable.

Use a good antivirus product, there are several free ones available; Avast is probably the best free antivirus but it's not the only one. Again, use only ONE antivirus package.

For anti-spyware, you CAN stack multiple versions. If you do, only activate the active protection of ONE of them. Again, there are good free ones out there including:

Microsoft Defender http://www.microsoft.com

Spybot Search and Destroy http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

Ad-Aware http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/

Keep them up to date and scan your system regularly.

Answer 2

1st & foremost if your still using IE forget it. Switch to Firefox. Why? It's safer & It's not IE, & so much more.... If u still insist on using IE Download SpywareBlaster & SpywareGuard.
Two firewalls should be more than sufficient. I use 2 also. 3 would be overkill in my opinion. 3 may have u scrambling to find which one is blocking a program from working. Forums are a wealth of info. I gave u a link to a good one below. Note; not all are good. Get a feel for different forums.
PS Norton bought Sygate
E-Mail me if u want & I'll give u some other trusted forums. Hope this helps
UPDATE; Use Firefox AND what's noted above. Firefox helps & IS safer.

Answer 3

It is possible that having 2 firewalls will cause one to interfere with the other and render them both inoperable.

Assuming you are running a windows box, I'd take off zone alarm and forget the sygate.

IF you are desperate to have more firewalls, you can put one on your router (they mostly come with one, you just have to configure it).

Or just get a mac: no spyware or viruses and they come with a built-in firewall that does it all. NEVER had a virus or spyware on a mac in my life.

Answer 4

One firewall, configured correctly is all you need. If you put two on they are going to interfere with each other. Try using a router and NAT, then just use one firewall program on your computer. The router will drop all unsolicited packets leaving just the obvious traffic for you local firewall to contend with. Stay away from file sharing and porn sites and you should be fine ;-)

that's my advice.

Answer 5

A lot would suggest only one firewall...(including me)to avoid conflicts... better use mozilla firefox for browsing it is much secure than IE...

Answer 6

You really screwed up typing this. You used a Cap S on Sygate. DO NOT LET THAT HAPPEN AGAIN OR YOU WILL BE PUNISHED!!