Does firewall software , slow down Internet speed?

Answer 1

A firewall should not slow down your PC. If you do notice a slowdown, the protection a firewall provides is certainly worth an extra second or two here and there.

Note that a full security suite (with firewall, antivirus, anti-spyware, etc.) can slow your system down because of the various processes that have to run in order to protect your system.

If you just need a firewall, I would give the free ZoneAlarm a try, you can find it at download.com. For antivirus, the Free version of AVG is an excellent choice at free.grisoft.com, and Spybot is a nice choice for spyware/adware. You can find it at www.spybot.info.

Answer 2

Software firewalls do not degrade incoming bandwidth. Some firewalling programs can however cause overall system performance to suffer. ZoneAlarm can make any machine with a CPU less than a Pentium II to be a little sluggish. Norton Internet Security is major memory hog and causes slow downs on any PC it's installed on.

Answer 3

No anti-virus will slow your internet speed down unless it is doing updates which can be every 3 hours to 1 day depending on your anti-virus software. It is crucial that you keep these automatic updates on as it will update on viruses on the internet so that your software can detect, and remove it efficiently. You may be thinking of the load that anti-virus put on your computer which makes your computer slower. Avast seems to be good at not sucking up your computer resources but it's not strong in some cases. I use AVG and I haven't had a virus get through my system since. I did a test to try to get viruses and I performed the most dangerous actions on the computer to get a virus and I ended up with none because of AVG. AVG is quiet as a mouse when it comes to sucking up resources and it is average in every skill. I bought McAfee Total Protection for $150 AUD and I got a few viruses in my computer that McAfee detected but I knew I still had more to find but McAfee wouldn't get them. I used AVG FREE, keep in mind, free, and it found over 200 viruses. This is not a joke, I experienced this. So I don't believe that paying for something really does give you the best protection. The most popular your anti-virus, the most harder the viruses will be to detect because the virus can work it's way around popular anti-virus software because it is known and used a lot. Hope this helped. I didn't understand your question quite well but I tried.

Answer 4

I don't think it slows down your internet speed...it will take a little memory up & probably does affect your speed BUT USE ONE! I can't tell you how useful they are..there are even free ones. They don't work 100% of the time but if your ever attacked, you can block ALL traffic or if some hiddden process thats bad tries to access the net & the firewall don't automatically stop it, it will give you the option to stop it.

Answer 5

If you have your firewall software set to automatically update itself then you could have an issue with download speed and CPU usage. I would not switch to manual unless you are vigilant about updating often at a time when you are not surfing the net. If you can be vigilant about the updates then it may be helpful to you to go manual. Take care.

Answer 6

yes..but firewall protects ur computer from 3rd party programs like bots and hackers to enter ur pc

Answer 7

Not really.

It would be a mistake to disable your firewall these days.

Keep it on no matter what.

Answer 8

not that i have noticed, i have used mcafee and it seemed to keep my download speed at the same rate with it off :)

Answer 9

No
get one
Think of it as a condom for your computer

Answer 10

no