Hi All, I'm trying to add some more security to my system. I have a router with a built-in firewall. Does it make sense to add another firewall like Zone Alarm (or other brands)? Can you even have two firewalls? Will two even work together or can it have an adverse effect on my pc? Any suggestions/tips/advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
you can have a router firewall and a software firewall. No problem. The router blocks incoming connections. The software firewall can block outbound connections, so if you get infected by spyware, virus, etc, the software firewall will block it. The software firewall can have an adverse affect on your computer and internet performance, so I would turn it off during trading and turn it back on when you are done, before doing regular browsing.
I found the same with my software firewall and have done what you advised medved. It helps the connection during the trading day. Thanks!
I also use a router and ZoneAlarm. NAT in the router keeps me safe from most attacks, but ZA allows me to make sure that no programs get access to the net without me specifically allowing it, preventing trojans, etc. from being able to connect out without me seeing it. I don't have any measurable performance impact from using it, at least not as of a year or so ago when I bench'd it. BEWARE of ZoneAlarm (and the other ZA products) version 60_631_003 - many people (including me) have had major trouble with it. Other than this last release, ZA has been excellent. You can get the previous version (55_094_000) from the links at http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/free/information/znalm/zaReleaseHistory.html
Agree 100%. (1) Valid point to use a software firewall in addition to the hardware fw. (2) Used ZA till about 2 years ago. Lots of problems with the newer products. Take a look at Kaspersky 'anti-hacker'. I replaced ZA with it and I use it for 2 years now. No problems, very trustworthy. BTW they have a very nice and highly rated antivirus with hourly automatic updates. http://www.kaspersky.com/
Quote from Babak: what sort of problems did it cause you? Pretty much all of the common issues flooding their support BBS: http://forum.zonelabs.org/zonelabs/board?board.id=inst