If you have a hardware firewall there really is no need to run a software firewall on your system. I also never leave my AV program running, I only do manual scans. I scan downloads before installing them, and every now and then scan the whole system.I've been doing it that way for years and never had a virus. In fact in all my years of using computers (since TRS-80 days) I've only seen two viruses. One from a downloaded file, which was caught by a scan, the other was on my sisters computer. She's bad about opening email attachments, and never updated the virus program on her computer.

I always disable virus protection, but keep my firewall in place. I've never had a problem except with one version of zonealarm that interfered with multiplayer and vatsim hookups. Once that was resolved everything has been fine since then. The only downloads are from the built in FS weather program...so I feel safe from virus infections, while the firewall protects against unwanted intruders.Sherm