Sounds like a reasonable explaination to me Ken. I never looked at the incoming side. For sure, it's not an outgoing request that's triggering it. (One of these days I need to turn on the Windows Firewall and play with it some :-) ). But as long as it won't drop sent packets that don't match up to an existing connection, i.e., the "outbound problem", it's far too risky for me to use fulltime.Doug

The amount of difficulty depends upon the firewall you choose to use. And I'm referring to the popular free ones available since I have no first-hand knowledge of the payware versions.I myself do not like to fool around with hosts files, etc., thus I use Sygate which can be controlled by you as it pertains to programs as they attempt to access the 'net. You can set each to "Allow", "Ask", or "Block" at your own discretion, which simplifies things immensely. In other words, the firewall "learns", as "taught" by you, what to let out, etc. Once these are learned, no further action upon your part is required, unless to change the status. At the moment, there are programs within XP which attempt to call out that do not need to access the 'net but without a monitor, like a two-way firewall which checks outbound traffic, you wouldn't know about them. "NT Kernel & Services" and "Generic Host Process for Win32 Services" are two such examples. Whether this situation changes with SP2, I don't know, but chances are, other similar situations will be built in or arise once an internet connection is established.

Thanks for the tip about Sygate!!!I just downloaded and installed it and it's great...plus the price is right!

That's a good firewall. I think you'll like it.

Hi KenI hope you can help me. Last week I had the misfortune to experience a hard disc crash. I am now in the process of reloading everything once again.I do not have a copy of Windows Service Pack 1 (SP1) and according to the Microsoft Website this is now discontinued. Do I assume that when (SP2) becomes available one will no longer require (SP1)? that the new Service Pack will contain all the "goodies" that were in the previous issue.Thanks for any light you can throw upon this subject.

Yes, SP2 has all the required updates. You do not need SP1. And SP2 is available now: http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6...935-SP2-ENU.exeDoug

Hi DougMany thanks for that infoKind regards

My bottom line on SP2.Get it! Not a single problem have I had. Installed flawlessly. The performance boost that people are mentioning more likely comes from DirecX 9,0c. It is included with SP2, or you can download it separately. IMHO, 9.0c is the best version of DirectX by far. It has really given new life to my system. BTW, Symantec has yet to release that compatiablity update, and the new "Security Center" in SP2 will tell you that you have no virus protection. Not to worry, just ignore it for the time being, and yes, Sygate is the BOSS of freeware firewalls. I just love it.

Symantec has the SP2 compatiblity update. After updating to SP2 if you go to Symantec's Live Update it will update the necessary files including the Norton Anti-virus, automatically making Norton totally compatible with Win XP SP2