Hello All.:-wave before I start let me say that I realise this is more of a technical issue, but I think this gets more traffic through here than the techie section, thats why I posted this here, and because I feel that more of you in here will be able to give me a more straightforward answer.I just hope the moderators are kind to me in my hour of desperation.now then, you can see from my specs below that I have in my opinion a Good system,which runs perfectly fine with no problems, but that being said I have been hearing lately that I could be getting that much more out of my system than I thought possible if I removed my Norton Internet Security 2004, which has Norton Anti virus 2004 built into it.I have been hearing that I should go for a Good Quality external Router which has a built in Firewall, then just install my Corporate Edition of Norton Anti-virus. (I'm not networking at all,just the one PC) my main concern is that when we sometimes by (cough,cough)mistake go to an older type web site we get all these diallers and installers etc trying to get down to our system, my NIS2004 stops all this,and my Anti-virus stops all those bad scripts too,but this sometimes affects the good sites too,also NIS can be a bit of a system resources hog,but I have been using them for years and think there great,just a bit power hungry, I have been told that I only need Norton Anti-virus along with a Router equipped with a good Firewall and that they will stop all those things trying to get at my system, but it will still allow me to go surfing safely,and of course using FS9,along with SB, AVC,Servinfo etc,and speed up my system dramatically.is this true, do any of you use this type of setup.I really appreciate any suggestions or comments guy's.thanksSteve.PS, when replying, try a kind of ''Noddy'' format as I'm not the most techie minded of people,even though I do build my own systems, with ''extreme'' Pride I might add.Thank You Again, :-zhelp

Steve - Generally, relying only on a hardwre firewall isn't the best solution for most folks. There is a good article which discussed this here: http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/webm...cle.php/3103431 . The major drawback is that the router will not control unsolicited outgoing communications from your computer. If one of the Bad Guys does penetrate the firewall (via e-mail, browser exploit, etc.) and then calls home, there is nothing to stop it. The NIS installation you have now is, indeed, a bit of a resource hog but the firewall does allow for the control of these outgoing connections. The problem I always had with NIS (I no longer use it) was with the anti-virus, not the firewall. Have you thought of just getting a new AV program (there are several better than Norton - but one of them isn't McAfee) and keeping the firewall you have now? That might work as a solution and, at the worst, you could always add a new firewall later. If you just want a good outgoing firewall you can install SP2 for WinXP which includes a new, and pretty good, incoming-only firewall. But I'd encourage you to be sure that whatever the soution chosen, you maintain the ability to selectively block outgoing connections via a software firewall.Doug

thank you doug, some very interesting reading on that link, I think I'll stay as I am now, it's a bit of a ''six of one and half a dozen of the other''thanks againSteve.

Steve,My advice would be to go along with what is often suggested in the VATSIM forums - Zone Alarm (free version) and AVG for anti-virus (also free).As I'm sure you know from the VATSIM forums the Norton firewall/AV can and does cause problems on VATSIM and I suspect with the other on-line networks.I have been using ZA and AVG for years and, touch wood, have not been infected -that's asking for trouble :-lol One of the problems with routers is that some of them cannot be easily configured to forward or open the ports needed for FS & SB.Rgds

Steve:What version of ZoneAlarm are you useing with VatSim? Do you not have a problem with SBRelay, and are you flying FS9 or FS2002? I cannot connect through SBRelay until I disable ZoneAlarm (latest version). From other posts I believe this is pretty much of a common problem and if I understand correctly, there are earlier versions of ZoneAlarm that do not have this problem.Thanks:RTH

The latest version of ZA does cause problems as you correctly state.I use the free version and it is V 3.7.143, internet settings on medium.