Wifi & Firewall????

[PloppyPlpper]

Hello guys.
I just upgraded my broadband subscription with AOL and they sent me a complimentary netgear WiFi router.

Very handy because I bought my daughter a laptop for Christmas 'which comes preloaded with Norton Security antivirus and firewall.

On our desktop we are running AVG antivirus and XP firewall 'now I'm not sure but I think the router has a built-in firewall? If so is it safe for me a turn off the firewall on the laptop because I think it's slowing it up big time.

I'm not a very technically minded person so any other tips you can give me to improve the connection between my desktop and my girls laptop would be much appreciated.

I also done a bandwidth test and at worst we get 2 MB and at best 5 MB.

Thanks very much.

 

[Jesse_hz]

First off, Norton is known to be resource hog so I'm not surprised that you find it to be slowing up the laptop. Unless you have some really good reason not to, you should probably remove the Norton Antivirus and Firewall from the laptop.

In general it's always a good idea to run a software firewall on your computer even if you already have one built into your router. It's also generally not a good idea to use the ordinary XP firewall, instead use a free alternative like ZoneAlarm or Kerio.

 

[tipstir]

If you goto www.spychecker.com you'll find a good mix of free firewall and av software. I am testing out ClamAV it seems to find some hidden trojans/virus has done a good job so far and it's free opensource software. It updates on it own and you can schedule scan at late nite so you don't have to wait on the laptop. Still nice little program doesn't hog system restores. I should know I running it a laptop with only 256KB which was just laying around not being used. Stick a wi-fi card you got a nice web browser pc..

 

[PloppyPlpper]

Thanks for all the advice guys.

As suggested I removed XP firewall and replace it with zone-alarm on my desktop.

I then removed the Norton Security from the laptop and replaced it with AVG antivirus 'which I already had running on my desktop. When I uninstalled Norton Security it asked me if I would like to disable XP firewall 'so I did it all in one hit and installed zone-alarm on the laptop.

I wasn't sure whether I needed to install a firewall on the laptop considering I have one running on the desktop and in the router 'and as the laptop will never be used anywhere other than our home.

I was under the impression that a firewall installed on a laptop would slow down the connection speed from the router. But like I said in my previous post I'm not a very technically minded person.
In fact just getting this laptop connected to the Internet on Christmas morning was a major feat for me.

Anyhow thanks for all the advice guys much appreciated.

 

[tipstir]

Watch out for ZoomAlarm though, if you have problems I would suggest using another free program.

 

[DelJo63]

I wasn't sure whether I needed to install a firewall on the laptop considering I have one running on the desktop and in the router 'and as (A) the laptop will never be used anywhere other than our home.

I was under the impression that a (B)firewall installed on a laptop would slow down the connection speed from the router.

(A) As long as this assumption holds true AND you're behind a router, you're ~80% safe. At a public hotspot, a FW is manditory!
It's just flat easiery to have it all the time, even if it's only the freebe Windows FW

(B) the filtering of a firewall is trival and does not impact your connection speed, but rather the ability to connect at all, either in/outbound.