I wondered about this as my new firewall program allows blocking of so many incoming data signals, that i wondered if some of them may actually facilitate quicker web-surfing if they wern't blocked?

What firewall are you using??

I guess it really just depends. Some firewalls that have to inspect the header of every packet that comes into a network can get bogged down, but that is on a very large scale. I am assuming you are talking about something like ZoneAlarm, BlackIce, or Norton Personal Firewall, etc. I have never seen any real slowdown, although you may experience a bit of a slow-down in overall speed just do to the fact of having another application running in the background, if your machine is a bit old or something. But on newer machines, I have never seen that. Also, I haven't seen a firewall like ZoneAlrm increase internet speed. However, if you are using the ad-blocking features of Norton Internet Security or something like that, it might be a bit faster, because those ads are being blocked. Hope this answers your question.

-Zack

http://www.mindshatter.com/zack/smanback1.gif

Originally posted by zack371
What firewall are you using??
-Zack

ZONEALARM - but i thought they all operated in basic ways as theyd have to block simialr things in order to work at all.?

so what settings should i avoid here to not slow things down?

In any case - i assume then that my popup-stopper prog speeds matters up.?

hey vlc, i had the same problem with zonealarm. after i install it, my net was slow as phuck, when i uninstall it, my net speed was back to normal..

i didnt have this problem when i had window me and zonealarm, but it did with my xp. and i got the version that's compatible with xp.

jesus - thats sounds nasty, maybe XP has a firewall of its own an it doubled-up with ZA?
let us know if ya find one that does work.
ps- ZA works fine with my w98se, - i was just speculating here.

xp does have a built in firewall. take a look at the link below, it shows how to disable it.

here's a really good link about xp that hoss posted. it covers alot of stuff on xp. i just installed xp about 4 days ago. hoss' info was very useful, saved me alot of time trying to learn how things are done.

http://www.cdrom-guide.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6839

there's also something about xp reserving 10% or 20% of your bandwidth and how to stop it from doing so. i'm not sure if it refers to network bandwidth or what, but i have a cable connection so it's on my list of things to mess with.

luck

I dont have XP, yet, but may do b4 2003.

or maybe i shouldnt bother.........?

ZA is Spyware
Norton internet secuity is the way i have gon

I found ZA Pro actually speeded up browsing by blocking all those crapy adds, I havent found any slow downs using ZA Pro 3.26 and Win XP PRO.