Questions Running a Software Firewall

1

1flyfisher

I recently installed Zone Alarm (Free version) on my Surfing PC laptop(Non trading PC).
It seems to have slowed down my internet surfing dramatically.

Questions:?
I am unsure about what to allow and what to deny. What do I do here?

Does the system speed improve over time as the ZA or any other software firewall learns to screen programs more efficiently?

What can I do to improve surfing speeds while trying to run a software firewall?
 
All the software firewall products that run on your PC eat up significant CPU cycles and slow down your computer. Basically these software firewalls such as Zone Alarm must inspect every packet that goes in or out of your computer.

The speed will not improve over time, and disabling/enabling signatures will not help much. This is because all packets must go through inspection through the equivalent of a signature micro inspection engine. Changing the number of profiles to check against will not greatly alter the speed of the operation.

- Greg


Quote from 1flyfisher:

I recently installed Zone Alarm (Free version) on my Surfing PC laptop(Non trading PC).
It seems to have slowed down my internet surfing dramatically.

Questions:?
I am unsure about what to allow and what to deny. What do I do here?

Does the system speed improve over time as the ZA or any other software firewall learns to screen programs more efficiently?

What can I do to improve surfing speeds while trying to run a software firewall?
More...
 
Can anything be done to speed things up such as a faster internet connection?

I was also thinking of upgrading the memory on this pc. I only have 1gb and was thinking of getting it up to 2 or 4gb. I talked to Dell Tech support and the guy said that increasing the pc's memory won't speed up the web page loading speeds because of the firewall. He said it would speed up a programs(such as Excel/Word etc_) loading speed but not web page speed due to the firewall.
IS this correct?
Will adding more ram do nothing to speed things up?

Thanks in advance greg or anyone else.....
 
Quote from 1flyfisher:

I recently installed Zone Alarm (Free version) on my Surfing PC laptop(Non trading PC).
It seems to have slowed down my internet surfing dramatically.

Questions:?
I am unsure about what to allow and what to deny. What do I do here?

Does the system speed improve over time as the ZA or any other software firewall learns to screen programs more efficiently?

What can I do to improve surfing speeds while trying to run a software firewall?
More...

Running ZA, and I tested it 1 year ago, my download speed was cut in half!:eek: I have a router with NAT, that's all you need IMO.
 
Quote from 1flyfisher:

"... Will adding more ram do nothing to speed things up?...
More...

You won't notice any speed-up above 1GB RAM unless you have software which actually uses it... like Photoshop.

You might try replacing Zone Alarm with AVG AV.
 
Is AVG AV a Firewall?
I have ZoneAlarm firewall...


Quote from gnome:

You won't notice any speed-up above 1GB RAM unless you have software which actually uses it... like Photoshop.

You might try replacing Zone Alarm with AVG AV.
More...
 
Quote from 1flyfisher:

Is AVG AV a Firewall?
I have ZoneAlarm firewall...
More...

Pardon me. AVG probably has a firewall, if you care to check into it.... they have active anti-spyware, but it's not free.

I use Windows XP firewall with AVG AV. I've never had any trouble with being attacked... and within the last few months have networked-in a wired router with firewall. Everybody says "that's better".
 
I have had this pc since july and have been surfing with it since then. generally opening a webpage would occur in the blink of an eye, like 2 seconds(I use Mozilla Firefox). I added adblocker and faster fox to firefox. Faster fox has a little web page timer that times how fast a web page takes to load. It was showing 2-3 seconds for surfing from site to site. then I added ZA( I am assuming ZA is causing the slow down) and now it takes from 10-20 seconds on average and even longer. This sucks.
 
I have AVG anti-spyware on my pc but not the AV. I have Avast AV for anti virus stuff. I have Vista and a router, this pc is a laptop and is wireless.


Quote from gnome:

Pardon me. AVG probably has a firewall, if you care to check into it.... they have active anti-spyware, but it's not free.

I use Windows XP firewall with AVG AV. I've never had any trouble with being attacked... and within the last few months have networked-in a wired router with firewall. Everybody says "that's better".
More...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top