Windows XP Home Edition Firewall Enough?

The rule is to NEVER run 2 software firewalls at the same time. Nothing good can come from such a configuration.
I read an article on Techrepublic a while back that talked about the XP firewall, stating that it was ok, but not quite up to par as ZAis.
Personally, I would run ZA, but that is simply my opinion.
But definately don't run both.

hope this helps

Zone Alarm pro alone is all you need and the only firewall you should be running

loading takes so long because you are running 2 firewalls, you are lucky things are not locking up

stay with ZA pro and leave that XP out

I cannot emphasize enough, the point made in the previous answers not to run two firewalls at once.

How to choose between the two
Microsoft XP Firewall only closes the ports it considers a problem leaving ports open for all XP communications (The notorious phone home features) generally considers installed programs to be safe. Considered by many to be a potential open door to the next line of virul attacks.

ZA closes all doors and notifies you before anything is allowed enter or exit your system allowing to to set rules for all communications, including XP apps.

Mmm! How much choice do you see now?

XP's firewall is rudimentary. It does not offer much in the way of protection.

There are 5 basic types of firewall:

Packet filtering is often used on routers. They examine in & outgoing packets & accept or deny access based on the source or destination of the IP address & the TCP/UDP port numbers.

Packet filtering only looks at IP packet headers, not data inside the packet. This limits the types of security decisions that can be made. XP's simple firewall protection as I understand it.

Stateful inspection provides a higher level of security. It examines IP headers, the flags, & header IP options in the packet, to verify it is part of an authorized connection. This is simlar to ZoneAlarm.

A circuit-level gateway looks at the TCP handshaking process. It allows the creation of authorized connections but doesn?t monitor data traffic. It keeps records of active connections, & allows network traffic only over those connections. Comparable to Norton's Personal Desktop Firewall.

Application gateways screen packets by looking at all information within the packet, including IP header & data, ensuring that the connection is permitted by security rules, & follows the commands & specs of the app protocol. It also acts as a proxy, allowing no direct connection between host & remote. This kind of firewall offers the most security & is usually hardware.

Hybrid firewalls combine functions from other firewalls, most often packet inspection,
proxy capabilities & NAT.

I use XP on one of my gateway systems, and have installed ZoneAlarm Pro and Norton PDF. In 2 years I have not had any issues with the firewalls.

On one of my notebooks I have W2K, ZAPro & NPDF, running soundly for 2 years. I like NPDF's ability to stealth unused ports, making you close to invisible on the net.

I have one comment to add;

Name one piece of Microsoft code that does not have security problems!

That in my mind is enough reason to disable the built-in firewall, and use Zone Alarm.

Chas