Thank you... and sorry about the html duh!
"Pop`" wrote in message
...
Pappion wrote:
My DSL company told me that since we activated their firewall
(through my IE browser) I should deactivate Zone Alarm, because two
were not needed.

I agree with that, but what is some expert opinions on this?

Well, there are too many missing details here, but ... if your DSL router
contains a NAT router, then the best situation it the NAT (a hardware
firewall) backed up by a software firewall such as Zone Alarm. In fact, at
the moment general concensus seems to be that NAT plus ZA is the best
combination to have.

So, if that's the case you should keep ZA.

If however your ISP gave you some sort of software firewall in addition to
the hardware NAT, then yes, one of the two software firewalls should be
disabled. Which one is your decision; I already stated my opinion on ZA.


I have AdAware, Spybot Search & Destroy, and run Housecall every 2
wks. My AV is run daily, and automatically updated as are Windows
Updates automatically downloaded. Thus far, since owning this system
(and before) I've had no serious malware, Virus, or Trojans.

Continue. That's a decent arsenal that should serve you well.

But, lately had a deluge of spam, which my DSL company says may
indicate "This is a form of "spoofing" and I should clean my mailbox,
because it won't go away if there's something in an email. But, my
Grisoft AV checks my incoming and outgoing email...I think! Note:
this was prior to upgrading my DSL modem to one that had a router in
it.

Whoever's telling you to clean your mailbox is an idiot. IFF you're
infected, deleting an email won't get rid of it; that advice is BS.
FWIW, there has been a large upswing in the amount of spam flying around
lately so that's likely what you're seeing. Just about everyone is seeing
it. But that has nothign to do with firewalls, spyware or viruses; spam is
its own animal.

My system is HP dc5000 uT (Invent business desk top computer),
running MS XP Pro, V2002, Service Pack 2.

Thank you.

One parting word: It's usually "bad" to be scanning outgoing emails with
antivirus. The reason is, for me, occasional problems and timeouts can
cause mail to go to the Sent folder and to look like it went out when it
actually did not. I've turned off my outgoing email scans for exactly that
reason.
Many will tell you to also kill the incoming scans of email, alluding to
the fact that it's not needed because regular AV software will still catch
it, but personally I've had no problems with scanning outgoing emails, nor
has anyone else I know of. I'd rather catch it before it even hits my hard
drive, so I leave the outgoing scans running. Ymmv of course, but that's my
experience and I feel strongly about it. I suspect there will be a scream
or two that I said I'd leave incoming scanning enabled; so be itg.

Also, please switch to Plain Text for newsgroup posts; html should not be
used in newsgroups for many reasons.

HTH
Pop`