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martit01

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Use my Norton Internet Worm protection instead of Windows Firewall

While installing Norton AntiVirus 2005, I'm prompted with the following option.

"Use my Norton Internet Worm protection instead of Windows Firewall (Recommended)
Norton AntiVirus is Protecting your computer from viruses, worms, and other Internet threats.
For optimal performance, turn off Windows Firewall."

So...., the question is this, Should I follow Symantec's advice and turn off my Windows XP SP2 firewall?

Thanks,
Tom
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r-k

It's your choice. It won't hurt to leave the Windows Firewall in place, but you don't need two firewalls. It makes management slightly more complex to have two firewalls.

You may get differing opinions on this, but personally, I would disable the Norton Firewall and use the XP Firewall instead. On paper the Norton Firewall is somewhat more elaborate, but I have had generally mixed results with Norton/Symantec products, and the XP firewall works well and is very unobtrusive.
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war1
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war1:

"Norton Internet Worm protection" is just Norton's way of saying Firewall (with a few gimmicks tossed in). I think it is a new feature in Norton 2005. It is described here:

 http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/docid/2004072117174606?Open&src=tranus_con_br

On balance I am in favor of your suggestion of leaving the Windows Firewall in place.
r-k,

martit01 said "Norton AntiVirus 2005", which is still an anti-virus, not a full fledge firewall.  So a firewall is needed to protect against other threats. For example, Norton AV does not protects internet probs that searches for open ports. Windows Firewall does.
Agreed, you won't find me defending Norton products - have helped people use them for too long :)

Reading between the lines, I think "Norton Internet Worm protection" is just a firewall, but Norton won't come out and say it. Maybe it's for marketing reasons, either to not eat into their own firewall products, or maybe to differentiate themselves from other "common" firewalls like XP or ZA.
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Ok, it seems like I'm leaning more toward using my Windows Firewall instead of the Norton "firewall".  However, during this setup, I chose to use the Norton (recommended) "firewall".  So, as you can probably imagine, how can I deactivate that component of Norton.  Is it as easy just turning back on my SP2 Firewall?  Or would that mean I would have two firewalls running?

Thanks!!
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>> Is it as easy just turning back on my SP2 Firewall?

Here is how to turn on SP2 Firewall
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/283673

If you turned on Norton AV and SP2 Firewall, you have an AV and a Firewall, both of which you need.  Norton has its own firewall, Norton Internet Security, which I do not recmmend.

Bringing points up to 250 so I can split them
Thanks!