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Q: Jeff, I recently installed Norton SystemWorks standard edition 12.0.  After not finding an answer on their help page, do I need to run Windows Vista firewall or just turn it off?

– Chris S.
Fort Walton Beach, Fla

A: There are two schools of thought on this, Chris, and if you ask enough people your question, you’re likely to come up with militant answers on both sides of the issue, so no matter what I say, someone will tell me I’m wrong.  Nevertheless, I’ll try to give you some information to help you decide for yourself what’s best for you.

The firewall that Microsoft introduced with WinXP SP2 is actually not a bad product.  It manages to pack a whole lot of protection into something that, for the most part, is easy to configure, and stays out of your way.  It is not perfect by any means, but for what one pays for it, (i.e. – it’s free with the download of XP SP2) one certainly gets one’s money’s worth out of it.  Unfortunately, when they released SP2, Microsoft assumed that everyone would automatically want the firewall turned on, so they configured the system to automatically enable it when someone installs SP2, which sometimes resulted in connectivity issues.  That having been said, Windows firewall generally will work fairly well with a 3^rd party firewall, such as the Norton Personal Firewall that came with your SystemWorks.  But it’s possible, even likely, that you will at some point see issues in your internet connection.  These could include links that previously worked suddenly not working, internet-based applications (such as chat programs, voice-over-IP applications, etc) unexpectedly failing, and more.  Unless you’re good at configuring firewalls, and you know exactly what ports and programs you have allowed and disallowed in each firewall, you’re probably asking for problems keeping both running at the same time.  The Norton firewall should be capable of providing the same level of protection as the Microsoft firewall, so, if you choose, you can safely disable the Microsoft firewall without too much concern.

I assume you already know how to disable the Microsoft firewall, Chris, but for anyone else reading this that doesn’t, here’s how.  Start by going to Control Panel.  If you’re displaying Control Panel in Classic view, select “Windows Firewall”.  If you’re displaying it in Category view, select “SecurityCenter”.   From there, click “Change Settings”, then simply check the option to turn off the firewall.  Don’t worry that it says “Not Recommended” – you’re running another firewall that offers the same protection.