The issue is: do you need a firewall with AOL?  I do not know whether it has its own firewall provisions; it probably does.  BUT, with any ordinary, decently priced, ISP you most certainly do need a firewall.

The issue is AOL has their own firewall and running two firewalls (Including the built-in one on XP) is not recommended.  It was confuse and slow down your PC.

Generally soeaking if AOL has their own firewall, you would only need soemthing like Zone Alarm, an internal software firewall, to stop any unwanted outbound traffic.

hbww2, You should use a firewall with a cable modem connection. There are many good firewalls. One that seems to be used by many forum members is Zone Alarm. There is a free version which you can get here. http://download.com.com/3000-2092-10039884.html?legacy=cnet

If you browse through the forum you will see many threads on firewalls and their importance.

 

If I remember correctly, there is some special way to activate the firewall with AOL, but dont know it off the top of my head.  However, the Xp firewall is not adequate protection for your PC anyway.  There will be a new version in the upcomming Sp2 update, but thats down the road.  I would recommend the free Zone Alarm http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/comparison.jsp?lid=ho_za  Its the one in the far left column.  If your not experienced with using a firewall, I would suggest you may want an experienced friend to help with the set up after the install.  It can get a little tricky initially.  Kip

the win xp firewall is not compatible with aol (as you discovered for yourself).. some people have said that they managed to tweak things so as to enable the win xp firewall with aol, somehow, but that then they couldn't surf the internet, and so thier actions had to be reversed, so.. the xp firewall is not compatible with aol.. using the aol browser (not internet explorer), without a firewall,  i was able to connect to the internet without being hit by the msblaster worm. so, aol may provide some protection as long as you are using the aol browser, but i would not gamble on it. i use the kerio 2.15 firewall with aol. http://www.kerio.com/dwn/kpf2-en-win.exe  incidentally, aol-tech told me that aol is not setup so as to protect people from the msblaster worm, but it is possible that the technician could have been misinformed.

 

Message Edited by redwolfe_98 on 01-16-2004 07:58 AM