How do you disable SP2's firewall after installation?

Control panel, Firewall icon, click on off. Or you can access it from security center.

Make sure your other firewall is on. Does security center recognise it?

Assuming you do mean Spygate and not Sygate, as I had not heard of it, I tried to find its site by googling. I got many (mainly German) hackers sites passing on tips on how to hack it.

I use Zone Alarm free myself. The current version is recognised by security center and turns the SP2 firewall off when it loads. Should ZA fail for some reason (or if I turn it off), the SP2 firewall comes on, so I am always protected.

personally i feel sp2's firewall is as effective as any other software firewall out there, plus it's on during boot up...   but to each his/her own

Actually, ZA's true vector service (vsmon.exe) loads early in the boot process, before any connections are made and blocks all traffic until ZA itself loads  (icon appears in system tray). At that point traffic is allowed according to the settings (per application). Also, ZA controls both inbound and outbound traffic, whereas SP2 firewall only controls inbound.

Thanks for all the great info everone!.....I did mean sygate. Hmm I will check into Zone Alarm. I like to keep track on outgoing also.

If you're going to pay for a service, I would pay for anti-virus coverage.  If you're using a free third-party firewall, use sygate -- while Zone Alarm's free version is easier to setup, it's also very lacking in ability to make custom rules, something most people opporating a firewall would like!

That said, the outbound function of 3rd party firewalls are at best a weak line of defense.  Once your system has been compromised and a trojan has been installed there are countless ways to get around other software -- no doubt 3rd party firewalls adapt to this, but it's a continual challenge.  Staying current with Antivirus files and the occassional spyware sweep are much more useful ideas.

Of course, if you *actually* wanted to be safe (assuming XP), simply using your computer in an account with limited user rights (and having SP2's firewall on), would solve nearly all of your problems.

I agree , if you have sygate that's OK. It was because you wrote spygate that I mentioned ZA :-)