what happens if i have like a few firewalls on

what would happen if i had a few firewalls running in background like say i have zonealarm, blackice and windows xp firewall.....would it ike disable all that is running or .......:?

 

Multiple firewalls running at once can conflict with eachother, thus it is not a good idea. You don't even need more than one firewall anyway, just stick with Zonealarm or get Sygate Personal Firewall. Having three different ones at the same time doesn't really make you anymore secure.

 

You can have multiple hardware firewalls so that if one goes out the other(s) will stay up. Good for servers and the like. Not necessary for home use.

 

well i runn all three of those and see no conflict

 

Like I said, there can be confliction, I'm not saying there will be indeffinitely. It's just sort of unnessary to have all three running at the same time.

 

I would only run one software firewall it's not nessasary and it just keeps your computer looking clean.

 

As well freeing up some RAM resources. Firewalls can take up wuite a lot of CPU.

 

Think of it this way. You have 4 double windows:

Code:

W1.1 | W1.2
W2.1 | W2.2
W3.1 | W3.2
W4.1 | W4.2

and they can open as well. So, let's say each window set is a separate firewall that you have installed. You want to open a port for MSN Messenger so you can receive files. You open port X on W2.1 (which will act as a port) but W1.1, W3.1, W4.1 are closed. You will not be able to receive files unless the other X.1 ports/windows are opened.

This can be good and bad. If you do not want to worry about configuring each PC with mediocre software, get a hardware firewall.