What are the Negative Effects of a Firewall ?

[MassMhz]

From any PC related standpoint ie.Efficiency,stability/slowdowns?

 

[xes]

I use zonealarm and the only problem I have encountered is when I try to play Grand Prix Legends online.It causes my pc to lock solid.
Zonealarm appears to take 4% or so of system resources and also knocked 50 or so points off 3dmark 2000.I have a P3 750@875.Apart from that no problems whatsoever,and the piece of mind it brings is worth the minor hassle of having to turn it off(2 mouse clicks) when I want to race online.

 

[MustangSVT]

usually the lock solid doesnt mean that there is a problem (!!! HUH??) yep it happens when u run some application that tries to connect to internet and zonealarm launches the allow internet connection screen. But sometimes that screen is not shown because its behind the application that is running. Result is alt-tab wont work mouse work (well it works in the back ground where pop up is but not on fore screen) and even alt-ctrl-del wont work. All u have to do is to press either Y (for allow connection) and N for not allow connection(which makes application to fail connecting to internet and it'll usually say that it cannot connect)

and when ur on the desktop next time u can goto zonealarm and set it to allow this program to access internet all the time so it wont have pop up asking you the questnion over and over again.

I think firewalls are generally very light on eating up resources. Most of them doesnt use much cpu or ram. However if you really have a slow system, i suggest you get a hardware firewall. they are more expansive but some of the routers come with built in firewall and it takes no resource away from main pc, so that might be the way if u want. most likely you can try the software to see if it does make your computer slower then if it does uninstallation is simple task.

Good luck

 

[xes]

MustangSVT,
Thanks for the advice,but unfortunately it's not that simple.Online races with Grand Prix Legends are launched via a progam called *vroc*(Virtual Racers Online connection) which er, acts as a server,I think.Vroc then lists all the available races.When I select one vroc starts GPL.I have enabled all the options in zonealarm to allow GPL & vroc access,but the pc locks upon launching GPL.
Someone on a Sim Racing forum suggested that GPL tries to use a port or ports that zonealarm doesn't like being played with.The helpful people on the vroc site haven't come up with any solutions,apart from turning off zonealarm.Or if they have no one has told me yet

Thanks for the help though.Much appreciated.