Can 2 firewalls work on same PC?

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Can someone tell me if it is technically no problem to run two firewalls at once on a PC, and if they dont run in each others way? I know for example two antivirus machines usually is not a good idea, while 2 antispyware tools can work perfectly well together.

Since the issues with my PCs security I get messages saying Windows is not getting all necessary updates, while the firewall is on I do feel I may be better off with another firewall as well which does not rely on my Windows.

Can two firewalls work well together, and if so, which ones are recommandable?

It would be better just to get one decent firewall. It is only ok to run 2 anti-spywares if you run them separately, as I have learned from bitter experience. (Incidentally, based on the results of their conflict I would say that Spybot S&D is stronger than Ad-Aware) ZoneAlarm is a popular free firewall, so you should be fine with that.

crackedpleasures, its not recommended to run 2 at same time, reason why is that with the code and how they filter, they will have wars with eachother meaning one will think another is a virus due to software conflict.

sme with antivirials with antiviruses you can in theory have 2 on same machine but must disable one of them while the other runs its scans and checks computer,

i for a while had 2 antispywares, spybot s-d and norton. there was no conflict because i would run spybot manaully and check to see when norton's next scan was so i dont cause conflict.


do you have latest servicepack for your version of windows?? (sp3 for xp and sp1 for vista and sp4 for win 2000 pro)

does anything come up in your antivirus and antispyware scans??

reason i ask, last tim ei did updates with a win vista it got stuck and i had to run automatic updates again after getting windows cannot install all updates, computer must restart

some componants such as .NET frameworks, service packs and some hotfixes will do that, tell you not all updates have been installed.

good luck

If you are running any version of M$ Windows, I recommend BOTH a hardware firewall as well as a software firewall. The hardware firewall is very difficult to be disabled by a rogue Windows program while the software firewall can be used to catch stuff that may be missed by the hardware firewall. A hardware firewall is not that difficult to set up. I can be done with a cheap $20 yard sale computer.

It's not likely to make any difference to your overall security but it will slow down or otherwise hamper your PC.

Get a HARDWARE firewall.

You might already have one - or the rudiments of one - if you bought a router for the internet. If so, read the manuals and configure it - odds are, it's still on the default passsword.

If not, you can get a halfway decent home firewall for about $100.

As usual, I will recommend no firewalls. At least, on XP, letting it use its standard firewall is adequate for most people. It is adequate for handling incoming connections.

If you intend to use your machine to download and execute programs from warez sites, and other dubious places, having a more sophisticated firewall is probably a waste of time, as the damage to your system has already occurred, and the malware will have no trouble bypassing the firewall.

The other disadvantage of a firewall, is that most people get bored of approving all the outgoing connections, which they know they are making, and eventually permit a rogue outgoing connection without realising they should not have done so.

Either that, or they err the other way, and then have problems tracking down why something (e.g. Windows Update) is no longer working.

the windows firewall is sufficient, but its aways a good idea using some
hardware like a router, it sort for runs as a hardware based firewall.

well if you are talking about the windows firewall it will automatcally disable itself if a other software firewall is installed. [like zonealarm or comondo.]

Can you set up a firewall with an old box you might have? I have a couple old P3's laying around gathering dust that I want to use...