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Lassiter, SOFTWARE firewalls are NOT the best idea. Hardware firewalls, ones that physically remove you from the net and put something in the way are the best way to go. Zonealarm is nice, but still has the potential to be deactivated because it is software. Many viruses and malware programs first step on intrusion is to disable or uninstall zone alarm and anti-virus. A hardware firewall (even a simple DSL router) will mean your machine is NOT exposed directly on the net, and most of the dangerous ports are not open directly. Zonealarm is good mostly on laptops, if you are connecting to unknown networks etc, but I would never use a software firewall as main protection for a main machine, your protection and the thing being protected are many times more secure when they operate independantly. ZA is better than nothing, but not the most effective way to do the job.
Without SP2 (and the upgrades and security patches that follow) you continue to increase the likelihood on a daily basis that someone will hack your system using one or more of the known microsoft holes. Have you checked to make sure pinnacle will break? Do they not have a patch, fix, or other? Are you 100% sure it will fail, or is it a "I heard from someone who read a blog about a guy who had a computer..." sort of thing? I think you might be making your business decisions on less than complete information, which is risky!
Alex
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