Questions on firewall and antivirus apps

Questions on firewall and antivirus apps I am new to win 7 and trying to climb the learning curve.

I have a new laptop with built in wireless lan and am using a Netgear wireless router at home with Comcast as my internt provider.

I looked to see my security settings on the laptop I was surprised that the Windows firewall was off as was the network firewall.
When I turned the Windows firewall on I was unable to access my internet browser Firefox or get my GMail.

Q. Should I turn off the firewall inasmuch as I have a router protecting the laptop at home and only turn it and the public network firewall on it and when I use it at a hotspot?

Also there was also a notation that having multiple antivirus applications running would slow down windows.

I have initially installed Avast and thought that it was my only antivirus app but I saw in Security that Windows Defender was running as well.
Win XP cautioned against having more than one antivirus app running as major conflicts/problems could arise.

Q. Is Win 7 different in the sense that multiple antivirus apps will only cause slowdowns and not conflicts? What are the pros and cons for having Windows Defender and Avast running concurrently?

TIA, Mary

FDM said:

Questions on firewall and antivirus apps I am new to win 7 and trying to climb the learning curve.

I have a new laptop with built in wireless lan and am using a Netgear wireless router at home with Comcast as my internt provider.

I looked to see my security settings on the laptop I was surprised that the Windows firewall was off as was the network firewall.
When I turned the Windows firewall on I was unable to access my internet browser Firefox or get my GMail.

Q. Should I turn off the firewall inasmuch as I have a router protecting the laptop at home and only turn it and the public network firewall on it and when I use it at a hotspot?

Also there was also a notation that having multiple antivirus applications running would slow down windows.

I have initially installed Avast and thought that it was my only antivirus app but I saw in Security that Windows Defender was running as well.
Win XP cautioned against having more than one antivirus app running as major conflicts/problems could arise.

Q. Is Win 7 different in the sense that multiple antivirus apps will only cause slowdowns and not conflicts? What are the pros and cons for having Windows Defender and Avast running concurrently?

TIA, Mary

Mary

1-No you should have the win 7 firewall (at least) on at all times. The router firewall (and NAT translation) is meant as an additional layer.

2-Multiple AV's can cause slow downs, conflicts, and in some cases crashes. You should decide on which AV you want to use and stick to it. Current wisdom is MSE has a small footprint and works fairly well.

3-Afraid that defender and avast can either play well together or create slowdowns, and conflicts. ANy reason you want both defender and avast?

Ken

Hi, Mary.

Congratulations on the new laptop!

Personally, I would recommend both a software firewall along with the router. The following two tutorials may help with the problem you had with Firefox and Gmail. I suggest starting with restoring the default settings. I found that the Windows 7 Firewall worked "out of the box" with Firefox.

• Windows Firewall - Restore Default Settings
• Windows Firewall - Add or Remove an Exception

Also, just a point, Windows Defender is an anti-spyware software not an antivirus software. Thus, if you decide to keep Avast, the two should play well together.

I second what Corrine advised: I use Avast and Defender (not MSE) together without any problems/conflicts whatsoever. I think many others here do too.

Avast and a-squared (now renamed to EAM) works fine together.
i don´t notice any difference in performance with only EAM or both together.