Qu. about antivirus,firewall and internet security

Are you referring to Nortons Internet Security? If so it should contain both Firewall and Antivirus. You must of course ensure that auto-update is on and you have the latest updates. When using any Firewall make sure that the Windows XP is turned off as there could be conflicts between the two and a separate firewall is better than the integrated one.

Surely two are better than one.

This is not the case. Running two firewalls is not good for a couple of reasons. First there is too much chance of a conflict between the firewalls. This can cause unnecesary problems with web pages not loading properly or loading slowly. Secondly, when you surf the net every request goes through your fiewall. Running two firewalls will use more system resources than you need to. This could also slow things up for you .

Microsofts advice on this subject is not to run two firewalls together. This is their advice.
"Should I use both the built-in firewall and a software firewall from a different company on my Windows XP computer?"
No. Running multiple software firewalls is unnecessary for typical home computers, home networking, and small-business networking scenarios. Using two firewalls on the same connection could cause issues with connectivity to the Internet or other unexpected behavior. One firewall, whether it is the Windows XP Internet Connection Firewall or a different software firewall, can provide substantial protection for your computer.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/firewall.mspx

Also, if you run two and have an access problem. You may find yourself wasting time fiddling with one firewall only to find out it was the other one. Completely unnecesary.

personaly i run nod32 antivirus and no firewall.
i have an always on BB connection and never had any trouble. if your nod32 is running updated you wont have any bother. its not the cheapest out there so it might not be a candidate for this forum, but it's certainly the best out there.

My Netgear router has a built-in firewall and seems to fend off attacks relatively well (I get several DOS attacks daily for some reason ) but I'm wondering if I can rely on this 100% or should I also install a software firewall?

I now use AVG free version for anti-virus and also run Adaware and Spyware Doctor daily. I used to use Norton (AV, Firewall and Utils package) but found it to be very heavy on the resources, plus you only get a year's use (unless you can get around that but I forgot how to do it :rolleyes: ) so recently did a complete re-format and fresh install to get rid of it, along with a load of other crap that had built-up over the past couple of years.

I have also used ZA in the past but got fed-ip of the warning boxes popping up every few seconds when anything tired to access the internet so ditched that too.

I'm pretty paranoid about internet security so if I need to be running an additional firewall can anyone recommend a decent freebie one that I can d/l please