Hmmm... I didn't get blaster or <insert virus name here> so I don't see how it's a piece of junk. I just installed NAV2k4 a couple days ago (haven't had a virus scanner for about 6 months) & it says my system is clean. Tell me... how is that junk? I can see how some people would like being able to have control over what goes in/out of their computer, but the fact is that in most cases it's just not needed. The built in XP firewall works just fine. And my norton is currently shutdown... because I don't need it. I don't d/l bulls*** from random places, nor do I open emails from people I don't know. Firewalls do not help you from stop from getting viruses. Common sense does. First off you could have a Trojan on your pc that sends information out to the owner of the Trojan. XP firewall DOES NOT stop any information being sent out. That makes a firewall good. Also Norton does not detect all Trojans. In fact it's one of the worse to detect Trojans. If you do not know Trojans and viruses are 2 different items. Also XP does not stop DDOS attacks, meaning it does not make you stealth. You may be shown stealth but the attacker does get a response back from the XP firewall which tell the attacker you are there. Other firewalls such as mcafee and zone alarm do not send any response which lets the attacker move on. I haven't had a firewall on my system for over a year. Have I received any viruses? Nope. That is because I use common sense and do not use the view feature in outlook or outlook express nor do i open any attachments or click links from e-mail I get from people I do not know. You might want to start looking at firewalls and what they should and shouldn't do. BTW XP firewall effects other apps working properly on the net. If you haven't noticed you have just been lucky. I'm not here to argue. It's your PC, I'm just stating the facts because security on the net is one of my primary jobs.