I just formatted and now have Windows XP Professional, should I get a firewall or will the built in one be fine? If so, what are some good free recommendations?

I would certainly put a firewall on, I am using Panda Anti-virus with built in firewall and it is brilliant

XP Firewall is good as a second Firewall which is how i use it, but FREE firewalls tend to be s***, but i wood recommend Sygate Personal firewall.

Standard Personal Firewall Information

Download Firewall Free Version

Get another firewall and disable the inbuilt one. The one included with Windows XP *isn't* that good, as it doesn't block outgoing connections which a trojan can take advantage of.

and ive been using the built-in one.... :newbie: i do have a norton one should i use that?

The built in firewall is ok. It does not let incomming trafic in, but it does not stop outgoing trafic.

This means that if you get a trojan and it sends data to the net, the XP firewall will not stop that.

If you have only 1 pc connected to the net, I think the built in firewall is good enough, but only if you keep antivir and winupdates to date.

Also if you dont share your pc in a home network, remove microsoft client and server services from network settings.

I only run TCP/IP and have removed all other services, so there is less to hack.

If you have more than 1 PC and you are sharing folders or printers, I suggest you get a hardware firewall.

If you still want to use a personal software firewall, you should disable XP firewall. Its not a good idea to run 2 firewalls on same pc.

ZoneAlarm is a nice product, it allerts when something wants to use the net, incomming or outgoing.

Kerio is a good firewall, but the new beta version is a bit troublesome, it keeps prompting you or local programs to run when you yourself iniate them