Windows Firewall verses Zone Alarm

Reading about bit torrents it recommends disabling widows firewall and using something like Zone Alarm. I have been getting error messages from Azerous (sp) and utorrent mentioning XXX blocked. Seems it set up the software not choosing the right port(s) for multiple downloads. I am a little leery of disabling Windows firewall but peeved I can't get a good flow using torrent software. Can someone tell me what to do using Windows Firewall to get a good flow or should I disable the firewall and download Zone Alarm. Up to date virus protection is already being used

 

I use ZA security. Runs faster than any other software... I disabled MS Firewall.

 

i rely on my hardware firewall/router. i hope that's a good idea. i used to use zone alarm, but they re-wrote it a few years ago and since then it got WAAAAAAY to big for my liking.

when i p2p i generally use peer-guardian, tho. which blocks traffic to certain parties that are recognized as being interested in what people might be using p2p clients to share.

 

Have you really seen a PERFORMANCE issue from a PC firewall?

The MS firewall is rock-solid and easy to configure, but it does lack some configuration options if you like to tune and tweak endlessly. I've stayed with it without issue - why make your life more complex.

 

The latest version of Zone Alarm still has a lot of problems. I upgraded on one machine and wish that I had not. If you can find version 6 then go with that. 7 keeps losing the damn firewall settings.

 

http://www.sphinx-soft.com/Vista/index.html

There's also a version that lets you better tweak XP firewall.