I run zone alarm and norton internet security 2001 together. I think that if you are going to install software firewalls you should have 2 installed to complement each other or provide "defence in depth" since its not really true to believe or argue that they 'spread the load' in the way proxy servers can do.
A few UK pc and internet magazines have recommended this dual firewall strategy and I have not noticed any conflicts (judging by my log files). To the best of my knowledge, I don't think I've seen any warning in print or online about the dangers of running 2 firewalls together (so long as you remember to configure them correctly!). After all, any security expert worth their salt would say that no one software firewall is 100% effective by itself. Kevin Crichton, MCSE ICL, UK Philip Wagenaar wrote: > Hi, > > Would there be a problem if you ran two two firewall proggies at the > same time? > > > > I did a websearch first any only found > http://www.fosters.com/special_sections/online/articles2001/1023d.htm > Which only says two firewalls might conflict with each other without any > specific info. > > Besides that there might be softwarewise conflict between them, I'm only > interested in this from security standpoint. I was thinking you could > use the strengths of both. > > I also read on the website of networkice that most firewalls fall short > when networkload is high: BlackICE was able to catch 99% of the attacks > on a fully-loaded 10/100 Mbps network using less than 40% of the CPU > resources. The closest competitor used 90% of the CPU resources and only > managed to catch 9% of the attacks. > > I can't imagine that when you have installed two firewalls that they > would spread the load since the two programs do not interact with each > other, but more likely that they both would take more cpu resources and > check less network traffic when running two firewalls at the same time > under heave network traffic. Is this true? > > Philip Wagenaar > > > > **************************************************************************************** This message is confidential, its contents do not constitute a commitment by AXA except where provided for in a written agreement between you and AXA. Any unauthorised disclosure, use or dissemination, either whole or partial, is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient of the message, please notify the sender immediately. *****************************************************************************************
