Thinkpad T60 firewall recommendations?

I am in the process of setting up my new T60, but I had to reformat because apparently ZoneAlarm Pro does not work with the security chip. (When I start XP with ZoneAlarm installed, the dialog box comes up and says, "Checking the status of the embedded security chip" and doesn't go away.)

Does anyone have another suggestion? I'd prefer something other than Symantec since it's pretty bloated for what it does. Is the Windows Firewall decent? I'm pissed, because ZoneAlarm Pro was great, but no matter what I tried I couldn't get it to work with the security chip.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

I reformatted my hard drive so I can't help you wrt the security chip and ZoneAlarm. I can help you with the other two questions. XP's firewall is average at best and it's a better "software" firewall than pre-SP2, again that's not saying much.

Your best firewall is always going to be hardware driven and if you're using Wi-Fi one that does 128 or 256 bit encryption. My suggestion is to go to Circuit City or Best Buy and get yourself a Linksys Router and you'll have a better piece of mind than relying on a piece of software to protect your data.

 

Oh yeah, I have hardware taken care of. But I'm also concerned about data leaving my computer (and programs having net access that shouldn't), so I want a good firewall to protect against that.

 

Okay, I've answered my own question through trial and error.

After ZoneAlarm, I tried the Symantec that came with the T60, the Windows Firewall, and Agnitum Outpost. Symantec is bloated, Windows is too minimal, and Agnitum also screwed around with the fingerprint reader, although not as fatally as ZoneAlarm did.

I settled on Sunbelt Personal Firewall, which used to be Kerio. It has the program control I want, it's not bloated, and it hasn't yet caused my system to hang on startup. Plus, if I buy it, it's cheap.

 

NetVeda's SafetyNet is another to try.