i got a router...it comes with norton security suite...now i have mcafee installed on my computer...now with the hardware firewall in the router does it need norton or mcafee to work?...i do not wanna install the norton...

No, you don't need Norton, it's just an option. You can still run McAfee if ya want. Keep Smiling It makes them think you're up to something...

My son-in-law surprised me with a Linksys Wireless G Broadband Router. It has a hardware firewall. I also have Zone Alarm running. Since he installed the Router, I cannot access P2P, via WinMX. Is there any way for me to change the Router's firewall to allow me to access P2P?

Hardware firewalls protect against incoming packets. They do nothing about packets between PCs on the network or from PCs to the Internet. If you somehow manage to load a trojan on your machine it will infect all the others and probably report back to the "mothership" that it has a new zombie under its control. Zone Alarm and some other software firewall products detect malware trying to "phone home" and warn you about this. If you're super-careful about what you load to your machines you don't need these. But a "Belt and Suspenders" approach costs very little in money or CPU overhead and can relieve your mind. As for the P2P question, you need to figure out what ports it uses and "port-forward" those to that IP Address so it will run. Your router manual will tell you how to do this, your P2P operators' manual will tell you which ports to open.

If memory serves me right, I think WinMX is now dead. Was forced to close down some 3weeks back. Lessons learnt the hard way are not easily forgotten.

http://computing.net/windowsxp/wwwboard/forum/141506.html Lessons learnt the hard way are not easily forgotten.

Yes...you've made a causal mistake. WinMX not working was not caused by the new router, that was just a coincidence. WinMX was finally forced to shut down by the "lowyas." I think there is still a way to use it, but you have to configure Windows and WinMX in a specific manner. Poke around the Web for the instructions. HTH > PLEASE CONTRIBUTE to Computing.net - Report back what did/didn't work for others' reference.<