I am using Win XP, it is not bad, but I was using an old firewall, sygate, the free version, it was very good for very many years, but now many Internet sites and or people go thru it as if it wasn't there at all.

It was the best free firewall that I could find for very many years and I had tested very many free firewalls.

But it didn't last forever,

I have now tested several other free firewalls all over again as I did years ago.

Since I have WinXP first of all I had to disable and stop the  Wndows firewall and the "Security Center" as many firewalls that I tested would not work otherwise.

All the firewalls are very intrusive and if you disable that, they don't protect right.

I found one that can be set to be somewhat better than the others, it is a little less intrusive and it protects better.

With the Sygate firewall that only way that I can get good protection nowdays it is if I make some "Rules" that restrict all the trafic in and out of the computer other than that of my Firefox browser going outbound and stop it from acting as a server.

But Internet sites are such nowdays that like that they only let you go to their front page and you can't go in any more.

People and Internet sites do get into your Pc if you let them.

Your Pc  and or operating system tries to get out and call home.

Software that you use tries to read your screen (Desktop) and also read your keyboard and also tries to get out and call home.

Some might look in your Pc and then call home.

How do I know? The firewall tells me and also another security program that is on my Pc.

Microsoft has made the operating system that way and also people who make software and also many of those who make Internet sites.

Too bad, I sure liked that old and free Sygate firewall, it was the very best of them all.

I won't say which firewall I am using right now, but it is a free version that is about 4 years old and seem to be better than many new and old firewalls for my WinXP Pc and me.

Sure, maybe nothing will keep everything out and in unless you block everthing.

Too bad that I never tried to learn enough about networks and Internet connections and protocols.

But I do know a few things about compuiters and mostly about Win98Se and WinXP.

But I no longer use a Win98SE Pc.