SPF Causing a issue on my new PC

[AvengerUK]

Sunbelt personal firewall seems to be causing some strange issues on my new PC. I have tried with my onboard LAN and my NIC - both get the same issue.

What seems to happen is, intermittantly (not all the time) SPF causes the system to do one of 3 things:

-  Systems hangs on start-up "Starting up windows..."
- Blue screen on start-up (had this only once so far though)
- Once loaded into the system, LAN connection is "limited/no connectivity" status, and there is no net access. It cannot be repaired either via network connections. Event log shows that there is a issue with the DHCP and getting a IP address etc, resulting in "device binding" issues.

Again, these only happen when Sunbelt is installed! - Its never given me problems like this before, its got me baffled!

Does anyone have a clue on what i could try!? (Or a alternative firewall that wont break the bank, wont annoy me and doesent eat my system!)

Thanks!

[Rik]

Given that you've used SPF successfully before, I'd be looking for differences with the new machine, OS, patch level, AV, drivers, other software - maybe even down to hardware level, eg NIC. Perhaps the easiest thing to try would be to use something like the Comodo firewall, which would establish whether it was a general or specific clash.

[DorsetBoy]

Comodo wins hands down for security,it beats the paid offerings in all areas,so if your issues continue you would do well to try it out.

[Lance]

I would just sit behind a router and use windows firewall!

[RobMc]

I use Comodo Firewall on my XP desktop and the Windows Firewall on my Vista laptop (will probably move to comodo when version 3 is released). I used to use spf on my XP and I was very happy with it. However one day there was a bit of a glitch and it lost all it's settings which was a bit of a pain. So I decided to tryout comodo and have been pleased with that so haven't gone back.

I work behind a firewall on the router and so feel reasonably confident I'm protected with that, however I like to know what is "phoning home" and have an option to block such activity where and when I feel like it.

Rob.

[AvengerUK]

Moved back to XP (after vista was a pain...awaiting SP1!) - And now using comodo. The Ethernet issue is no more - so it must of been KPF. - Only one thing to do...work out what all these buttons do in comodo!

[Rik]

It'll keep you out of mischief.