Need help with firewall?

right i run a pent ll i use avg,adaware,tune up utilities,malicious software removal too and was using sygate personal firewall which my computer really liked,every thing was running very smoothly that was till i noticed some of sygate had vanished,so was gonna uninstall and reinstall but i found sygate has removed its personal firewall products,my bf suggested avast but its slowing my comp down even more and finding it very frustraiting,i understand all computers come with a built in firewall,what i need to know can my comp run safely with just that firewall or do i need to install another one preferbly a free one.if i need a 2nd one can any one recommend a really good free one thats easy to use as im not a expert when it comes to using computers,please no time wasters only reply if you know what your talking about.

Need help with firewall?norten

having like 10 different firewalls and anti viruses to keep it safe is similar to the concept of taking 15 medications a day to stay healthy. run a free anti virus, but only when you get one, and run a non intrusive anti spyware every two weeks or so. also, defrag and disk cleanup once a month. non of these will slow down your computer, and your silly data will be no less safe.

Need help with firewall?panda

Did you remove the Sygate firewall before installing the Avast firewall? DO NOT run two firewalls at the same time! Same for anti-virus programs.

The MS XP firewall will cover your ports (hiding them), but it will not stop anything from going out the back door of your computer. ZoneAlarm is a good, free firewall from Zonelabs.
I use Comodo and it is very good. It is free. You can get both a personal firewall and anti-virus from them. I read recently that you should NOT USE NAME BRAND firewalls and anti-virus since the new nasty software has found ways around them. So this is perfect.