First off I want to say how impressed I was with the fast resolution of another problem I had. That was my 1st post ever to pch. Great response, thanks all. I'm sorry if I'm a little lomg winded but I think I should list what I'm working with: Okd gateway computer, 32MB,KDS monitor w/Rage 128VR,cable modem & w98Se OS. AVG anti-virus, Spybot S&S, Ad-Aware, CWshredder, &WinPatrol. Currently no firewall. All I have tried (ZA,Sygate,Outpost,Tiny Personal, Freedom Security Suite which is free w/ISP) slow things down to point it takes 10 min. for a window to load, even longer for site like PCmag, ie. Is there anything out there that works with an old system like mine. Upgrading NOT an option until late fall.

Hya lstnspc62.

I think the 32 mb ram is not enough to also run an firewall.
But what do you have running as "real time" protection from those apps , beside the AV? You can try to disable as much as possible and try to get a firewall to work , but with only 32mb you use all of it very quickly.

I'm runnung Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, CWshredder in addition to AVG. Thank you for confirming my sanity. I THOUGHT firewalls were too much for my system to handle. What do you suggest for other"real time" protection; freeware if at all possible due to very limited finances at this time. Thanks for all the help thus far. You all are great! Some forums blow people like me off because of our lack of in-depth knowledge. Kudos tp PC World for referring you.

The best realtime protection is a firewall im afraid , but do you have both Spybot and Ad-Aware running full time? If yes , then i would disable the realtime protection from one of them and use that one only to manually scan with. Or they could conflict with each other.

Sorry I took so long to answer Joe5. For some reason I kept getting "kicked out" after logging in. I use Ad-Aware to scan only. Inaddtion to what I mentioned in previous post , I'm also running Winpatrol. Possible conflict? Should I dump all but Spybot &AVG & put in firewall? Which is easiest in system resources? Thanks again.

Considering the 32mb ram i would keep all apps , but only let the AV run realtime. Then just manually scan everynow and then with the antispyware apps.

And then see if the system manages to run AVG-plus firewall (low on resource usage) , next to youre AV:

http://www.pchelpforum.com/firewall-...all-7-0-a.html