So just a few months ago my friend got hacked and all of his personal information was compromised; bc the hacker busted through the firewall...

This has made me pretty paranoid, as I conduct most of my business online.

I recently found this overview of firewalls on ZoneAlarms site:

http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en...d-firewall.htm
They really seem to know what they are talking about.

This page says that ‘Some firewalls don’t have what’s called “outbound protection”. That means they can’t control information that leaves your computer.’

I heard that if you are using free anti-virus software, that it is better to use the free Zonealarm firewall then the Windows firewall.

Is this because the Windows firewall doesn’t have ‘outbound protection’?

Is it because the Zonealarm firewall is more configurable or user friendly?

If there are any tech geeks in the house, I would love your feedback./..