Dear Fast_johnny (& fabion)

I too run Norton Personal Firewall (2003) with "Stealth Block Ports" ticked, as well as all available sliders set to maximum.

My system runs XP SP1, LW Pro 4.4.4, Java V1.5 and I can certainly say that it runs very well without any problems.

Not only that, I consider stealthing your ports is essential to stop bots, hackers and worms crawling into your PC when you are online, switching this facility off leaves you open to attack.

I note that you are running XP SP2, have you got the XP firewall turned on? The windows firewall could be clashing with Norton's.

Although I have not installed SP2 yet, I don't need it's added security features, I understand that it can cause more problems than it solves. You may be better off either uninstalling or disabling some of it's features.

Either way, good luck.



UK Bob