Win98 firewall

I wonder if aynone can help.
I am using a Win98 OS, and i have DSL(USB) internet connection.
the problem i ma facing is that i do normal surfing for hardly 5 to 6 hours a day, but my account usage of the internet shows the download data of around 170MB (, approximately daily) and the upload data shows around 8MBs.
I know there is a problem somewhere, as i cannot use so much of data, i even have Nortan antivirus 2003 (updated), but still I am facing this problem. I have even formatted the system once.
someone guided me to use a firewall.
i want to know, will firewall help me or there should be some other solution. If firewall is the answer, then which firewall to use, and how to install it.
I will be really help full if someone can help me out.

Regards
Harbir

A firewall will help limit what things go in and out. What applications have you installed on your system? And which bothers you more: the amount being downloaded or the amount being uploaded?

You can get free firewalls (or cheap ones) at the following:

Tiny Firewall
Zone Alarm
Outpost

Remember that you will need to configure your firewall to your activities (so what things you do that are acceptable and what things you don't want your computer to do). Also, if you've installed Kazaa or other P2P software, they often have a shared directory that people can upload to you.

Hi Harbir,

Do a google search for ZoneAlarm, download and run the installation package. In the security settings put everything on "high"

I have recently changed to ADSL and noticed that the download volume was massively higher than my 56.6 connection. I am happy it is not malware, possibly just how the two connections work or count things?

Good luck

EDIT: You guys type faster than me :D MsMittens has given you the link. Go for ZoneAlarm at first, as it is the easiest for a beginner IMHO...............when you are more confident, look at others. Yes you need an AV as well.

I sugest you invest in Mcafee anti-Virus.
They also have a good firewall program as well, also get Ad-Aware,

And by the sounds of it about the mbs sent and recieved that could just be normal activity, i thought i had a virus once, but after formatting my hard drives reinstalling everything. The same thing kept happening, and aparently it's normal, as your computer sends and recieves cookies.
And so the more places you go to the more your computer will recieve and send this sorta stuff, try deleting the files in your Temp internet folder, maybe this might help, and also check your cookie settings....

Anyhow i could be wrong, but i'm sure that someone else with more knowledge will be able to give you the exact clue.

Cheers.

kerio personal firewall is free,too:

http://www.kerio.com/kpf_home.html

and comes with remoteadministration

OK

I have had a bit of a re-think and a look. My ADSL link gives an upload to download ratio of about 1 to 5, so by that calculation your download should be 40Mb, not 170Mb.

It may depend on what you call "normal surfing" If you are listening to music, watching video, updating applications reading your e-mail etc, that could easily explain the "download" rising to 170Mb, as these sort of applications load to a temporary or postbox file on your PC before you can look at/hear/read them.

I think that you should ask yourself "If I have been downloading 170Mb per day for X days..........where is it all?" :cool:

The answer should be in your postbox and your browser temporary files.

If the data volumes were the other way around I would certainly worry, but 8Mb seem OK to me IMHO.

Can anyone else agree or disagree these ratios.....a sample of one is not good statistics :(


Cheers

Firstly , I would like to thank all of you.
by normal surffing i mean, doing the MSN chatting, and opening the sites like on secutrity, java, c, the study material.

Hi Harbir,

I would be guessing wildly, but would expect that the chat is going to increase your download values, because it is interactive, and the pages keep refreshing, I am not familiar with MSN, but others I have seen will refresh the whole page/thread so it gets progressively bigger each time.

My example is simply based on opening sites to read content etc...........like AO for example.

If you download anything, this will increase your values.

Also, I block advertisements........these could significantly increase your download volumes, as well as wasting your time?

Cheers