ZoneAlarm causing performance issues

[bigcomp]

I wasn't so much concerned about firewalls till now, some hacker got access to my PC through our LAN. I've installed ZoneAlarm Firewall Pro 7.x but my windows start up speed had decreased dramatically, it may take as long as 3-4 mins to get proper control of the windows without any lags.

Which firewall would you suggest which is much, much lighter than ZoneAlarm but still works fine. ( do consider there are continuous attempts of hacking on my PC ).

 

[PC eye]

XP most likely or Vista? That may make a difference with some available. Commodo, Jetico, and few others are freewares. Some of the milder ones will only report new startup items. A free spyware remover with a mild firewall of that kind is called Spyware Terminator. But the milder the more vulnerable you become. Some antihacking tips for home businesses can seen at http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles3/anti-hacking.htm

For a wireless Lan there are a number of articles seen at http://hhi.corecom.com/library5.htm#antihacking The first link advises enabling the builtin firewall included with XP? The other information should give you some other tools for this.