>No idea on the f/w? (don't need to respond if not)

Not an expert on it. I don't see the point on more than one, except if you only use XP SP2's built-in which only does incoming work (not outgoing). Zone Alarm did not work well forme so I dropped it years ago. Kerio did not work well for me either. I had good luck with outpost (Agnitum).

I prefer incoming/outgoing F/W but it is important to have XP SP2 (assuming you use XP) F/W turned on as it is the only one I know of that works between boot time until Windows comes up, when the 3rd party ones take over.