Hope this isn’t a dumb question. Do I have a firewall in avast. I once had a virus program that included a firewall. Also is it necessary to have a firewall. 
No avast! dont have a firewall. But the version 5 Internet Security that is comming in 2010 will got one. It is necessary to have firewall for protect you again hacker and identity theft…
avast! V5 will have a firewall in the Suite available in January 2010 and it is currently in beta3 testing.
Sorry Yokenny your too late i did say it first… ;D
But I did verify what you said. :-*
Thank you both anyway. I guess I’ll wait untill Jan for V5. Hope I’m safe till then.
At least turn on the Windows firewall in the meantime. Do you have a NAT router?
How do I turn on the windows firewall and I don’t know what a NAT router is. Please enlighten me.
Windows firewall (in Vista and up to date XP), go to the control panel>windows firewall, and check that it is on.
A firewall is a must-have.
Don’t know what OS you have, but to turn on the Windows Firewall you go to Control Panel/Security Center and there will be an option under “Windows Firewall” to turn it on and off. Turn it on. Most routers use NAT (Network Address Translation) to keep things from coming in unless they are a response to something you have sent out. So if you have a router, it is probably already providing some protection. If not, the Windows Firewall will block incoming attempts pretty well until you get a software firewall that controls both incoming and outgoing connection attempts, usually by specific application.
Is the avast 5 firewall going to be free?
No.
It was ON. Thanks to all. I’ll keep my eye open for V5.
Should be! Comodo FW and PC Tolols FW are excellent competitors and they are FREE + they have an history of improvement achieved there. AVAST 5 FW will be a newcomer on the market, why should I trust it??? ???
It will only be in the avast! Internet Suite not as a stand alone firewall, so are you suggesting avast give away the suite, I think not.
Me I don’t like suites, never have and I can’t see that changing any time soon, but if I did I would give it a try. It isn’t like Alwil the company is unknown and you will be able to follow the beta forum on the AIS and I would not have given up my other pro-active measures which place other layers in my defence and help overall protection.