I have a query. I have recently installed Sygate personal firewall but I have noticed that when my computer stucks and press alt ctrl and del smc.exe application is recommended to be terminated. Smc.exe refers to the firewall. Hence I wonder whether I should replace it with another firewall or not. I also don’t know which firewall to choose. My OS is millennium and I would prefer a firewall for personal use.
Thanks for the help in advance
This is not really a firewall forum, although there are lots of firewall opinions here. Good place to ask questions/ look would be the DSL Reports security forum at http://www.dslreports.com/forum/security and the firewall poll in the thread http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,11970244~mode=flat. Depends on your experience and interest and what you want out of a firewall. ZoneAlarm is most popular, Sygate seems runner up, Kerio 4.1.2 is what I am using, Kerio 2.5 and Oupost have lots of fans too. I have used ZoneAlarm Pro and Free, Sygate ,and Kerio 4.1.2 all successfully with avast, and the others should work fine too with sometimes a little tweaking to match your configuration. But have no idea why Sygate appears to hang for you.
Hi,
I use ME and sygate and have noticed that smc.exe routinely flags as not responding when I ctrl-alt-del. It is obviously running, as when I try to let something access the net which is supposed to ask, then it asks. I probably wouldn’t worry about too much.
Flax
thanks for the help both of you 
Since webshield:I’ve rediscovered kerio 2.1.5 .thanks to avast!
Sygate has a nice support forum.