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Zone Alarm free edition works just fine with almost any setup, as long as you go into the "Zones" section of "FIrewall" and put in the IP address of your router/modem. At worst, if everything on your system is dynamic, you will have to okay one or two items each time that you come up.

As for needing a firewall, everybody needs one that stays online for any period of time. In fact, a firewall is more important than an AV program for those smart enough to not click on attachments in their email. For years, I ran with no active AV, but with ZoneAlarm turned on and scanning email for active extensions on attachments. ZoneAlarm renames such things so that merely clicking on them will not cause them to execute. The professional version of ZA has an AV built into it.

Here's where a firewall like ZA is better than an AV program of any type. A firewall only needs to be updated when some exploit can get by that particular firewall, and the vendor will notify you if you register(also free) so that you can update. An AV has to be updated for every new virus that appears. I have gone months without updating ZA, with no ill effect, but if I have a site that depends on it's AV, it must be updated at least weekly. ]

Now, if you use Netscape Mail or Mozilla Mail or Eudora or one of a half-dozen free or adware email programs, it is extremely unlikely that you will be hit by a direct vulnerability in your email program. Any version of Outlook or Outlook Express is a bullseye painted on your backside.

What I normally do is scan any attachments that I wish to open with a free AV like AVG(www.grisoft.com) or Avast!(www.avast.com), without running them in active mode. There are commercial versions of ZA, AVG, and Avast! that will get you help and more current virus keys. The best free combination that I know of is ZA with AVG running and automatically updating itself, at least on DSL systems.