Friendly Warning for WinXP and ZoneAlarm users

[LennyLen]

I understand what a firewall does, but what does the software one add

It depends on if it's purely just a firewall or not. Programs like ZA will monitor incoming and outgoing network traffic just as a hardware firewall does, but also have extra features such as notifying you when programs are changing your system configuration, which is something a hardware firewall cannot do. They usually also have built in virus scans, etc.

In otherwords, they're protection suites, not just firewalls. And to answer your question: if all the software does is simply provide the firewall, then no, you don't need it if you have a hardware firewall.