This may be a dumb question for some. Not totally "computer impaired" but I am stuck in "learning curve" mode.!! Here goes.

I currently have McAfee Firewall purchased & preinstalled on my fairly new Dell pc. That subscription will run out in April. I'm not happy with McAfee support and do not wish to renew their product and know it will "deactivate" on expiration date. Am leaning towards Sygate Free Firewall, based on Jgweed's recommendation and some Sygate site research. This despite the fact that Symantec is buying them out. Since firewalls don't need update defs like AV's, think I'll go on and give it a try and get the FW while I can get it free.

My question: while McAfee is still installed and running, can I download the Sygate SW and "save" it to my desktop, just keep it there until April and install at that later date? Or do you think downloading it to a CD in my RW drive would be a wiser option?

Will McAfee let me download another FW while it is running, so long as I don't attempt to run the install/setup?

I guess I dodn't know that Symantec was buying out Sygate. I wonder if that is going to mean in the big picture.

You can download it now and save it to your desktop if you want, or burn it to a cd. I can't see that one option is necessarily better than the other....McAfee won't block any downloads, just don't try to run two firewalls at the same time. Make sure that when you do install Sygate that McAfee is completely gone. I guess I also wouldn't wait until the last minute to install it, because sometimes there are minor issues that you may need the Sygate forums to help correct. I'm not saying that their support forums will disappear overnight, I would just want to make sure to have all resources available just in case something goes wrong.

Well, I think they are still in negociations, but looks like it is going to happen. I learned either on Wilders or BroadbandReports this week. The more I think about it, I think I'll put it on a CD as a backup copy so I'll be able to reinstall it if the need ever arises (like after a reformat, corrupted file or something).

Yes, I have got the list of McAfee instructions for getting all the McAfee tidbits and remnants off my pc. Have never installed a firewall, so I hope all goes OK when I finally do it.

Thanks for the advice and pointers, Groovicus.

I see why I didn't know about it.. the press release I read was from the 16th, and I have had my head buried for the last week in code....