Tell me how to protect my computer

every software you put in your computer will cost you.. it is better to have a good firewall than to have a spyware or mal-ware or any virus in your system. There are so many ways to protect your computer from those things. You can put zonealarm for firewall or AVG free edition for antivirus or Avast firewall and antivirus or put a DEEPFREEZE on your system..

If the windows firewall slows you down I doubt that you will find one that does not. There is a free Zone Alarm firewall but it is intrusive and will also use up resources. Are you sure it is your firewall that is slowing things down for you? What other programs are you running when this happens? does it happen the moment you boot up your system? Maybe you have some mal-ware or spyware that is running in the back ground. There are some very good free programs to use if this is the case. If you need these programs let me know and I will be happy to point you in that direction.