Cable modem w/ a firewall.

I need to get a cable modem that includes a firewall. I'm still planning to use a software firewall like Zone Alarm.



Any suggestions?

I don't know much about cable modems; I simply haven't had the time to research them. However, I wanted to post because you said you wanted to use Zone Alarm. If you're running Windows XP with SP2, I believe that's one of the programs that clashes mightly with the OS. Just to warn you.

I've had no problems with zone alarm and sp2 thus far (fingers crossed).
As far as the firewalls, there should be no problems. In fact, more is better, as the cable modem firewall probably isn't exactly state of the art.

I find them to be more trouble than they're worth. I run through a router and that is supposed to have some sort of firewall protection. ZA gave me headaches and caused problems for me. I uninstalled it. You can give it a go and see how it works for you.

Karsh, do you really think s are out there to get you or is all this "protect yourself from Kevin" stuff just hype?

I personally don't use the firewalls so much for protection against hackers as against trojans and viruses. Its useful to keep the latest worm from finding any open ports, and to keep anything that may get in from being accessible from the internet. Having a backdoor trojan is only a minor nuisance when it can't be reached from the internet, rather than a major security risk.
That said, if you have a firewall up, you'll notice a port scan ocassionally. Real hackers could care less about your personal computer, but there's plenty of script kiddies looking to exploit windows holes on any box thats open. Don't let that be yours.
It does take a little while to tell the firewall what accesses you want granted to which program, but after that, it should be pretty transparent.