Software Firewall on LAN

Originally Posted by niki

So yeah I got that huge virus when I got back from my vacancies and I decided to use to a firewall again.

Note that firewalls don't stop viruses from befalling your computer. Nor are they intended to do so, for that matter.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Most viruses are actually distributed via E-Mail or downloaded files. I've never heard of any firewall able to stop a virus, because that's what anti-virus software is for. Firewalls are for controlling in and outbound network traffic and inspect it for broken TCP packets, flooding and the like. You'll never be able to stop unwanted intrusions with a firewall. If you download a file containing a virus, it'll be on your computer, regardless of the firewall you're using.

Originally Posted by niki

Just as a sidenote, the thing that I'm currently fighting against is particularly powerful. It pings my comp 2 seconds after first XP boot, contaminates basically every .exe it can find, blocks access to famous antivirus sites, and ends up automatically closing every security-related software I open.

Any decent anti-virus software should allow you to create a bootable CD for scanning/removing viruses. Alternatively, get one of those mini-Linux (Knoppix) or mini-XP distros bootable from CD and bundled with malware removal software.

If this still doesn't help, I guess a system disk format would be in order.

There's nowhere I can't reach.