Outpost Firewall slowing down my internet speed

Does anyone who is using Outpost Firewall on Windows XP have experienced slow and intermittent download speed when downloading files with programs like Internet Download Manager and Free Download Manager.

I have this problem and i don't know how to fix it. I think it is because of the NDIS driver that the program install but if the driver is the problem i don't know if i can do anything about this.

 

Does your download speed improve at all when the download managers are disabled?

 

Turn off Content Filtering, for the download manager what ever one you use.
That sped up the downloads for me.

 

Turning off content filtering doesn't help, even if i exit Outpost Firewall completely i still have this problem. Only after uninstalling Outpost Firewall the problem with the download speed disappear. That is why i think this is a problem with the network driver that the program installs. May be it doesn't function properly along with the driver for my network card which is Realtek RTL8187B Wireless 802.11b/g 54Mbps USB 2.0 Network Adapter

 

Have you tried removing phantom device drivers in device manager.?
This link may help you.

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/504/how-to-uninstall-hidden-devices-drivers-and-services/

 

I followed the tips in the article and if i select Show Hidden Devices it show some additional devices under Network Adapters but i don't know which of them i can remove or if i need to remove them at all:

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/9123/u05g.png

In normal view it shows only two adapters:

http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/2872/kfy.png

My internet connection is PPPoE

 

Usually its perfectly safe to remove the shaded out items but if your not certain then disabling them first would be a safe bet.

I found it fixed a networking issue i experienced.

 

I will try to disable some of the network drivers and see what will happen.

The first screenshot i posted is when Outpost Firewall is not installed. This screenshot is when Outpost Firewall is installed:

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/9836/695d.png

 

i noticed this recently too and i thought it was just my internet connection - i have mobile broadband and a poor connection sometimes. also using Outpost Firewall nad Internet Download Manager. before i installed Outpost FW a few months ago the speeds shown on the IDM GUI would update almost instantly but now they will hang for a few secnds sometimes at the same number. i didnt think it was impacting the speeds too much but now im not so sure. i've been using IDM for at least 5 years and hadn't noticed this behavior before.