Does the Firewall interfere with gaming?

I play a plethora of games on my PC, and I am going to pick up Smart Security 4 in a bit, but I remember hearing from 2 friends of mine that its a complete pain in the ass because it prevents you from playing games online.

How true is this statement, and how hard is it to configure. I know that any firewall will block ports but is there an option to disable it, and is it anything like the crappy windows firewall that asks you if you want to allow a program?

I need the answer quick as I am leaving in a half hour to buy either this or NOD32

 

Does temporarily disabling the firewall make a difference? If so, what about switching it to learning mode?

 

I havent got the program yet, but the learning mode thing sounds good! Ill have to launch all of my games one by one to make sure i dont have any probs in the future!

 

Never experienced issues with the firewall and gaming. That shouldn't be a reason not to buy ESS.

 

Sweet, thanks so much.

I have one more question, is ESET really that good of a program?
IS it the BEST?

I know its better than norton, or avg, but really how can it be proven to be so good, Ive only ever had like 1 virus, and 2 false postives from the av, but thats because I dont download music from any torrent program or anything, nor do I download things from the internet without making sure its a trusted site.

 

There is no such thing as the best, but what I can say is that I have always had excellent experiences with ESET, it has never let me down. Next to that it is really light and "set and forget".

One could say that all the major antivirus vendors hardly differ in detection, that is why I think people should always choose a program based on their own experiences, and not on test results and/or rumours. If you feel happy with how ESET NOD32 Antivirus protected your pc, you should just continue using an ESET product, be it the Antivirus or Smart Security flavour. Which depends on how much added value you perceive from the firewall and antispam functions.

Also keep in mind that not a single product is perfect, there doesn't exist a product which detects 100% of the threats and generates 0 false positives. Your own pc behavior and pc knowledge determines how big the change of being infected is. You say you don't use torrents and only download from trusted sites, so your probably a safe surfer.

So there are three options:

1. You are (1) satisfied with ESET NOD32's performance and you are (2) not perceiving added value from the additonal functions of Smart Security: get ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
2. You are (1) satisfied with ESET NOD32's performance and you are (2) perceiving added value from the additional functions of Smart Securtiy: get ESET Smart Security.
3. You are not satisfied with ESET NOD32's performance: look for other products and trial them.

 

Totally agree. It is the best Suite I have ever used. Period. I think Eset and Prevx are the 2 best on the market. And neither has ever interfered with my gaming.