I am currently running searchig for a new firewall. I really wanted to use Kerio, but am having some unexpected problems. santuccie was kind enough to walk me through an introduction to firewalls, and he suspects it might be incompatible with my laptop.

I can't see that being the problem, as it is brand new. I'd really appreciate some further input. Here is my problem in detail:

I am running Firefox on my laptop (Dell Inspiron E1505) on a wireless network connected to my home PC and my Xbox. I have heard good things about Kerio and downloaded the trial version. Upon installation, I immediately noticed some problems. I am getting a really long delay from the time I double-click an icon until the time it opens. I've tried MS Word & Excel files, Adobe PDF files, DWG AutoCAD files and it even prevents me from using the hotkey shortcut to put my laptop in standby mode. I have also noticed that twice since I installed Kerio, my laptop, my home PC and my Xbox have all dropped the internet connection. This is solved by powering off my router, my modem and my home PC, and then rebooting, but it is nonetheless a hassle.

Any advice?

I'm looking at loading zonealarm as I'm having issues with Kerio and firefox in that try to surf the net has turned into a frustrating series of repeated clicks and half loaded sites!this only happened when I updated to latest version of kerio and I also get the dropped internet connection that can only be solved by a hard reboot

I had the connection drop problem with ver. 4.5.916, I`m running ver. 4.3.268 now and I have to tell it's by far the easyest and mor trouble free firewall I've ever used.
As for word and other programs starting slow I think it could be because of application behavior control, try disabling that module and see if it solves the problem, I personaly have it enabled because it's another layer of protection, but if you don't need it or it's causing you trouble you cant try to turn it off.
Off course don't forget to check your antivirus, I use NOD32 and with the DMON (the office monitor) it checks not only the files open by office programs but the exes and dll itself so It can slow things down, but not too much.
Obviously it could help us a lot to hel you if you could be more specifc aboutyour OS and other security software installed.

If you guys post some machine specs it might be easier to debug the issue...

Start > Run > MSINFO32

File > Save as NFO then attach it to this thread, or PM me with it.