Zone Alarm is a software firewall, A very good one at that, Red indicates data going out , Green indicates data coming in. The ZA logo appears when data is not been transfered in any direction. If it is slow check your DNS IP addresses are correct, You also need to check the settings on Zone Alram. Earlier versions of Zone Alarm do not work well with Windows XP ( either version ), You should upgrade to the current one if you can. Also do not have XP Firewall enabled and Zone Alarm at the same time. What ever you do keep zone alarm, Its well worth the cost.