I will be using wireless internet and dialup on this laptop. I have tried Zonealarm and for some reason it annoys me. Ones I have been looking at are

Kerio
Sygate

any others?

yep, try this:

http://www.looknstop.com/En/index2.htm

LooknStop is very good, although not that well known.

or maybe the Tiny firewall.

This link might add some confidence!
http://grc.com/lt/scoreboard.htm


If you have an old PC kicking about, you could try something like Smoothwall and use that as a gateway. This idea is probably for the more technical user though.