zone alarm

bluehorizon

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 25, 2004
Messages
100
So... why's everyone bashing Zone Alarm now? I think it's a great firewall. I can't understand why everyone thinks it's sh*t all of a sudden...
 
People are on the Sygate Personal Firewall now...who knows. Some people say Sygate is far less a "resource hog" than ZA, but if you have a higher-spec machine you likely won't notice any difference. ZA does seem to be more "n00b" friendly, however.

I use a NAT router anyway for real security, and only use ZA to control outgoing apps (install it right after a clean install and watch all the junk Windows wants to allow connections).
 
Torquemada XP said:
I use a NAT router anyway for real security, and only use ZA to control outgoing apps (install it right after a clean install and watch all the junk Windows wants to allow connections).

That's what I do, and I consider it the best use for ZA. I don't really trust it enough for it to be my only line of defence, but its nice to control access to the net. As I have said before, media player does not need to access the internet every time it starts.
 
Sorry for the n00bish questions, but what's a NAT? I'm setting up a Netgear wireless broadband router; should I consider getting a hardware firewall too?
 
hells no, screw sygate and zone alaram. norton personal firewall is da best.
 
Norton personal firewall kept telling me it was blocking all these hack attempts, so I was like :eek: . Then I unplugged my network cable and it was still blocking hack attempts....and NOT from 127.0.0.1 either :p . Then I uninstalled Norton personal firewall :).
 
*shutters* Ugh, I can't stand Norton products. The only thing I like that they are associated with is Symantec AV Corp.
Anyway..
I haven't run a software firewall for years, really should get one to block outgoing traffic. But for blocking outside threats, nothing beats the reliability and easy configuration of pluggin in a $50 router.
 
No software firewall gives perfect protection, but they definetly can help. Zonealarm does not have as many configuration options as some other firewalls, but it is easy to use, widely supported, and does a good job with watching outbound connections.

For great protction you need some kind of firewall seperate from your PC. This can be a hardware firewall, or an old machine running a *BSD or linux firewall distro like smoothwall. Combined with a software firewall on your PC, you can have very strong protection.

Remember that nothing is perfect. Just recently it has been demonstrated how to allow a trojan or other connection to slip out past a software firewall. Always use multiple layers of protection and avoid having all your eggs in one basket.

So basically, I think Zonealarm is as good or better than any other software firewall when you count ease of use. It just lasks a bit of advanced configuration, that's all.
 
Yes, but don't use any version past 4.5.594. I haven't tried version 5 myself, but I heard it does bad things to your computer. Wait, there's a thread at another forum on this, let me check............(listen to Jeopardy theme in your head for now, I'll be back soon)............ :D

....I'm back and here's the link to my thread at amdmb.com

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=324698

How about that, I guess it was my thread I was thinking about. Anyway, seems incompatibility issues with McAfee products, WinXP error checking and a few other things with the newer versions of free ZA and possibly the Pro versions as well. :(
 
Back
Top