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Zone Alarm Pro 3
Having just downloaded and installed Zone Alarm Pro 3, the latest and greatest update from ZoneLabs to this windows firewall, I'vecided to share my thoughts of it with everyone.
Whilst it has improved oover the previous versions as far as customisabiltiy and security are concerned (for example, it now offers cookie blocking, popup/banner ad blocking etc.) the user interface has grown out of all proportion, making the previously easy to use interface into something out of a technical guide for a nuclear fusion reactor!
Overall, it remains a good firewall, and has greater customisability in V3 over V3, but its interface has matured perhaps too much. It needed that bit more to it, to make it into a full featured firewall, but it's too big... it takes over the screen, and you still can't see all of the info it offers!
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Zone Alarm Pro 3
Having just downloaded and installed Zone Alarm Pro 3, the latest and greatest update from ZoneLabs to this windows firewall, I'vecided to share my thoughts of it with everyone.
Whilst it has improved oover the previous versions as far as customisabiltiy and security are concerned (for example, it now offers cookie blocking, popup/banner ad blocking etc.) the user interface has grown out of all proportion, making the previously easy to use interface into something out of a technical guide for a nuclear fusion reactor!
Overall, it remains a good firewall, and has greater customisability in V3 over V3, but its interface has matured perhaps too much. It needed that bit more to it, to make it into a full featured firewall, but it's too big... it takes over the screen, and you still can't see all of the info it offers!
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Thanks for the review. I'm beginning to go away from ZA; they're, it seems, trying to hit the "mainstream" now, or something.
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Thanks for the review. I'm beginning to go away from ZA; they're, it seems, trying to hit the "mainstream" now, or something.
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ZA still has issues with it's mutex engine. it can be tricked to do many things by virii and trojans, etc. etc.
I'd go with Sygate, NeoWatch, or Tiny. In that order....
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Thanks for the review, I almost bought Zone Alarm Pro 3... so you see Tiny PC, NeoWatch or Sygate? I'll look into those.
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I agree with KorpDeath
Sygate comes at 1st place when talking about Win application firewalls
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I agree with Rewandythal about the cookie blocking, popup/banner ad blocking etc. Thats a nice feature, but i'm having a slight problem with file uploads through web pages with ZA.
Sygate and tiny are spot on, except sygate doesnt react to everything when i run a few of them at once.
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I've got ZA Pro 3 purchased and with exception of a few minor things, I'd say the upgrade to 3 was worth the upgrade price (19.95). As a full purchase, I can see it being a little bit more of a decision but it does do a good job of handling things. The issue with the mutex might still be there but then again, if you allow things to be run automatically or just answer yes to any ActiveX script, then having a firewall is really a moot point. Sygate was good for the time I had it but I kept having problems with all of the logs. It seemed as if every day or so, the box would crash/reboot and when it comes up, there's a lost chain pointing to one of the three logs that Sygate writes to ALL the time or there's a lost cluster with the message complaining about the space not being enough for it. Maybe now that I've done a complete rebuild, it'll go away but ZA's never done that to me.
ZA Pro 3: pretty good firewall with slight issues with TrueVector but no base-line file problems.
Sygate: better than ZA Pro 3 but had repeated problems with crashing and file problems.
I'll turn off ZA and install Sygate tonight and see what happens for a few days. If I don't have a problem, I'll go back to Sygate.
Moral of the story: firewalls are only as good as the users administrating them. 10 minutes of education on any firewall and the programs that access the internet or local intranet is well worth it.
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Zone alarm in itself is a security hole. It opens a nice port to aim packets at. I tend to use blackice... not as a defence but as a logging system as that is alot of time all you can do. ZA's stack can be overrun with massive packets and thus made unusable. My advice is make friends with the IT guy at the local branch of your ISP. When ever I get hit with anything, it has to go through their FW first and he provides me with the logs I need to send to the appropriate ISPs. ZA also tends to make my internet games lag badly even if I give tem full internet rights.