Entered CNET Catalog: 06/03/2006
SKU: CNETZONEALARMINTERNETSECURITYSUITE65
Manufacturer: Avanquest USA - Elibrium Inc.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 06/04/2006
With its three layers of protection, ZoneAlarm guards at the Internet gateway so that intruders don't get in, on the desktop at the program level so that bogus programs don't connect to the Internet, and inside the operating system kernel where rootkits and other malware can hide. The suite offers additional protection against viruses and spyware. For antivirus protection, ZoneAlarm uses CA eTrust EZ Antivirus. For antispyware protection, ZoneAlarm compares your system against its own collection of malware, then quarantines or removes any offenders it finds.
For antispam and antiphishing protection, ZoneAlarm uses MailFrontier. To keep your personal information from leaking out on to the Internet, ZoneAlarm includes an encrypted vault. ZoneAlarm then monitors IMs, e-mails, and the Internet for inappropriate access to this information. For example, if a remote hacker were somehow able to access your social security number from another file, ZoneAlarm would compare that number to the one in the vault and, if it matched, would block its transmission, then offer a pop-up requesting permission to continue. ZoneAlarm monitors IM activity and can block dangerous links and audio and video, as well as individuals who are not on your contact list. ZoneAlarm includes a parental-control panel, offering preset categories of content to block. Gamers will appreciate a new option which quiets the pop-up messages from ZoneAlarm while you are in the midst of playing a full-screen adventure game.
With version 6.5 of ZoneAlarm Pro and ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite, ZoneAlarm has partnered with an identity management company to monitor use of your personal information in Internet black markets or IRC channels. There are also free services, including how to opt out of credit card solicitations by snail mail--often the source of Dumpster-diving identity thieves--and plenty of educational sites where you can learn more about preventing identity theft. ZoneAlarm, partnering with Intersections, will monitor illegal use of your credit cards by checking shadowy black markets and Internet forums. If your personal information is found, you'll be notified and told what you can do to prevent fraud and abuse. We think ZoneAlarm's focus on identity theft in this version more than justifies the cost of the Pro version or suite.
But all is not yet perfect within ZoneAlarm. Pop-ups remain an issue, flashing whenever you restart your computer as various processes and services request control. You can ask ZoneAlarm to remember your decision to allow or deny access, but many readers have complained in the past that ZoneAlarm remains "noisy." One improvement is the use of a new rounded pop-up message for suspected spyware and phishing sites. Even jaded users such as ourselves couldn't help but notice the different style of message in the lower-right corner.
On the plus side, despite adding new features to ZoneAlarm Pro and ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite, these apps remain relatively light when compared to Norton Internet Security Suite and McAfee Internet Security Suite, taking up far less space on the hard drive and producing only a slight performance drag during use. Included with the purchase of ZoneAlarm Internet Security 6.5 is one year of software updates and both e-mail- and keyword-based virtual support, along with access to a well-attended user forum. Purchase does not, however, include free telephone support. Support by phone is available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT, Monday through Friday (excluding major holidays), but it costs a hefty $2.95 per minute--about the same as what McAfee and Symantec charge for their phone support.
Unfortunately, ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite 6.5 lacks printed documentation. The tutorial, while helpful, is still more of a marketing tool than an informative one. However, the built-in help file is excellent, thorough, and very specific, effectively balancing detail and clarity. And the ZoneAlarm online forums are active, with users worldwide eager and willing to answer your questions--something that Norton and McAfee don't offer.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39out of 39 user reviews
NOTHING BUT TROUBLE
Pros: used to be good for a minute
Cons: buggy like norton and no way to fix
out of 39 user reviews
This & the new version 7 is buggy & not worth the $$
Pros: None that outweight the Cons
Cons: Too Many Problems
As for version 6 & 6.5 - virus scan is weak - but version 7 is an improvement (Kaspersky) but the bugs just don't quit not making it worthwhile. ver 6 & 6.5 is better on CPU & install issues - but again, if you run into issues & seek help in the users forum be prepared to get banned if you express your disappointment or detail your problems in an effort to seek help from Zonelabs.
Plus - Zonelabs does not submit its firewall or virus scanner to ICSA or WCL or other independent testing & certification. See: http://internet-security-suite-review.toptenreviews.com/
I've taken ZA Security Suite off my systems due to the problems noted above. Too bad, they used to be a good company with good products.
In the interests of being fair to Zonelabs I feel compelled to post the following update:
I was reading about ZA Security Suite version 7 on the ZA User Forum, as I am recently no longer banned, to make sure that I wasn't missing something about my recent comments or review. I take the responsibility for my comments seriously as other people may rely upon them (& others') in making purchasing decisions.
I discovered that other people are having problems with Version 7 & that these install, system resource, and critical error locks problems are likely attributable to a conflict with the very popular Spyware Sweeper program. As I also use this product & experienced the same issues with ZA SS version 7, I feel compelled to post this follow-up as a possible explanation for the product issues that I experienced.
It doesn't change my mind about Zonelabs corporate behavior toward its customers, but it does offer an explanation for the problems that I (and apparently a lot of others) experienced.
This also doesn't change my score because, since Spyware Sweeper is so popular, Zonelabs should have developed a work around for conflict & other issues (like Windows security notice disabling) before releasing it to the public. Further, the lack of independent third party testing & certification is also a major issue - and may have prevented the problems described above.
Anyway, I hope this helps and provides clarification.
out of 39 user reviews
Improvement Needed
Pros: The individual program control for accessing the internet seems to work well. Although it takes some time to intially setup, the setup is easy and intuitive. I also like the cookie control feature.
Cons: ZA writes huge files to the "Internet Logs" directory which quickly consumes hard disk space.
Zone Alarm (ZA) doesn't tell you that it writes multiple files to the C:\WINNT\Internet Logs directory. These files are continually added to by ZA and quickly become very large (i.e., many MBs). I stumbled upon this phenomenon because I noticed the free space on my hard disk kept decreasing day after day. After a rigorous search of my C: drive, I found the culprit.
This problem is also thoroughly discussed in the ZA User forum. And many unsuspecting users have expressed their frustration over having their hard disk space cannibalized. These files can be deleted from the Internet Logs directory only by booting into safe mode. Another problem is that the storage space used by System Restore is also consumed because these files are backed up when a restore point is created. Therefore, the registry must be edited to keep these files from being included when System Restore creates a restore point.
I should have stayed with Norton Internet Security.
out of 39 user reviews
Not Vista Compatible
Pros: Unaware of any product "PROs"
Cons: False Advertising On Box
I called "Customer Support" to complain, and the lady told me that this company has no control over what is written on the box, because it's contracted to a third party. This is rediculous. No company works this way. She told me that it would take 8 weeks to get a refund. Unacceptable. Don't buy it.
out of 39 user reviews
Complicated for the novice or average computer user
Pros: Valuable byte-level scanning option. Did find a virus on my computer. Had to let it scan overnight, but worth it.
Cons: Complicated decision-making for what programs should be permitted or blocked.
out of 39 user reviews
I spent $50 to break my computer
Pros: I honestly can say a "pro" about this product.
Cons: It took 45 minutes to install, took at least 2 reboots, Hardly any documentation, Absolutely horrendous customer support, Probably plenty of other "cons" if worked more than 24 hours.
out of 39 user reviews
Great Fire Wall / Problem Plagued Anti-Virus Updates
Pros: Best Firewall
Cons: Terrible Anti-virus / Anti Spy Ware Updates
Bad move on my part. For the last six months, the ZA updates for the latest anti-virus definitions does not work for me for weeks at a time. I get messages that it was unable to connect. I realized I was not the only one with this problem when I went to the ZA user forums and saw that many, many people have this problem. It worries me to surf the net with old virus definitions, but I've tried everything to make the updates work.
Tech support at ZA is a joke - I emailed them with my problems and they have not responded - it's been more than two weeks.
Then, to make matters worse, I've had the automatic Anti-spyware updates say that they have connected and updates the spyware definitions even when I am not connected to the internet.
My advice - stick with the ZA Firewall, but definitely find a better Anti-virus and Anti-spyware programs.
out of 39 user reviews
Don't believe the hype !
Pros: Great if you think you're computer is too fast
Cons: uses way too much computer resouces,
After the help the Zone labs forums they gave me links that removed leftover garbage from the McAfee left behind. This made a HUGE improvement, all of what I would expect a security suite would do and more. As for a redux for the rating I would give it an 8. It would be helpfull if Zone Labs would put his "garbage remover" in the installer though.
After the help the Zone labs forums they gave me links that removed leftover garbage from the McAfee left behind. This made a HUGE improvement, all of what I would expect a security suite would do and more. As for a redux for the rating I would give it an 8. It would be helpfull if Zone Labs would put his "garbage remover" in the installer though.
After the help the Zone labs forums they gave me links that removed leftover garbage from the McAfee left behind. This made a HUGE improvement, all of what I would expect a security suite would do and more. As for a redux for the rating I would give it an 8. It would be helpfull if Zone Labs would put his "garbage remover" in the installer though.
out of 39 user reviews
Thank God for ZoneAlarm (and CNET)
Pros: My wife has stopped complaining
Cons: None really,
I am no techie head but I like to impress the neighbours so I got this broadband connection (one of the first here, no else I knew had heard of broadband internet) and to go with it aforementioned spanky new PC. (Pentium III I think with a 20G hard drive AND the all new Windows ME).
So after a few weeks of happy surfing and web pages appearing almost instantly rather than crawling down the screen (there is a point to this so bear with me), I mentioned my mean home surfing solution to Techiehead at work. Suitable unimpressed he said "Well you have got a firewall havent you?"
Cheering up at my blank expression, he then told me all the horrible things that could happen once you had a broadband connection. He recommended I use this free thing called ZoneAlarm. I downloaded said thing, it worked (apparently) didnt cost anything and if I really wanted to know it would tell me which Korean student had been trying to hack in.
So time marched on and more recently (about 18 months ago) it dawned on me that my new PC wasnt so new anymore. So after some investigation and working on the same principle of impressing the neighbours I bought a really fast dual-core (another coup, even Techiehead hadnt come across one yet) Dell.
And it was awesome, even the wife commented on how quick it was. It also came with Norton Internet Security 2005(see, now we are getting to the point). And it worked fine.
Then, six months ago, said Norton thing told me I had to pay them more money otherwise I would get some awful disease or something. So I did.
Then the wife started to complain. Nothing unusual I know but she went on and on and it was technical stuff. ie "This computer is rubbish, you wasted all our money again" etc.
And you know what, she was right. Gleaming ultra fast Dell was running slower than old Pentium III thing, even opening documents. It was also very noisy and was starting to heat up the room.
What was going on? So perplexed was I that I even bought a computer magazine that had "how to speed up your PC" on the front cover. (I have since noticed that every PC magazine ALWAYS has this on the front cover. It must be the equivalent of Who Killed Lady Di). Anyway it wasnt any help, it suggested I do weird things like "defrag" and "run msconfig".
And then I took a stab in the dark and Googled "Norton Internet Security" and came straight here. Why didnt I think of this earlier? A place where you could find out what people thought about techie things. And I therefore found out I had renewed my subscription and ended up with Norton Internet Security 2006, apparently one of the most pants things ever invented.
The heat was being generated by the processor running at 28% when it wasnt doing anything and the noise was the hard disk continually grinding away.
Then realising that you lot may know what you are talking about I looked at the other security things and found my trusty old ZoneAlarm was recommended. Except nowadays you have to pay for it.
So I ditched Mister Norton, put ZoneAlarm on and now all is well. Processor is at 2% (see I learned how to find out) and the hard disk only moves when Mrs is downloading recipes.
I have noticed that some people moan it keeps popping up windows. But I have worked out what to do and can make my contribution to the techie community: just tick the little box, click "Allow" and it goes away!
Cheers
but I hit the wrong thing
out of 39 user reviews
The #1 For A Reason
Pros: Extremely small footprint, unbeatable firewall
Cons: Antivirus seems a bit underemphasized
out of 39 user reviews
Ok but poor connection sharing
Pros: Easy to use and easy on resources
Cons: Consistently failed to allow oter PCs to use internet
Downside is that I spent 3 months with intermittent MS internet connection sharing problems, basically it wouldn't work. About 2% of the time it did, just enough to be annoyoing, but mostly no. So for months we were down to one PC.
It works fine on one PC but not recommended for more than one on a network.
I removed Zone alarm and ICS worked, I reinstalled and it stopped working. I removed it and ICS worked again. Proof enough for me.
Support tried to help but just gave the same advice, check these settings are ok, they were, so then what do I do ? Basically - don't know, nice people though.
If you want more info try their forum as there are loads of questions on this subject, and not many resolved.
To summarise, OK for one PC but not if you share a connection. Trying to get my money back now as over 30 days of struggling to make this work, what do you think my chances of success are ??
On security, in the UK most ISPs now offer their own - free - security so I will be switching, more expensive actually but at least it works.
out of 39 user reviews
Not for the faint-of-heart
Pros: SEEMS to do the job, but . . . . . .
Cons: VERY troublesome product with un-corrected problems
Exiting the program does not stop all its activities. You must configure it out of the startup and reboot to eliminate it.
An ongoing problem with MSN Messenger seems to have been ignored for months. User can not view fotos, emoticons, or use cams without dropping ZA when entering MSN OR actually MODIFY the Zone Alarm code.
After FORTY years in computer business, it is tied with Norton for the most agravating product I have ever used.
out of 39 user reviews
It's better than norton, mc affe and Pctools AV together
Pros: Best of them all.
Cons: I like it a lot.
A few years ago my computer started to slow down, my dad bought Norton antivirus. I't worked fine untill the year 2004. Then it kept sending errors and it had no active spyware protection what so ever. Then we bought MC affe. Well that program is full of crap. It loads like **** and it deleted stuf i wanted to kep without notice.
Well then i started to look at some other programs that looked fine. We bought PC tools Anti virus, it turned up that the program had no spyware protection or file recover. And you couldn't set it on pause. We were forced to buy Spyware doctor and registry mechanic(those work fine). But then there was another problem. With those three in my procces list it became horrable. My computer needed 20 m to start up.
Last week we bought this program. It's great! It has al the stuff i want! And best of all: it has 3 firewalls! You know people of Poland like to steal suff? Now i have proof . In my firewall list there millions of them. And it has a program block utillity that i verry much needed. My brother kept installing lime wire(p2p virus downloader). Now it's blocked!
I had some problems with gmail. But thats solved now., after some quick clicks.
out of 39 user reviews
The Best I've Used of Many!
Pros: EASY TO USE, Auto upgrade, Auto scan
Cons: User Guide on CD-I'd much rather have a printed version for referencing
out of 39 user reviews
A good product gone bad - and dumped!
Pros: Integration of multiple functions
Cons: 6.5 updates created conflicts with multiple programs rendering it useless to me
In emailing with Customer Support, they said I could roll it back to 6.1 which gave me no problems - but that did not turn out to be true. Rolled back and restarted, it continued to require the lethal upgrade. Ultimately, on the verge of losing my sanity (and after MANY hours of un- and re-installing), I dumped it while I still had over a year prepaid on it. I replaced it with two seperate programs (both Pro/for fee versions.) For a firewall, I chose Agnitum's "Outpost Pro" and for Anti-Virus protection, AVG Pro v.7.1. Since installed, no conflicts with other programs have occured and "Shields Up" consistently reports the satisfying rating of "Total Stealth." Sure, it takes a couple of minutes each day to double check the automatic updates while I develop trust and confidence in these features to do the updating fully automatically as they are both programmed to do (no problems after several months now) - but the few minutes are nothing compared to trying to get the ZA 6.5 to work without problems on my system. I realize that every machine is different and that software conflicts can be highly ideosynchratic - Simply put, based on my own experience, I would stay away from it!
I responded to the warning notice from CNET when I first rated this product a "1" that this rating was unusual - and challenging my judgement about meaning itby raising my rating to a '2." On further reflection, in truth, I must say I find this 6.5 version entirely useless. A "1" is almost more than it deserves.
out of 39 user reviews
Problematic, caused havoc
Pros: Good when you get it to work
Cons: Bogged down your system, requires reboot
out of 39 user reviews
Not bad, but not perfect
Pros: Colorful, easy to use interface
Cons: Seems to affect other items that load at startup
Since I wrote the original review, Zone Alarm has succeeded in cause hours of wasted time trying to fix errors as they increase in number, slow down my pc until eventually I found that the only solution was to remove it from my pc. Since then, I have reverted to Norton. It may not be perfect, but at least I can now chat online again, print to my printer, save cookies that I want to save and basically get on with my job. I would like to change my rating to ZERO and would not recommend this product to anyone.
out of 39 user reviews
Following in Norton's footsteps. Problems all over!
Pros: Use to be decent, then 6.5 was released
Cons: Really bad anti-virus, causing hang-ups, slow-downs and lots of bugs!
out of 39 user reviews
great collection of apps
Pros: doesn't slow your system - well integrated
Cons: privacy service kills comsec site
out of 39 user reviews
No Email scanning clash with Nvidia drivers
Pros: Appears to rate highly by others
Cons: Allowed virus
When installing Zonealarm (which I'd purchased on your recommendation) there appeared a message that as a result of a clash with another program email scanning isn’t functioning.
The clash is apparently with a NVIDIA dll and so I'd been running with no antivirus on email!
I reported this problem a couple of weeks ago but no response to date.
In the interim I've installed an alternative AV trial package but as this is about to expire, I'll have to purchase it.
out of 39 user reviews
One of the best products i've used.
Pros: As a professional business user I wouldn't recommend anythig else.
Cons: Faster updates would be useful.
out of 39 user reviews
Jack of all trades, compatible with none.
Pros: Great firewall, familiar interface
Cons: buggy, questionable anti-virus, incompatible with other AV packages
For example, I just paid for my McAfee update and it's incompatible with the latest ZA and won't load. And I also found out that the new ZoneAlarm will not load on a system with McAfee installed. So....I have two packages that are paid for, but incompatible with each other, and hence useless.
If I could pick and choose what I needed, I could probably work around the issue, but you can't. With either suite.
After several hours of removal time on my systems, I've moved to Commodo for the firewall and a free anti-virus that live happily together.
out of 39 user reviews
It ia good product
Pros: It has the ability to stop any hacker (to the maximum) to infiltrate one's PC.
Cons: It is vry simple .
out of 39 user reviews
Great firewall - but not user proof
Pros: Impenatrable firewall
Cons: Weakest antivirus solution I've ever seen
out of 39 user reviews
Started Good - Then got buggy
Pros: Easy set up
Cons: Won't stop popping up messages (annoying and high maintenance)
I'm going to go get something else to replace it. I should have stuck with the McAfee I had before.
out of 39 user reviews
Excellent Security Suite!!
Pros: Great firewall, wonderful anti-virus, anti-spyware protection, easier to use than similar products, offers identity theft protection and information, can block specific sites, parental controls
Cons: No cons here - ZA Security Suite does exactly what I want !
The two wireless computers were used by my kids. The one my son used was getting so much spyware (and several viruses) that it could not be used due to slowness and the constant ad ware interruptions. The computer was simply useless!! Even after I cleaned off all the viruses and spyware, it would not function properly. Windows XP had become so corrupted that it could not be repaired. So, I reformatted (to make sure everything would get installed on a clean slate, so-to-speak) and re-installed Windows XP Pro along with ZA Security Suite.
When the problems occurred, this computer was using Windows firewall and MS anti-spyware along with Search & Destroy and Ad-aware. These products were totally insufficient for protecting the computer against my son! At that time I had ZA Security Suite on my computer and never suffered from viruses or anti-spyware problems. Because of the results on my computer with ZA and my son's quick fingers along with the two computers having access to the Internet on a wireless home network, I decided to purchase a two-computer licenses to protect wireless computers.
Since the purchase and installation of ZA Security Suite (and configured it) on my son's computer, there have been NO problems with viruses or spyware! It did help that I warned my son that I would have ZA block certain web sites if he did not make an effort to be more careful.
In conclusion, ZA Security Suite remains one of the best products I have ever had on my computer. I strongly recommend it to anyone wanting excellent computer protection against hackers, viruses and spyware/adware/malware.
out of 39 user reviews
Solid Security, greedy on system resources
Pros: Excellent firewall features -- inbound/outbound protection, automatic internet lock.
Cons: Heavy on RAM; computer speed is sacrificed for security it seems
While the overall protection is great, I'm finding that my computer's performance has slowed considerably. Other reviewers have said that it's light on resources but I haven't found that to be the case. Perhaps that is to be expected for such a comprehensive security suite.
out of 39 user reviews
Superb...but still has some bugs....
Pros: Outstanding!...compared to others similar software.
Cons: still has some bugs to be fixed...
out of 39 user reviews
Excellent overall....but fishy Antivirus
Pros: Easy to use, great protection overall
Cons: Not 100% sure about the Antivirus and ID protection is only for US customers.
I decided to go for ZoneAlarm Pro initially as a firewall but discovered their Internet Suite and took a trial.
The ease of setup, but the control given to the user was excellent along with good online documentation and good customer support. The firewall also stood up to my colleagues (security expert aka Hacker), repeated attempts to break into my PC, however he did manage to do what he called ARP poisoning where packets could be routed through his PC before they reached the router posing a possible security risk however the hacker would need to be within the physical network to acheive this.
He claims that Sygate was the only firewall that deterred this attack, however they are now in Symantec hands so we have to see if that lasts.
The spam protection was also excellent and is very easy to use with very few false positives however i've heard it's not compatible with a lot of clients, but since I use Outlook 2003, that's no problem to me.
The next item is the identity protection. Looks fantastic. Really great! Shame it's not possible to use in Europe. I think this feature is only available in the World United States of America. Shame.
Finally, the antivirus protection. It works. No doubt about it, but it didn't find my EICAR test virus in a ZIP file when copied off my memory stick. This is a little scary. In fact, it didn't even detect me unzipping the test virus and placing it on my desktop. Only when I ran it, I got an alert. Scary or what? Even Norton was better here.
Still....it has detected JS exploits in my internet travels along with some Java viruses and a couple of email viruses that landed in my mailbox.
Still, the EICAR situation made me a little uneasy and for that, i'm very cautious.
Overall though, an excellent firewall product and ideal for a power user or even a beginner, although I think I'd disable the Antivirus protection and look elsewhere in another product for that.
out of 39 user reviews
Great integrated software solution
Pros: Excellent at monitoring Internet activity and other questionable activity
Cons: Automatic scans slow computer down, unless you shut it down.
The scans can be slow, especially for the virus scan, but the software performs flawlessly.
I would recommend this software to anyone a computer to access the Internet.
PS - Turn off the email modules, there are 3, if you don't use Outlook for email. This seems to free up some system resources.
out of 39 user reviews
A very good suite
Pros: great features and protection
Cons: antivirus which I read will soon be upgraded
out of 39 user reviews
A great product with questionable anti-virus
Pros: Identity theft is a nice addition. Firewall is great.
Cons: Anti-virus not great. Far better products are available even for FREE. Perhaps that is why they do not support aVast!.
I like ZoneAlarm and have used it for more than six years. Until now, all of their decisions have been great. This decision to use CA-Anti-virus is likely the result of Check Point, the new owner of ZoneAlarm.
I have a lot of respect for Check Point's products in the business world. I hope they re-evaluate this decision regarding CA-Anti-virus. If reflects poorly on their past great judgement.
out of 39 user reviews
This is a great combination package!
Pros: Easy to set up and use, Not a resource hog.
Cons: None so far.
Forget about Norton and Trend Micro. This program rocks!
out of 39 user reviews
Great Security Suite
Pros: Easy to use, provides excellent protection
Cons: None so far
Definately recommend it to anyone looking for an easy to use, all-in-one security program.
out of 39 user reviews
Highly configurable, comprehensive and effective.
Pros: Instals easily. Flags & prevents any suspicious software behaviour and spyware.
Cons: Difficult for newcomers to configure, due to its flexibility. Online activation needed. Backup the machine before you instal.
I installed it on a PC which already had the ZA 2.6 (freeware version). The instal jammed up and would not complete. After uninstalling, it was then impossible to return to the freeware version, which simply aborted. This suggests that ZA Internet security Suite 6.5 does not fully uninstal, and intending purchasers should be aware of this.
After reinstalling W2K on the jammed up machine, ZA ISS 6.5 installed without a hitch and was stable.
Software validation had to be done via a website to get the program to work.
Regular pop-up warnings: "Microsoft Office (or other) is behaving suspiciously" (etc) of programs I normally use went from being amusing to annoying, and I had to switch the prompts off.
I had intended to use it on a machine receiving email which also accesses databases over an office LAN, which proved to be a handful, as ZA kept trying to block legitimate program calls, and eventually I ditched it from that machine, rather than invest more hours or get professional on site support. Phone support would not be adequate for this task.
ZA repeatedly reported that it had found (and removed) several keystroke loggers, which other spyware programs had missed. I gather some of these were part of other software, and seems to be a symptom of the rampant spying going on out there.
I strongly advise doing a backup of your machine prior to installation, in case you want to revert after you instal, for any reason. Also remember before ZA ISS 6.5 can work, you must register it, either on a freecall number, or online. Generally the program appears to do a good job of keeping out malware, as claimed.
out of 39 user reviews
lack of x64 support
Pros: Great for 32 bit users
Cons: ZoneAlarm does not support x64 Windows
out of 39 user reviews
I like this product
Pros: Single product security solution
Cons: None that I can think of
As for the program itself, it does what it says. However, the firewall does require some knowledge to use and a lot of knowledge to troubleshoot and tons of knowledge to configure rules. A friend had a strange problem. With firewall on, he just could not connect to internet, though the IE permissions were configured correctly. I found that somehow (very likely a virus) had modified the svchost.exe permissions to not connect to internet. When I set the svchost.exe permission correctly, the internet access started working fine.
When a new program asks for internet access, the user has to be intelligent enough to grant or deny access. Internet access or server rights granted to a rogue program can easily defeat the firewall. I guess with any firewall program, this is true.
The firewall has a wide variety of advanced configuration options that I see in professional grade firewalls. These can provide a very fine level of access control, not normally required for average user.
I wish they would have made the parental control settable for each user profile on a family PC. Currently one set of options are applicable to all.
Installing an upgrade is like a fresh install. As per ZA installer, a clean install of a new version is recommended. This means that I lose all my settings when upgrading.
I have not tested its AV and anti-spyware capabilities yet.
Overall, I like this program.
out of 39 user reviews
still limited
Pros: works smoothly
Cons: still limited to Outlook !
may be european users should check for an alternative firewhall??
out of 39 user reviews
Security Suite can enter IRC channels?
Pros: A step in the right direction.
Cons: Uses the EZ engine.
Most IRC channels dealing in stolen information are closed channels, accesible only by a password. In order to monitor a channel, a bot or user would have to be present in that channel. I doubt any information stealing IRC channel is going to allow a spy bot in their channel.
If the reviewer meant discussion forums, then that should be changed to read discussion forums rather than IRC channels. Even then, discussion forums trading CC information are generally accesible to registered users only.
After the debacle last fall of EZ misinterpreting mirc.ini as a virus, I would be very leery of any connection between EZ and IRC.
Pete
Chatmag.com
