Zone Alarm - Free Personal Firewall

[bash18 0]

Zone alarm is A easy to use Free firewall.. protecting both inbound and out bound..

ZoneAlarm is Completely free for individual and not-for-profit charitable entity use (but not governmental entities and educational institutions)...

System Requirements:
Windows 98SE/ME/2000 Pro/XP. Pentium III 450 MHz or higher. 50MB of available hard disk space. Internet access. Minimum system RAM: 48MB (98SE/ME), 64MB (2000 Pro), 128MB (XP).

CLCIK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

BASH18

[jorbanks 0]

i just use the one that comes with windows xp.its really good fast and reliable and i havent had any troubles with it to date.

[tigrinus 0]

I heard that Zone Alarm is one of the best firewall programs out there? Is it really as good as they say"

[Sarah81 0]

I heard that Zone Alarm is one of the best firewall programs out there? Is it really as good as they say"

1064335850[/snapback]

Well...it's free, doesn't take up much hard drive space, and is pretty easy on system resources (I'm on WinXP, incidentally). The only time ZoneAlarm's ever popped up to alert me about anything was when I launched a program, like RealPlayer or something like that, that needed to access the Internet.

 

Overall, it's not bad. At least it's free, so if you hate it you can uninstall without thinking of all the money you wasted on the thing.

 

But the firewall that comes with WinXP is pretty good too.

[Houdini 0]

The only problem that I have with Zone Alarm is that if you are using the free version and have networked computers like I do for internet connection sharing you have to lower your internet protection from HIGH (which is default) to medium or it will not let the client computers access the internet, only intranet functions. If you want to have HIGH set and let the clients use the ICS you have to buy their PRO version.

[justjoey 0]

Zone Alarm is one of the best firewalls out there.. the one that comes with Windows is too weak and unchangeable, there arent as many alerts so you cant really control what you want o come in or out of your computer.. zone alarm gives you total control to allow or deny any inbound or outbound operations, there may thebe the occasional alert taht you may not need but obviously this is a nick they want to use as a spur for people yto buy the pro edition. the free edition works a gem though, no problems with it for half a year

[lonebyrd 0]

I have some questions about Zone Alarm. I have people staying with me, and of course, they want to use my computer. I have had a few incedents already where Ad-aware and Spy-bot have picked up quite a few things, so I guess the people using my computer arent to careful.Now with something like Zone Alarm, what would be the benifits of having it? Is there really more protection to it then the regular Windows XP sp2 firewall? But then again, I'm not totally sure what the firewall even does. I have a router, which I thought was suposed to keep some things away in itself, by haveing something like a different IP address then your computer. I don't know, thats just what I heard. I'm not great with security issues.If I were to get Zone Alarm, or a similar program, what would I do with it? Do I have to customize things to it to keep my computer running right? I know I ask alot of questions, but I don't wanna have to go out and buy a new computer if this one gets hacked into and messed up or something.

[Grafitti 0]

I have some questions about Zone Alarm. I have people staying with me, and of course, they want to use my computer. I have had a few incedents already where Ad-aware and Spy-bot have picked up quite a few things, so I guess the people using my computer arent to careful.
Now with something like Zone Alarm, what would be the benifits of having it? Is there really more protection to it then the regular Windows XP sp2 firewall? But then again, I'm not totally sure what the firewall even does. I have a router, which I thought was suposed to keep some things away in itself, by haveing something like a different IP address then your computer. I don't know, thats just what I heard. I'm not great with security issues.

If I were to get Zone Alarm, or a similar program, what would I do with it? Do I have to customize things to it to keep my computer running right? I know I ask alot of questions, but I don't wanna have to go out and buy a new computer if this one gets hacked into and messed up or something.

JustJoey pretty much summed up the difference between Zonealarm and XP firewall. a router, if supporting it, can be a hardware firewall. but it's much safer to have a software one as well, and not only depend on the router. i know someone who only used hardware, and they still got trojans and backdoors installed on their computer. If you've got a single computer, just set it to high on the slider, and you won't have to cutomise most of it. it'll do it automatically. And in a worst-case scenario as you described, getting hacked into or whatever, you'll at worst have to do a reformat. not buy a new one.

[iGuest 3]

I have some questions about Zone Alarm. I have people staying with me, and of course, they want to use my computer. I have had a few incedents already where Ad-aware and Spy-bot have picked up quite a few things, so I guess the people using my computer arent to careful.
Now with something like Zone Alarm, what would be the benifits of having it? Is there really more protection to it then the regular Windows XP sp2 firewall? But then again, I'm not totally sure what the firewall even does. I have a router, which I thought was suposed to keep some things away in itself, by haveing something like a different IP address then your computer. I don't know, thats just what I heard. I'm not great with security issues.

If I were to get Zone Alarm, or a similar program, what would I do with it? Do I have to customize things to it to keep my computer running right? I know I ask alot of questions, but I don't wanna have to go out and buy a new computer if this one gets hacked into and messed up or something.

Yes , I use Zone alarm Internet security suite .

Understanding Firewall protection :

In buildings, a firewall is a barrier that prevents a fire from spreading. In computers, the concept is similar. There are a variety of "fires" out there on the Internet-hacker activity, viruses, worms, and so forth. A firewall is a system that stops these attempts to damage your computer.

The ZoneAlarm security software firewall guards the "doors" to your computer-that is, the ports through which Internet traffic comes in and goes out. ZoneAlarm security software examines all the network traffic arriving at your computer, and asks these questions:

What Zone did the traffic come from and what port is it addressed to?
Do the rules for that Zone allow traffic through that port?
Does the traffic violate any global rules?
Is the traffic authorized by a program on your computer (Program Control settings)?
The answers to these questions determine whether the traffic is allowed or blocked.

[Team Destiny 07 0]

I have ZoneAlarm Pro and it came with my computer somehow so I don't really know why it came with but it's good and has anti-spyware anti-virus monitoring and things. I think it is a very good firewall ;)

[patronus4000 0]

I had ZoneAlarm for only about one week on my computer. ^^" It's not that it doesn't work well or anything - it does, and I have to say it's a pretty good firewall, but after a while, I kept getting these errors. It wasn't the evil Blue Screen of Death, but a black screen would just pop up saying there is some kind of a paging file error with srescan.sys (which is one of the ZoneAlarm program files). It told me to restart my computer. After this error occurred twice, I figured it wasn't worth my time or my computer's resources to be running ZoneAlarm if this was going to keep happening.

If I were to get Zone Alarm, or a similar program, what would I do with it? Do I have to customize things to it to keep my computer running right? I know I ask alot of questions, but I don't wanna have to go out and buy a new computer if this one gets hacked into and messed up or something.

You install it and run it. I suggest you go and access all the programs that has to access the Internet on a regular basis (ISP, anti-virus/spyware program updates, messengers, browsers, etc.) so that you can select the option to allow these programs access to the Internet when the message, "This program is trying to access the Internet. Allow or Deny?" pops up. Since you have all these guests coming, I suggest that you also create a Guest account for them to log into. It doesn't allow them so many rights, which means they won't be able to mess with your computer so much! (But still, download anti-virus and anti-spyware programs along with a firewall - you'll need regular scans to keep all the evils out.)
Serena

[sparkx 0]

Zone alarm is A easy to use Free firewall.. protecting both inbound and out bound..ZoneAlarm is Completely free for individual and not-for-profit charitable entity use (but not governmental entities and educational institutions)...

I use Zone lab (Zone alarm) pro. It isn't free but it is the best one in my opinion also. Sometimes however it blocks stuff I don't want it to (games, downloads ect.) but it is easy to fix. I am an individual computer owner and probably have a firewall 100 times better then I need lol. I also have ad-aware SE home (free) which has the fastest scans and great at deleating stuff (if you ever do get a virius on your computer). It is good someone finally made a topic about this firewall.
Thanks,
Sparkx

[department-of-surgery-bjmc 0]

Zonealarm is good but i use Agintum "OUTPOST" firewall, it has a free version v 1.0 even this firewall is very impressive, it can tailor make each and every individual attempt to connections, a single software can be permitted one site while at the same time the same software can be stopped contacting any other site as pre your choice this feature i found very unique, may be present in costly firwalls but definately not in free firewalls... in my opinion outpost is the best....please excuse my difference in opinion

[Adam Roethburg 0]

Thanks I needed it!