Is anyone else using ZoneAlarm 2.0 ?

[OuTpaTienT]

I just d/l'ed it but haven't really looked into it yet.

What do you think of it? What are the downsides of running a firewall? Does it slow the system any?

[Faramir]

I've been using it for about a week and it seems to be running fine... the first 12 hours I had 32 'hits'--can ya believe it? the little window kept coming up so often it interfering with programs so I had to click on the little disable box on it. I also saw Leo on ZDTV talk very highly about it. as far as slowing the system down I play alot of games online and really haven't noticed any slowdown yet

[seti]

Right now I'm running ZA and I own BID. It has some more features such as a button that effectivly eliminates all internet activity. The price for peice of mind is 3.65mb of system memory, I think anyone can live with that. If it slows down internet access at all I haven't noticed.

My only complaint is that it seams to ask for permission for windows critical update to access the internet everytime, regardless if I select the option to never ask again.

It's a great free program and I highly recommend it....as does sheilds up.

[M1pilot]

Been using it for a few weeks now, and it's probably the best free program out there. Great for piece of mind. My only complaint with it is video conferencing in Netmeeting....if the the other party is also running ZoneAlarm, one of us has to shut it down....changing the settings in ZA don't seem to help. Other than that it works great....don't notice any slowdowns at all.

-M1pilot

[Tekk]

What exactly is ZoneAlarm? A kind of protect program from hackers or something?

[narayan]

Tekk, yes it is. You can get it through this website www.grc.com (http://www.grc.com)

I am using ZA and it alerted me to a virus! It told me that "someone is trying to gain access to the internet" or something like that. This is a standalone machine. I had a virus that connects when I am online to relay info to an IRC server. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif Perhaps I would not have known w/o ZA. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by narayan (edited 03-01-2000).]

[grandslammer]

Seems to work well for me, only thing is, if I use the highest protection settings, I have a little problem accessing my e-mails. So, I run both sliders at the middle settings.

Anyone else have this situation? Other than that, I am happy. And even at those settings, I am still protected.

http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

Mike P.

[phecky]

Thanks to socalgal I too saw the grc site and was wondering about ZA. And yet Steve Gibson talks at length about unbinding TCP/IP as a simple good defense for non networked machines. Very interesting for me since I'm not a high tech person. Does ZA offer protection beyond the unbinding that Steve writes about? It apparently scans for present system intrusion as in narayan's post?

[seti]

Tekk, you can go directly to Zone Labs web page to get it here (http://www.zonelabs.com). Or if you just want to download it with out research it.....here (http://www.zonelabs.com/downloads/zonalm20.exe).

It's a firewall, it protects you from would be hackers. This isn't so important if you have dial-up internet access....but if you have cable or DSL service it's a must IMHO. If the latter is your case I would sujest you read SysOpt's articles on internet security.....part's 1 (http://www.sysopt.com/articles/cabdslsec-part1/index.html), 2 (http://www.sysopt.com/articles/cabdslsec-part2/index.html), and 3 (http://www.sysopt.com/articles/cabdslsec-part3/index.html). http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif Sheilds UP! (https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2) is a great place to see if you're at risk. They have a ton of info to get you started if your're interested.

[U-96]

the unbinding protocols thread is mainly designed to remove port 139 (a common Windows weakness) from pimping itself to all passes by port scanners. It is a setting for file and internet sharing that is set to ON by default (doh!).
You must follows the instructions carefully to carry out the unbinding correctly, as you could inadvertantly remove your ability (temporarily) to connect to the internet!

ZoneAlarm on the other hand, on the highest security settings, blocks all unauthorised attempts to connect to your machine AND stop all unauthorised attempts by your machine to send stuff out, for example in the case of narayan above, who found a trojan virus because of this. As Steve Gibson says, we are FAR more likely - even on dialup - to be hacked from the inside than the outside, and for this alone, ZoneAlarm is a very useful tool.

U-96

[cs7smj]

got it and its great

[Algee7]

I wouldn't hesitate to recommened ZA to everyone. My only prob is that I have to shut it down to do live web edit with FP2000. Otherwise it's the best free d/l I've seen in a long, long time!

[Smokey]

The first couple versions I had, were a little buggy, such as adding EVERY program to the Programs list, rather than just the ones that access the internet. I've also had a couple other minor problems, but they were easy to fix. All in all, it seems like a great thing! I've given the address to some of my friends too...

[pickel]

Using Zone Alarm on both mine and my daughters machines. Best thing ever!!!!!
Thanks Zone Labs and Steve Gibson for providing these wonderful, mind settling programs.

The pickel

[buddmann]

I have it on my and wife's systems, it works great for us witout any problems whatsoever,even with our dial-ups.

buddmann

[Amarok]

2 thumbs up here.....

been using it since version 1.x????? can remember yesterday for that matter.... have recommended it to alot of people.

the original version i had only watched traffic going out, which is what I wanted as BID did not do this. Still run both BID and ZA.

Best two programs I have found and the easiest to configure.

[neo_otyugh]

have had it for a month or two, always running at most secure settings, never had a problem yet. if you are running file and print sharing on your network, do not ding file and print sharing to tcp/ip, bind them to IPX/SPX. tcp/ip is the protocol used on the internet, and almost anyone trying to access your system will be using tcp/ip

[buitenb]

got it also and it works great because i am running win 2000 and conseal for nt refused to work

jakob