Is Zonealarm Even Needed Anymore?

[robbins]

I tried installing Zonealarm on Windows 7 and it did not work. It got me thinking, is it even needed anymore? Is the Windows 7 firewall good enough, along with a good anti-virus program?

 

[zigzag3143]

I tried installing Zonealarm on Windows 7 and it did not work. It got me thinking, is it even needed anymore? Is the Windows 7 firewall good enough, along with a good anti-virus program?

Im afraid a software firewall other than win 7 is needed in my opinion. Zone Alarm had the market cornered back when but there are other options these days. I use Eset Smart Secutiy (NOD32 plus firewall) and love it. Others have had problems with ESS's firewall but I have it running on 4 boxes with no problems.

Everyone has their own favorites but I haven't seen ZAP being chosen at all.

Ken

 

[Victek]

I tried installing Zonealarm on Windows 7 and it did not work. It got me thinking, is it even needed anymore? Is the Windows 7 firewall good enough, along with a good anti-virus program?

.
If you'd like to try a third party firewall with program control - similar to ZA in some ways - look at PrivateFirewall 6.1 which is freeware.

</title> <meta name="description" content="Privacyware - Advanced Threat Prevention and Security Intelligence Solutions"> <meta name="keywords" content="personal firewall, intrusion prevention, host intrusion prevention, security information manageme

 

[Captain Zero]

Allow me to decent, then, from the prevailing view here.

An external or additional software firewall is not needed.

The firewall provided with all NT-based OS' is extremely robust. And, properly configured, is a very viable solution for protecting a PC - or several PCs.

With Windows 7, the usability of the built-in firewall makes it all the more effective, allowing users to configure many advanced features easily, even if most were present in previous versions.

Out of the box, the Windows 7 firewall (by default) is soundly setup and is effective almost immediately. Of course, the software firewalls are not as reliable as a hardware fireall but that's another topic.

For now, Windows 7 users need only rely on the fireall provided to them with the OS.

 

[Sassa]

I agree with Captain Zero...
Just for the info... I found this on ZoneAlarm site:

ZoneAlarm® Antivirus 9.0 Beta

ZoneAlarm Antivirus includes both Antivirus and the award-winning Firewall. It prevents and disables most recent and sophisticated viruses and PC attacks.

• New in this beta program:
• • Windows 7 compatibility. This is our second public beta compatible with Windows 7
  (32 and 64 bit). Also works on XP and Vista.
• • New Antivirus engine. Faster and more effective than our previous engine.

The following minimum requirements are recommended for the best performance levels and experience with our software. Installing our software on computers that do not meet these requirements is possible but will result in a lower-quality user experience, and in particular slower performance.
Recommended minimum software, operating system, and hardware:

• Microsoft® Windows® 7:
• 2 GHz 32-bit processor, 2 GB RAM
• 2 GHz 64-bit processor, 4 GB RAM
• Microsoft Windows, XP SP2 or SP3, Home or Professional Edition:
• 1 GHz 32-bit processor, 1GB RAM
• Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 or SP2 :
• 2 GHz 32-bit processor, 2 GB RAM
• 2 GHz 64-bit processor, 4 GB RAM
• 250MB of available hard-disk space.

ZoneAlarm security software works with most types of TCP/IP connections including Ethernet LAN, wireless LAN, DSL, cable modem, and dial-up connections.
The idea resolution for ZoneAlarm security software is 1024 x 768 or higher. Some software screens might not display properly at resolutions of 800 x 600 or lower.
Known Issues

• When upgrading ZoneAlarm you may see "installation failed" during the installation process. The install will still succeed.
• ZoneAlarm's Anti-Virus is incompatible with Kaspersky AV and Kaspersky Internet Security Suite.
• Upgrades from Vista to Windows 7 are not supported.
• ZoneAlarm may fail to install on Windows 7 in VMWare and on some Intel network cards.You may download the latest compatible Intel driver from here.

 

[zigzag3143]

sassa

By agreeing with Capt Zero are you saying the win 7 firewall is enough, or are you saying that zone alarm is preferred? I was a strong ZAP proponent until recently, I beta tested since XP till now but just had too many problems. What i locked onto was the last paragraph about the unsupported things.

Ken

 

[Captain Zero]

One additional point on this to clarify...

There's reason enough to avoid a third-party firewall (even though, I too was a big proponent of ZA thoughout the XP years) in that the additional layer and 'hooks' that ZA introduce into the system are not only superfluous but redundant. Consider that ZA *must* use core elements of the TCP stack already present in the OS. That means, that all you're doing by using ZA is providing another interface for the firewall that already exists in the OS.

Much the same way AOL, STEAM and other applications use the Internet Explorer rendering engine to display its pages, ZA relies on core elements of the fireall already built into the OS to function. It simply adds another layer of bloat and dubious functionality, at best.

 

[Sassa]

sassa

By agreeing with Capt Zero are you saying the win 7 firewall is enough, or are you saying that zone alarm is preferred? I was a strong ZAP proponent until recently, I beta tested since XP till now but just had too many problems. What i locked onto was the last paragraph about the unsupported things.

Ken

I agreed wit him about windows firewall (it works fine for me)
I was big fan of ZA too, but ZA ls long forgotten.
I found that beta thing is interesting...

 

[KazeNoKoe23]

ZoneAlarm hasn't been necessary for at least 3 years IMO, and I used to love that firewall.

 

[pparks1]

I haven't used anything but the Windows firewall and a router based firewall for a number of years and haven't needed anything stronger. Of course, I'm also not an avid user of p2p apps, and torrents, and IRC stuff either...so my surfing is pretty secure. In the rare event that I need to hit a site of questionable content..I just fire up a virtual machine like Puppy Linux with firefox and use that instead.

 

[Sassa]

ZoneAlarm hasn't been necessary for at least 3 years IMO, and I used to love that firewall.

Me too, but when I passed from XP to Vista I stopped using it...

 

[logicearth]

I haven't used anything but the build in firewall for several years now. I also have the additional protection of a hardware firewall on my main router so it never was an issue to even turn it off.

 

[gamepro127]

I agree with Captain Zero...
Just for the info... I found this on ZoneAlarm site:

Recommended minimum software, operating system, and hardware:

• Microsoft® Windows® 7:
• 2 GHz 32-bit processor, 2 GB RAM
• 2 GHz 64-bit processor, 4 GB RAM

2GHZ Processor? 2GB of RAM? IS ZoneAlarm THAT heavy on resources?
DANG!
Try COMODO, good on resources. Others good:
ESET NOD32, Microsoft security essentials.

 

[torrentg]

I Insalled the recent beta for Win7 and after a reboot following the install, my disk usage was at 100% continuously, in resource monitor. Explorer.exe and a svchost.exe were problematic. I uninstalled and 7 was cool again. I dunno. They need to fix this because I really like ZA when it is proper.

 

[swarfega]

Ive not used a software firewall for several years I feel that the router and windows firewalls is enough.

 

[Joan Archer]

I'm another that used to be a big fan of ZoneAlarm, I had the Pro version when I was using WinME and also on my XP for a while but when I got the Vista computer I just used the built in one.

I also uninstalled it from the XP machine, it started to get too bloated so I went with the built in firewall plus good AV's on both machines behind a secure router.

 

[DirtRider]

I was using ZA IS with my Vista and when I moved to 7 it would not work. On contacting ZA I got the reply well bad luck you are running a beta OS. SO I will never use ZA again. I still have a good few month active on my version

 

[tw33k]

+1 for no 3rd party firewall. Like many others here, I used ZA for a long time but stopped using it a while ago. Windows firewall is all you need

 

[Barman58]

Just to add my own experience ....

The fact that a correctly configured hardware firewall will beat any PC based software firewall is not in dispute.

With the nature of a lot of home and small business networks where the system security is perhaps not at the level of a typical managed enterprise system, external protection is not the only concern

A local software firewall does go a long way to protecting your system from "the other Idiot", the family member or work colleague that is not as careful as you are, or is "Just Curious".

Once a problem is inside the perimeter provided by the gateway firewall a software firewall can prevent the spread of an infection, or other issues.

I personally prefer a 3rd party solution, due to familiarity, but I will agree that, correctly configured, the Windows Firewall does provide good protection

 

[TheSchaft]

Well stated, Barman58. I also believe that the majority of risk to home systems are the users in the house, as you stated.

I used ZA from when it first was available, and used SonicWALL as a hardware firewall on my home systems. I used them both (obviously not at the same time) so that I could see what was being sent out as well as what was coming in. ZA deleted too much from the freeware version, and the SonicWALL finally gave up the ghost. I switched to COMODO at that time, since I didn't have a lot of faith in the built-in XP firewall.

Now, I use Windows 7 firewall and the Windows 7 Firewall Controller on one system and COMODO on the other two systems. All systems use MSE and WinPatrol also.

If it looks like COMODO can do the job, I'll use it on all the systems when I get the final version of WIndows 7 next month. If it looks like Windows 7 firewall is holding its own, I'll go with that. Either way, I'll keep the AV software.