New ZoneAlarm + Antivirus combo

[vulcanised]

Still free, wonder if it's any good?

ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall - YouTube

[Waterfordman]

I wouldn't put Zone Alarm on a PC ever again. I have heard others say the same after it slowed their pc down and they like me started having problems with it, trying to remove it isn't easy either.

[green granite]

I've had it running for a couple of days here and it has got rid of a couple of niggles that avast was causing, and the system's a bit faster. How good it is at catching viruses will remain to be seen, but I wouldn't expect them to risk their reputation by putting out rubbish.

[vulcanised]

I'm currently running ZA and Avast, as I have been for several years without any related problems.

In a 'shall I, shan't I' situation now.

[Milo Minderbinder]

Past experience will tend to make me not use it on customers machines

1) Zone Alarm has had too long a list of "bad" updates blocking internet access. Tends to happen once or twice a year and when it does, its a major show-stopper, completely blocking internet access
2) For most average home users (and I accept that really doesn't apply to most of the readers here) third party firewalls are too much to cope with. Customers tend to get frustrated by the continual alerts and usually end up either disabling the firewall, or punching holes in it in error. For most peiople behind a router using NATS, the windows firewall of XP SP2 or later is adequate.
Only if the computer directly addresses the internet (eg through a USB ADSL modem, or a 3G dongle) would I think using a third party firewall worthwhile
3) I've not seen any reports on this version of the software, but past test reports have continuously shown Avast and Avira as having the "best" real-word virus detection rates. Both are usually in the top four or five. Zone Alarm AV is usually well behind. Having said that, the validity of any such test is very hard to prove

[Mike-Bracknell]

Vulcanised, for the past 6 years I've looked after over 150 PCs on my own that are in daily use everywhere. None of them have ZoneAlarm, ALL of them have Windows Firewall. None have ever been compromised from outside and none of the users have ever reported issues with speed associated to a firewall.

You may have seen my previous posts on the matter - i'm just glad the people above are starting to validate my standpoint.

Mike.

[Mac the Knife]

All this stuff - McAfee, Norton, Avast, Avira, ZoneAlarm etc., etc. - been thru it all over the years.

Don't run that much MS these days but Windows Firewall and Microsoft Security Essentials do just fine.

If you need more, run BSD

Mac :ok:

[vulcanised]

Quite understand what you're saying Mike and I have exactly the same experience here with one PC and ZA+Avast.

Sometimes wonder if this whole thing is to be regarded in the same light as the 'millenium bug'.

[Tarq57]

I've had it running for a couple of days here and it has got rid of a couple of niggles that avast was causing, and the system's a bit faster. How good it is at catching viruses will remain to be seen, but I wouldn't expect them to risk their reputation by putting out rubbish.

Just curious, what niggles was Avast causing?

[green granite]

Nothing particularly serious, removing it has got rid of my un-named 'waiting for program to close' message at shut down and it's halved the boot time. (and no it wasn't set to scan at boot)

[Capn Bloggs]

I used ZA for years, but it now just takes too much time getting itself organised. Every start it does a short system scan, insists on doing massive AV updates at what seems to be ridiculously short intervals, virtually locking the computer up whilst that happens. Especially on older machines with non-tech savvy users who don't notice the small update symbol in the tray, it's a bl@@dy nuisance.

It's gone from all my machines now; never missed the firewall; Windows firewall seems to work fine. I'm using Avast for because of various good reviews. Apart from the cryptic "sandbox" quarantining of sus programs, it runs well; no holdups/slowdowns, and even has a nice yank lady telling me she's just been updated.