REVISED(7/7/04)-The only one that passed the "Leak test"!
Written: Aug 24 '00 (Updated Jul 07 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Free, easy to install and use. Blocks spyware from accessing the internet.
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: This free firewall software program should be one program that everyone installs and run, especially nowadays with worms, spyware and trojans floating around
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| maceyr's Full Review: Zone Alarm |
***Update***Dec. 15th
ZoneLab's ZoneAlarm firewall program was the only firewall program that passed Gibson Research's new Leak Test designed to test the security of firewall programs. Not Norton, Sygate, BlackIce, etc. They all failed. This affirms my belief in the quality of ZoneLab's ZoneAlarm firewall program to protect my computer from potential hackers. For more information on the "Leak test", please check out my review on Shields Up!
http://www.epinions.com/cmd-review-5495-C395D1A-3A3A5F47-prod1
I was never much into getting firewall protection or gotten as paranoid before I stumbled upon a site that talked about how easy it was for someone to access your computer and your files not to mention all your passwords and whatever else you store on your computer. There were horror stories of someone discovering in the middle of the night that his computer was chatting with someone else. He'd read all the stuff that was going on and when he moved his mouse, everything stopped. That was horrifying, to discover that someone, anyone anywhere in the world can so easily take over your computer and do everything that you can do. That means, moving, deleting, changing, adding files, etc. This is not a joke. If you have what they call a back door program installed on your computer, someone can take over your computer. Think about the Remote Administrator program, the GoToMyPC program and other similar software. The convenience of accessing your computer from any computer while you're away can also be used by a con, hacker, cracker to steal your passwords, information, or make your computer a "zombie", to be used in DoS (Denial of service) attacks against a website. Your computer could be taken over along with many other zombie computers to bring down a website, all at the whim of someone. Would you want that?
At the advice of a friend, I went and downloaded Zonelab's ZoneAlarm program. It was free and was easy to install and use. You need to register your name and email address if you wanted to be reminded of new updates. They'll ask you a few questions about where you're using the software, how many computers you have and your internet connection. Once you get it installed, you'll notice an icon on your system tray. Zone Alarm is already running. You can go through a brief tutorial that shows you how Zone Alarm works and get a better understanding of the settings and features. Or, if you're already familiar with it, you can easily skip the tutorial and have it run.
Although it's been about 4 years since I first reviewed the program and it's changed, the main interface and features are very similar. Here's an update of what the program is like and its features.
On the left, there are 6 options: Overview, Firewall, Program Control, Anti-virus monitoring, Email protection, Alerts & logs.
In Overview, there are three tabs: Status, Product info, Preferences.
Status shows you the number of blocked intrusions, inbound protection, outbound protection, email protection, anti-virus monitoring.
Product info shows the version information, licensing information, support and update information, registration.
Preferences shows the current preferences settings. You can easily change whether ZA will check for updates automatically or manually, whether to load ZA at startup, color scheme, and the level of privacy when contacting ZoneLabs.
In Firewall, there are two tabs: Main and Zones. In Main, you can set and change the level for Internet Zone Security (High, Medium, Low), Trusted Zone Security (High, Medium, Low). When set at high, it is in "stealth mode" where you are "hidden". In medium, your computer can be seen by computers and in Low, firewall is off. The recommended setting is High for Internet Zone and Medium for Trusted Zone. If you don't have a home network, there is no reason to have it at medium for Trusted zone so you should put it at High.
If you click on the "Advanced" button at the bottom, there's a pop up window where you can check or uncheck for the following: Block trusted zone servers, block internet zone servers, allow uncommon protocols at high security, allow outgoing DNS/DHCP in trusted zone on high setting, allow outgoing DNS/DHCP in internet zone on high setting, lock host file. If you check the first two, you won't be able to access the internet since you've blocked it so make sure you don't check those.
In the Zones tab, you can view the current zones you've set up. You can add or change the zones by adding the ip address, host site, ip range, subnet. So, if there's an intranet that you want to access at medium security, you'll have to add that to the trusted zone.
In Program Control, it will list all the programs that has asked for permission to access the internet. There are two columns: Access and Server. Within each column they are broken into Trusted and Internet columns. You have the option of allowing (check), denying (X) or prompt for permission (?). If you allow a program to access the internet, it won't pop up a window and ask for permission everytime. If you deny access to a program, it isn't allowed and there's no more pop ups. If you set it to prompt for permission, every time that program accesses the internet, it will pop up a window, requesting for permission. Initially, when you're using a new program, this is a good idea to have it ask you for permission. Why? That's because, you can monitor how often it tries to access the net without your permission. If you install something like Real Player, there's an update portion that will keep trying to access the internet. If you set it access, you wouldn't know how often it would try to access the net. So, Zone Alarm is a great way to detect all the spyware that you may mistakenly and unknowningly have installed. So, until you are satisfied that it's not spyware, better keep it to ask for permission.
In Anti-virus monitoring Zone Alarm monitors your anti-virus program.
In Email protection you can set the MailSafe setting to on or off.
In Alerts and Logs, there are two tabs: Main and Log viewer.
In the Main tab, you can set the alerts logging on or off. If on, it will pop up a window every time someone pings you or sends a data packet to your computer. At the bottom, there is an Advanced button. Clicking it will pop up a window for more settings you can review and change.
You can check or uncheck "Archive log text files daily", set the log archive location, delete the archive log, and the formatting of the log in either tab, comma, semicolon delimited format.
In Log Viewer tab, you are shown the last set of alerts with a brief set of details on the alert such as the rating (medium, high) time and date of the occurrence, type (firewall, changed program, new program, repeat program), protocol (TCP, UDP), program, source ip (the ip address of the source that sent the packet), destination ip (the ip address of its target), direction (incoming, outgoing), action (allowed, blocked), count (number of times of request), source dns, destination dns. At the bottom, you can add an entry to a zone or request for more details on the alert. Requesting more information will take you to Zone Lab's website with more information on the alert. That's when you're contacting Zone Labs. If you have originally set the program to hide your ip address from Zone Labs, that's when your settings are applied.
Overall, the free version of Zone Alarm works very well. Because it's free and there's enough frequent updates (once every month or so), and the updating is very easy and without any glitches or problems, I really don't have any complaints. As I've mentioned, I've been using this for about 4 years. The free version is limited in features compared to the paid version. I can't set specific ports certain settings but the free version does a good job of protecting me from worms, and hacks. And compared to many other free software firewalls, there hasn't been any major security problems that's been uncovered by any sources. Sure, that's almost a false sense of security, but at least it sounds better than other competitors where certain vulnerabilities have been discovered and disclosed. I think Zone Labs tries very hard to make sure that all updates won't disclose any new holes for hackers to hack.
If you want an easy to use software firewall that works silently, and blocks unauthorized programs from accessing the net, then Zone Alarm has and is a great free program. It costs you nothing, takes hardly much expertise or time to install and run. And once it's running, you don't have to think about it. What else can you ask for?
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ORIGINAL REVIEW
There are five tabs that you can access: Alerts, Lock, Security, Programs, Configure. Alerts will show you a list of alerts of potential "pings" or "probes" into your computer. Basically, a computer with Zone alarm installed will not provide any information back to the originator of a "ping" so you could seem invisible to the world, but more advanced computer users discover you via other means. You can also save a list of alerts in a text file (in case you want to send it to your local cable access provider to complain to them).
Lock basically allows you enable or disable internet access either immediately (like a panic button) or via other criteria like when screensaver is activated, or after a set time, etc.
Security sets the security zone for Internet and Local access. It's probably easier to leave the settings where they are, unless you want extra security. I have mine set on high for both zones.
Programs lists all the programs that you have allowed or disallowed internet access. There is also what they call a "pass lock". If you check that, you will allow that particular program to still access the net even when you've enabled the lock (and provided that you've checked that under the "lock" tab).
Configure allows you to check or uncheck selections for "on top during internet activity", "load ZoneAlarm at start up" and "check for updates automatically".
When you originally run it, every alert will "pop up" which can be a bit annoying. You can disable it by unchecking the "pop up" option when the alert pops up. You can always enable it by going back to "Alerts" and checking it. Another good thing about ZoneAlarm is that before any internet application connects to the internet, ZoneAlarm will ask you whether you give it permission to do so. This is a great feature to monitor any "free" utility programs that "spy" on you. You may be surprised to find some software wants to "phone home" and download data collected on your surfing habits without your knowledge. Such programs that are considered spyware are Go!Zilla, PKzip, etc.
I used to not be as paranoid about the internet before I got cable access but I found out how vulnerable my computer was to be hacked by going to this site:
http://www.grc.com
and clicking their "Shields Up"
You can find out how much information they can find about you and your computer. Thank goodness, ZoneAlarm blocked all probes and pings and access to my computer, for now....
Also, to add to my paranoia, I've checked a few more sites on the subject and on Back Orifice:
http://www.nwi.net/~pchelp/bo/bobasics.htm
http://www.nwi.net/~pchelp/
Beware that Back Orifice and other programs like it can be embedded into a lot of "free" utility software, game, email attachments (like ecards). And once installed, people can access everything on your computer and it's pretty hard to get rid of.
But I have checked a few more helpful sites:
http://www.antionline.com
http://www.safersurfer.com
Always, I think that knowledge is king.
So far, I haven't encountered any problems with ZoneAlarm. The only annoying thing I find is that I get the occasional alert. I'd recommend this for anyone who uses programs such as ICQ, Napster, or any other programs that allow you to interact with others via an open port. At least, you can be a bit more secure than before.
Thanks for taking the time to read and rate my review.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
maceyr
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Location: Canada
Reviews written: 129
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About Me:
I hardly have time for Epinions anymore but do try to read and rate.
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