Security with Ease
Written: Aug 04 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Free, easy to setup, easy to use, convenient and secure.
Cons: No trace-back tools, can cause problems with Internet games.
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| TheRaven's Full Review: Zone Alarm |
ZoneAlarm is a newcomer to the crowded battlefield of personal firewalls, but it comes armed with an impressive combination of stability, ease, and power.
ZoneAlarm is a personal firewall. The purpose of a personal firewall is to protect a single computer (the one running the software) from outside incursion. This type of software has gotten much more important with the coming of broadband access and 'always on' connections. Before broadband, there was little incentive for a hacker to probe or gain control of a home users computer. But with connections such as DSL and Cable Modems, the home computers is connected all the time to the Internet, with a high speed connection... perfect for use as proxies or dump sites for the common internet hacker.
Personal firewalls (including ZoneAlarm and other software in this category) protect Internet hackers from even gaining a toe-hold on your system. Their probes are rejected without even informing the hacker that a computer is present... for all the hacker knows, your system isn't even turned on. Even more, some products (including ZoneAlarm) also police the software on your computer. They prevent unauthorized software from contacting the Internet. This protects you from a growing line of programs known as 'trojans', that hide in your system and give a hacker a red carpet invitation into your computer.
ZoneAlarm is very easy to use. Its interface is simple and functional with five major screens. The first gives access to the list of 'Alerts', or possible attempts that have been made on your computer that were blocked by ZoneAlarm. The second allows you to 'lock' your computer while you are away, preventing all Internet access. This can also be automatically enabled when your screensaver activates. A third section allows you to configure the general security level of the program in three clear levels. I found no need to alter the default choices which were quite suitable for a normal user. The fourth dialog is the largest, enabling you to individually set the internet access levels for the Internet-using software on your system. And the last provides some minor general configuration settings for ZoneAlarm.
That's about it. ZoneAlarm is easy enough for any user who has some minor knowledge of the Internet to set up, and once set up, is perfectly transparent to the user. Firewall software has been notoriously unreliable for me, so I was literally amazed that ZoneAlarm never crashed on me, and never seemed to cause any problems in other software.
The only problem I have had with ZoneAlarm is with games. When a new program attempts to access the Internet, ZoneAlarm displays a dialog to the user, asking them if this new program should be allowed access. However, if you are trying to start a multiplayer game of StarCraft, this dialog does not display properly while you are in the game, and has locked up my computer. Game software needs to be set up while you are not in the game, by going to the programs dialog in ZoneAlarm, but this is an annoying side effect of the method ZoneAlarm uses to handle new software.
Other than that minor gripe, I am very pleased with ZoneAlarm. And best of all? It's free for personal use. Even for business use, the software is very affordable at $19.95 per computer. An excellent security solution for both the home and small business, I recommend ZoneAlarm highly.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
TheRaven
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Member: The Raven
Reviews written: 15
Trusted by: 14 members
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