Why, Oh Why Did I Upgrade?
Written: Nov 20 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Touted by many as a good firewall program
Cons: Experienced by one (this one) as a disaster
The Bottom Line: If you have a valid license key, God bless you and have fun! If you haven't tried this program yet...there are definitely alternatives.
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| denverbrian's Full Review: ZoneAlarm Pro 4 |
I've been a user of ZoneAlarm's free home version for some time. Recently I saw ZoneAlarm Pro 4 on sale for $24.95 and decided to give it a try.
So far, it's been one crisis after another.
While the free version is extremely simple to set up and use for basic firewall protection, ZA Pro appears to have been created and produced by the geekiest of programmers, all of whom put their own little quirks and nooges into the program.
Some examples:
--ZoneAlarm Pro doesn't seem to like attached Pocket PC PDAs very much. For a while after installing the software, my USB connection would disconnect, then reconnect, ad infinitum. A soft reboot did not solve the problem; a hard reboot seems to have settled things down. (No, my connections aren't loose.)
--While the home version never noticed, ZoneAlarm Pro breathlessly tells me there's a network on my system. (No, there isn't.) It then proceeds to tell me absolutely NO details about what this network supposedly is or where it's coming from. It does, however, really want me to name this mystery network.
--Worst of all, the program installed over my free version and then used information from the old, free home version to tell me that my "license key" had expired, and would I like to "renew" it - for another $30. This even though the box that ZoneAlarm Pro comes in specifically touts "12 months of Free Updates."
ZoneAlarm's technical support is, frankly, appalling. Phone support is only available for a fee; supposed "live chat" is actually one of those virtual, dumb branching tree systems that can't make heads or tails out of my issues; and e-mailing tech support produces a form response 24 hours later that tells me "your license key has expired. Would you like to buy a new one?"
So, depending on how the outcome of my rant in the ZoneAlarm forum goes, I will likely go back to another good alternative firewall program - BlackICE Defender. Of course, I'm out $25 for a program that quite simply doesn't work as advertised.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
denverbrian
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Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 0 members
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