I haven't really been interested in firewalls or any Internet security until my computer got hacked, and my whole windows folder was deleted. Therefore, causing me to format my drive and losing many thousands of dollars worth of software.

After that occurred, I decided to look into firewall software. I did a search for firewalls on CNET's download.com. From the 100 results I received, ZoneAlarm looked the best. I decided to try it out.

It worked very well for me. I looked into the options, and asked some of my friends who are security technicians to test out my security. It turns out that Zone Alarm has stealth mode. Stealth mode makes all of your computers ports invisible to others.

Hackers would not even know that an Internet connection on your computer exists. You can choose whether or not you want to allow other users to ping you, or telnet to your IP address.

Installation of Zone Alarm goes very well. It only takes a few seconds to install, and the steps are clearly explained making it easy for people with very little computer experience to install the program. The installation program is also quite small, taking up only about 1MB of hard drive space. Once installed, it takes up about 1.3MB of space.

Each time a program tries to access the Internet you get confirmation asking if you want to allow the program to access the Internet. This option makes it very easy to know whether a Trojan is downloaded to your computer, because every time the Trojan tries to access the Internet you will know about it and be able to disallow it.

If you feel that something suspicious is going on, or your Internet connection will be inactive for a while you have the option of turning on Internet lock. Internet lock will stop all Internet activity, but (if using a dial-up connection) will not disconnect you. All downloads and all programs that are accessing the Internet will be stopped.

With ZoneAlarm you can choose your security level. I have the default option set (Local: Medium and Internet: High)
With high security level it has stealth mode on which hides all ports, not in use by a program. With medium, it has everything that high offers, except without stealth mode. It is recommended to use the default security setting with ZoneAlarm.

ZoneAlarm informs you every time a program, or the Internet is trying to access your computer. By default some are automatically blocked, and with others you have the option of blocking. Sometimes ZoneAlarm automatically blocks some of the AOL Instant Messenger program if you have it open first, and then open ZoneAlarm. If you use AOL Instant Messenger you should first open ZoneAlarm then connect.

ZoneAlarm also records a log of every attempt of a "hack" or when someone tries to do a port scan on your computer. The log can be accessed and looked at any time.

ZoneAlarm is a free program. A "pro" version of ZoneAlarm can be purchased. The pro version is basically the same as the normal one, but the automatic reporting option is added.

I have used ZoneAlarm for quite a bit. So far, it has been great for me. It has blocked NetBIOS attacks, and many port scan attempts. I feel a lot more secure with ZoneAlarm open, and highly recommend it to anyone that needs a lot of extra security to their computer.

Recommended: Yes