I am a long-time ZoneAlarm Personal Firewall user. I have chosen this firewall because it suited my needs, a free application to protect my computer from the everyday harms of the internet. Especially now, since I'm on DSL. Because my computer is connected to the internet more than usual, it is more suspectible to hackers.

Why should we use firewalls? It regulates incoming and outgoing connections. Therefore, if a virus or malicious application is installed on your system, it will not be able to send out messages or download a trojan application. In today's internet society, this is essential for a safe session on the internet. If you are not an everyday computer user, perhaps you will not need it. If the computer is an integral part of your life, you know you'll need it, today, or some time soon.

ZoneAlarm is a smart firewall that will adjust to your needs. It has a unique style of rule-making. For every new program you run the first time, it'll ask for your permission to let it access the internet. ZoneAlarm uses an intelligent checksum procedure to make sure that other programs do not pretend to be something else (viruses). This is a very useful ability that not many current firewalls have, but most are trying to achieve this. Also, it is simple to use. With a popup interface, you won't be bothered. Small yellow tabs popup asking you for permission, and if set in the options, it will warn about invalid connections. This is especially useful for those who want to watch their connection. If you choose not to have alert popups, they will simply be logged to an alert box, which you can see by restoring the Zonealarm window.

How it works? It filters incoming and outgoing packets. This is for both dial-up and broadband users. The software judges each program according to its rulebank and chooses which packets can go in and out. When some person out of no where decides to open a socket to your computer, it'll deny it.

Some people believe this will make hackers think that no such computers exist. While this is true for inexperienced hackers, experienced ones will not overlook this. ZoneAlarm provides NO response to unidentified pings. However, on the REAL internet, an ICMP unreachable would be sent to them from your ISP, which is not done in this case. If they were desperate, they would still know your computer is on. Generally, it WILL stealth your computer. Since most hackers are not dedicated enough to spend more than half an hour on trying to hack a victim, you will be safe. Unless, of course, a hacker is specifically targeting you and continously attempts new exploits. Even then, ZA will save your computer, because it'll be blocking incoming and outgoing connections that are unwanted.

ZoneAlarm provides a tray icon which shows you how much data is going in and out. I found this very useful, as it combines all my network access bandwidth usage. When the icon is double-clicked it reveals the control-panel, which is easy to use and has a simple interface.

Thank you for reading my Epinion. =)


Recommended: Yes