Zone alarm is A easy to use Free firewall.. protecting both inbound and out bound.. ZoneAlarm is Completely free for individual and not-for-profit charitable entity use (but not governmental entities and educational institutions)... System Requirements: Windows 98SE/ME/2000 Pro/XP. Pentium III 450 MHz or higher. 50MB of available hard disk space. Internet access. Minimum system RAM: 48MB (98SE/ME), 64MB (2000 Pro), 128MB (XP). CLCIK HERE TO DOWNLOAD BASH18

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i just use the one that comes with windows xp.

its really good fast and reliable and i havent had any troubles with it to date.

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I heard that Zone Alarm is one of the best firewall programs out there? Is it really as good as they say"

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Well...it's free, doesn't take up much hard drive space, and is pretty easy on system resources (I'm on WinXP, incidentally). The only time ZoneAlarm's ever popped up to alert me about anything was when I launched a program, like RealPlayer or something like that, that needed to access the Internet.

Overall, it's not bad. At least it's free, so if you hate it you can uninstall without thinking of all the money you wasted on the thing.

But the firewall that comes with WinXP is pretty good too.

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The only problem that I have with Zone Alarm is that if you are using the free version and have networked computers like I do for internet connection sharing you have to lower your internet protection from HIGH (which is default) to medium or it will not let the client computers access the internet, only intranet functions. If you want to have HIGH set and let the clients use the ICS you have to buy their PRO version.

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Zone Alarm is one of the best firewalls out there.. the one that comes with Windows is too weak and unchangeable, there arent as many alerts so you cant really control what you want o come in or out of your computer.. zone alarm gives you total control to allow or deny any inbound or outbound operations, there may thebe the occasional alert taht you may not need but obviously this is a nick they want to use as a spur for people yto buy the pro edition. the free edition works a gem though, no problems with it for half a year

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I have some questions about Zone Alarm. I have people staying with me, and of course, they want to use my computer. I have had a few incedents already where Ad-aware and Spy-bot have picked up quite a few things, so I guess the people using my computer arent to careful.

Now with something like Zone Alarm, what would be the benifits of having it? Is there really more protection to it then the regular Windows XP sp2 firewall? But then again, I'm not totally sure what the firewall even does. I have a router, which I thought was suposed to keep some things away in itself, by haveing something like a different IP address then your computer. I don't know, thats just what I heard. I'm not great with security issues.

If I were to get Zone Alarm, or a similar program, what would I do with it? Do I have to customize things to it to keep my computer running right? I know I ask alot of questions, but I don't wanna have to go out and buy a new computer if this one gets hacked into and messed up or something.

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JustJoey pretty much summed up the difference between Zonealarm and XP firewall. a router, if supporting it, can be a hardware firewall. but it's much safer to have a software one as well, and not only depend on the router. i know someone who only used hardware, and they still got trojans and backdoors installed on their computer. If you've got a single computer, just set it to high on the slider, and you won't have to cutomise most of it. it'll do it automatically. And in a worst-case scenario as you described, getting hacked into or whatever, you'll at worst have to do a reformat. not buy a new one.

 

 

 

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Yes , I use Zone alarm Internet security suite .

Understanding Firewall protection :

In buildings, a firewall is a barrier that prevents a fire from spreading. In computers, the concept is similar. There are a variety of "fires" out there on the Internet-hacker activity, viruses, worms, and so forth. A firewall is a system that stops these attempts to damage your computer.

The ZoneAlarm security software firewall guards the "doors" to your computer-that is, the ports through which Internet traffic comes in and goes out. ZoneAlarm security software examines all the network traffic arriving at your computer, and asks these questions:

What Zone did the traffic come from and what port is it addressed to?
Do the rules for that Zone allow traffic through that port?
Does the traffic violate any global rules?
Is the traffic authorized by a program on your computer (Program Control settings)?
The answers to these questions determine whether the traffic is allowed or blocked.

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I have ZoneAlarm Pro and it came with my computer somehow so I don't really know why it came with but it's good and has anti-spyware anti-virus monitoring and things. I think it is a very good firewall

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