Question about telling a newbie about a firewall

[notageek]

My cousin wants a firewall and she's a newbie to this kind of thing. I read that ZAP and ZAF have been giving people problems (I use sygate so I don't know). Should I still tell her to get ZAP or ZAF? I don't want to tell her to to use Sygate because Sygate let's everything have server rights even when they don't need server rights. I didn't want her to do a lot of work. I really want her to use a set and forget it type firewall but I'm worried ZAP or ZAF have to many problems and they it might mess up her computer and I will be the one that will have to fix it. Any ideas?

[AnthonyG]

Not sure if this is any help to you but i have tried quite a few firewalls (including both ZA's) and the absolute easiest and less hassle to run is not either of the Zone alarms. it is Mcafee Personal Firewall. It is simply ease in itself.

Also one thing to check is you might if you are using Broadband get it free, as i know of quite a few broadband companies who give it away free with a years subscription to there service.

But i personally made the change after a few different trials to Outpost pro. And to be honest it is quite possibly one of the best pieces of software that has ever been created. But if you want an easy "set it up and forget it" type firewall this outpost is definitely not for you.

Like i say its slightly off topic as you were asking about Zone alarm but i think it was worth mentioning.

[Devinco]

I have used ZAP for several years and was quite happy with it until I joined Wilder's. ZAP will pop up lots of cryptic pop ups like program X wants to connect to the internet. Or Program Y wants to act like a server.
Sure it is a little less cryptic than Oupost Pro's program x is trying to make an inbound TCP connection from IP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx port 80 to IP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx port 1035.
But it is still too much for a total newbie. They will not know what to allow and what to block.
I haven't looked at Mcafee, but from what Anthony says, I would definately consider that over ZAP.
Now if you are going to actually go over there and configure it for her, then you could run all the programs she is likely to run and set the permissions and configure it just right. Then there would only be pop ups when something new appears or is updated. That would be more okay. But if it is a remote situation, look for something easier, maybe Mcafee.

P.S. Outpost Pro is GREAT, just not as newbie friendly as ZAP.

[notageek]

Yeah I tried McAfee firewall awhile ago. I suggested McAfee or Norton (never tried norton, but heard some good things about it).

[Blackspear]

ZAF is fairly simple to use, just download 4.5.594 and don't upgrade until 5.5 comes out. I've used it for 10 years, 5.1.011 is the first upgrade that has caused me some grief, went back to 4.5.594 and all good again. I've installed several hundred ZAF for people...

Hope this helps...

Cheers ;D

[notageek]

How does ZAF do with XP SP2?