I always come back to Zone Alarm

Yep, I thought so too. PC 1 in my sig. is tight as well...ZoneAlarm is to heavy for it too even some of the older versions of it.

 

Both of your systems are really not up to par. Most systems have 1 gig of ram. You don't even have 1 gig between 2 machines. My desktop is 3.0 P4 with 1 gig of ram and my laptop has a 2.4 duel core with 2 gigs of ram. I never notice any slow downs at all. my biggest problem with Comodo and OA are browsing slow downs not system slow downs. BTW my cousin only has an 800 Ghz AMD with 512 ram and he also has ZAAS with no slow downs. Sure its ZAAS causing it? What version are you using?

 

PC 2 works very well actually. Notice the processing speed b/w the two I think that has a lot to do with things too.

As to ZA I have used a few of the later versions of free 5. I had ZA Pro 4.5 it worked o.k. on PC 2 but still memory useage was high I thought at the time. It has been so long please don't ask me what it was. I just can not remember. With other lighter choices in FWs I just moved on.

Finally, I look forward to getting me a new machine soon with 2 Gig of memory...maybe I will do my part and spend some of this "Tax Rebate" money (in USA) they keeping talking about on the news shows.

 

Well those versions were years ago. Try version 7. You cannot base your decision and remarks based on outdated versions of a product.

 

Yes me too, I´ve tried a lot of firewalls but at the end of the day I keep coming back to ZAP, it´s just the easiest to use/understand firewall out there, perfect for people who want to have inbound/outbound protection and nothing more. But eventhough I kind of like the GUI, it could use a more professional look though, and better protection against leaktest techniques (like Comodo, Outpost) would also be nice. Other minus points: their forum sucks major *ss and the first v7 versions screwed up my machine. Also (somebody else already mentioned this) for some reason, programs who didn´t ask for network connections still end up in the "Program Control" list.

Yes, I also noticed this, I always thought that ZAP delayed boot time quite a lot, but after defragging my bootfiles, my machine takes only about 90 seconds to boot.

 

Well I have used other firewall programs and they add programs to there menu even if it doesn't need internet access. It builds a safe list. Comodo and Online Armor do this. When ZA adds a program to the list even though it doesn't need internet access thats cause it wants to know what the program does. As far as leak tests I got ZA to pass anything I threw at it even the latest Shut Down Simulator. Matousec rates ZA right under Comodo,Outpost and Online Armor. Its in the top 6. I use ZAAS not ZA free. ZA free does not have the OS firewall protection. All other products do.

 

Can the ZoneAlarm Pro version co-exist with AVs like NOD32?
Just out of curiosity: how does one defrag bootfiles?

 

Diesel uses TuneXP, which claims to be able to do that.

 

OK, thanks Fuzzfas. Are there any other programs that are able to perform the same task?

 

I really have no idea...

 

Hi Stijnson,

Check out this link:

http://arstechnica.com/guides/tweaks/sgp-tweaks.ars

It should help you to defrag your Boot file.

 

I use Perfectdisk 8 for my boot files. Works awesome.

 

Yes, it can I'm using ZoneAlarm Pro with Nod32 it works excellent, it's the best combination of both, it works smoothly.

 

Hi, Dieselman!
It's nice to see someone testest ZAPro or ZAAS for leak-tests, so you're saying that ZAPro passes all of thos leak-tests on firewallleaktester.com and Matousec's website, and do you mean on the latest version of ZA?

 

Actually the fact that it doesn't bug you is probably an indicator it doest have the ability to ahem... perform the same task others might be bugging you about.

 

Wrong.................what I mean by bugging is that I can actually do things on my clean pc without a firewall asking me allow or deny. I can uninstall drivers and other things free and clear. Zone Alarm is just as good as Comodo and Online Armor.

 

Sorry but I disagree.
For some reasons many users think that "No Noise" from a security tool is superior in design... However the fact is that no noise is most often a side effect of poor functionality and even detection. You can often "hide" poor security in making it quiet... Besides a full Blown HIPS is an obvious power tool to have in any system. Unfortunately it requires users making decisions... that is the problem and not a sign of weakness in an application.

The unfortunate reality is that AI built into all products I have ever worked with is currently incapable to make appropriate decisions on all aspects of process managements. It needs user interaction to work effectively where it fails to recognize hostiles or encounters unknown components. The software giving you an opportunity to make that decision is superior in providing security than those who would simply ignore the condition and keep it quiet... This is true even if the user makes a poor selection.

 

Comodo and Online Armor are only slightly better. Read here.

http://www.matousec.com/projects/windows-personal-firewall-analysis/leak-tests-results.php

 

Just because a firewall is not bugging every 5 minutes does not mean its doing its job. I like Online Armor but my pings are lower when I game. As far as Comodo goes..............its fine if you never update or do anything with your pc. I updated Steam and WOW and had 800 pending files after words. Whats that all about. My mother tried Comodo and was overwhelmed by all the pop ups. She has no idea what to do. ZA is more user friendly is more polished then Comodo 3.0. Comodo 2.4 was a great product.

 

I dont..................Everytime I used Comodo and Online Armor and tried to updated my Nvidia drivers I was bugged like crazy. ZA doesnt bug you with everyday things but any leak test I through at it it past.

 

Given that the thread discussion has pretty much ran it's course in regards to one users reasons for their firewall selection and given that We're heading down a no win this vs that discussion, We'll bring this one to a close.

Bubba