is the free zone alarm any good?

at the moment i'm using the xp2 firewall - how good this is i don't know -does it stop trojans from transmitting info out of the pc onto the net?

as i'm on a dial-up connection i haven't taken firewalls very seriously as i was under the impression you only needed one if you were using always on broadband. having become aware of keyloggers and what they can do i'm not so sure now so i'm thinking of installing a freebie firewall - zone alarm is favourite.

is zone alarm any better than xp2 firewall? or do i have to pay for a commercial version to get sufficient protection? (assuming commercial versions are any better)

does it detect trojans? does it block them? does it alert you?

 

I also use the free ver.6 Zonealarm and it does seem to run well.

 

hi Ronjor - thanks for the reply - i think perhaps my topic title should have been are free firewalls any good or do you get what you pay for?

naturally it's nice to get something for free but as the cost of missing a trojan can be so high i do wonder if i should go for a commercial product?

 

i see in another post you run kerio free as well BigC. do you run them both at the same time or do you have a favourite?

 

i guess the main reason i want to install a firewall is to stop trojans sending data out of the pc - i would like to know if Zone Alarm can stop that before installing. - perhaps Kaspersky is a better way to go?

 

There are many free firewalls which do a great job, perhaps even better than many of the ones you have to pay for. Just because you spend money on it, doesn't always guarantee it's any better.

 

i will give the free zone alarm a go and then consider whether to go for kaspersky as well - which seems to be the best at detecting trojans.

 

i've installed free zone alarm to try it out

 

zone alarm installed

ok i installed zone alarm free - rebooted the computer and it came up with a message asking me to view the video - when i tried to connect to the internet nothing happened - it seems that zone alarm had automatically locked internet access - once i unlocked it i was able to logon.

if this was the case it would have been nice of zone alarm to let me know it had done this rather than leave me scrabbling around wondering what had happened to all my internet connections. things are often unclear when starting a program for the first time - it takes time to become familiar with it.

it also says it can't detect any anti-virus running which must be news to AVG as it is sitting there monitoring.

let's hope it's ability to detect the bad guys is better than it's detection of the good guys.

 

it's there - but whether it's detecting any viruses or trojans is another question entirely

 

I change them around every so often just for something to do. I never have two firewalls installed at the same time though. At the present time I like the new version of ZA pretty well it does't have a performance like some of the past versions did.

 

performance? did the older versions sing and dance? (i presume you mean performance issues)

 

it's a jungle out there Ronjor

 

(performance drag.) Sorry about that. It is pretty good but I don't know if it could dance or not

 

Although not the free version, i run a long obsolete version of ZA+(no updates now for a year) and continue to stick with it as it runs very well on my machine and has never let me down.


snowbound

 

at the moment it's alerting me about every 10 minutes telling me it's blocked access from some IP address or other, including what appears to be my main internet provider - i think it's trying to impress me so i won't swap it for something else

 

that's encouraging news Snowbound - i'm still not totally convinced there isn't some sneaky keylogger in my system transmitting all my online transaction details.

 

ZA is outstanding in all regards. And it's free. Version 6 is the best release yet, without a doubt.

 

well it's running now in place of xp2 firewall ( i wonder how good that is?)

 

Toploader,
You have already gotten some good advice from some of the best around the Wilders, but I would add this.

If you are on a PC budget like me, (tho I bought Out Post Pro with Life Time upgrades), go with a free software firewall and spend your $$ elsewhere. A trojan killer app. of your choice. Or perhaps an AV that is payware that has more features to work with, if you are using free. Perhaps some data backup apps. Firewalls need only be paid for if you want the additional features. I also believe out of all security products for your machine there are lots of excellent free choices of firewalls. More then any other security app.

Firewalls that are free work fine when compared to pay ones. Pay ones load you up with features. You may not want or need that burden your system.