Recommended replacement for ZA free?

(I also posted this query over at avast, where I'm also a regular, in case you're active there too and it looks familiar.)

I suspect ZoneLabs will find they've pulled a major blunder with their new all-in-one approach -- I for one will not upgrade my ZA any more unless and until they back off and once again offer ZA by itself, and I'd bet they lose a lot of other faithful users too.

I'll stick with my 6.5.737 as long as it stays functional, but I'm fairly sure its days are numbered.

I know there's been suggestions here and there for other free firewalls, but it would be handy to see a nutshell summary here of the more popular ones along with a comparison of their respective pros and cons.

Thanks and best,
Mike

 

It's free,what do you want?You get what you pay for,correct?

 

Comodo. Probably the best free firewall out there. Relatively quiet, but does ask permission for things once in a while, good learning mode, light-weight, and good strong protection.

EDIT: Also look at this poll: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=160727. Comodo is clearly favoured among more people than any other firewall, and though not always is the most popular software the best, but in this case I'd say it is and for a good reason.

 

I've switched from ZA free to Sunbelt Kerio v4.3.635.0

It seems to offer a much higher level of protection than ZA free when installed in advanced mode.

The free version is fine but a 2 year licence is relatively inexpensive if your want the fully featured version.

http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm

 

id suggest Comodo as well.

 

Mike, you may want to checkout this site. But in a nutshell, Comodo FW is really hard to beat (for free or otherwise)!

 

Gosh I've swapped from Zonealarm free to Comodo to Sunbelt back to zonealarm back to Comodo and now back to zonealarm.. Zonealarm is easy to understand but not the best, Comodo seems to have great protection but I had problems with it not loading at start up and the constant warnings which I didn't understand (sometimes I would tick allow and then deny!) Then I couldn't connect to the internet. Good luck.

 

The new Sunbelt Kerio Firewall would be a decent compromise between ZA and Comodo. It sets up easily and is also easy to understand. It does use more memory than Comodo, and about the same as ZA Free, but when I tried it just last week I thought my PC ran better with SKPF than Comodo or ZA Free. I also liked the NIPS and Application Behavior Blocking Features that remain in the free version, and by adding Firefox to take care of most the Web features the Pro version has, and adding something like Cyberhawk to take care of the HIPS feature it also has, you basically have the Paid version. Just a thought, but Comodo is good. I just didn't like having to make a few rules for my Wireless Connection to work properly like I did with the latest release. Of course I've been happy with my AVG Firewall so what do I know? LOL. I am thinking about installing the new version of SKPF again as it was nice.

 

SKPF a decent compromise? - I don't think so... it gets a Poor rating here.

 

ZA (free) has always been offered as a standalone firewall without any of the additional AV, antispyware and privacy components. If you got those components, it means you must have downloaded one of the premium offerings and used the 15-day free trial.

 

Thanks, all. While obviously preferences are to a considerable extent personal and subjective, and therefore there's no clear-cut consensus, my personal inclination after reading your responses would be to take a good look at Comodo. That's when and if, that is, I can no longer use ZA, which I'm quite happy with (other than newest version) right now.

 

Hate to be the one to wake a happy sleeper, u_v. But the most recent version of ZA (now about 2 or 3 weeks old, I think) is part of a huge package and does not give you the option of taking just ZA. I've never used anything but the free version, and was floored to see this latest update had suddenly become a 35 meg (more or less) download.

 

Comodo!

 

Poor ratings aside. I have used SKPF and liked it. Truthfully though, since I am behind a Wireless Router with a SPI Firewall, I don't even feel I need a Third Party Firewall. Just using Windows XP and a good AV, AS, and HIPS is more than enough protection. Oh yeah and some common sense about what websites you go on. I'm not even so sure an AS is really needed if you throw in Firefox as your browser with NoScript added. So "ratings' and "Leak Tests" aside. I stand by my opinion that Kerio is a good compromise between ZA Free and Comodo. I once loved Comodo, but it just seems to be getting a little more difficult for something I personally don't even feel I need. That said however, the 4.5.594 version of ZA Free ran quite well on my PC and only used 9 to 10MB of RAM. Oh, and with the Network Intrusion Prevention and Application Behavior Blocking enabled in SKPF, it makes it that much more formidable at malware prevention.

 

comodo......

 

In the past few years I used ZA free, ZA Pro, Outpost, Kerio. I tested all of them many times in several different ways. Kerio was pretty good, but when I discovered Comodo I was thrilled!

Comodo - definitely my choice!

 

I agree : simply the best of all !

 

Hello MikeBCda.

Yes, you should be quite happy with your current fw. Why do you think your 6.5.737 will cease to be functional? If your subscription expires, I'm sure CheckPoint will allow you to renew it. Do not rely too much on those Matousec reviews, if you read them carefully, you will find out that the Experts there do not recommend ANY of the tested products for any serious protection. That goes for Comodo as well, right? I'm not trying to start a flame war here, but this product is still very much in beta, whatever its developers might say and I will NOT try it again for at least until v3. Well I trialed 20+ firewalls in a past few months, and after all bells & whistles I am currently using generic XP fw , as I realized that I don't really need anything more. But if you want to try something else, or if CheckPoint stop to support <7, you should pick your protection software according to your online activities, and not by reading some review, no mater how techie it is.

Best regards.

 

I apologise. I use ZA Pro and the ZA Pro v7 installer is only 14.4 MB. In the past, the installer for ZA Pro and ZA (free) are the same since the most common upgrade that ZA (free) users choose to buy is ZA Pro. This meant that if you bought the suite, you would have to download a new installer for the suite.

But it has come to my understanding that the more and more consumers seem to be buying upgrades to the ZASS suite. So in order to satisfy these customers needs of not having to download another installer once they have purchased a paid ZA product, they decided that the ZA (free) installer should share the installer as the suite, then depending on the type of product key you enter, the appropriate additional features will be unlocked for use. So that means now ZA(free) will be able to upgrade to any other types of ZA.

If you don't want to have to download such a large file, what you can do is to download the ZA Pro installer. During the installation process, just skip over the parts that ask for you to put your ZA Pro key and skip over the part asking whether you want the 15 day trial of ZA Pro. You would then get ZA (free). You can download the latest ZA Pro installer from here:
http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/free/1043_zl/zapSetup_70_302_000_en.exe

 

I used Zone Alarm for years with no complaints (except for a few releases that they had problems with) but I switched to Comodo in the last couple of months and am very happy with it.

Give it a try.

 

I just recently switched from ZA free to PC Tools Firewall Plus which is free and really like it. I've had no issues with it. Pretty much downloaded it and it's been up and running fine. I'm relatively new to this so I need to start out with a simple software firewall. I tried a couple others that were just a tad beyond my experience. I've read in other places that this is pretty lite too.

 

Another PC Tools Firewall Plus here

 

and here