I currently have ZoneAlarm free firewall installed. Is it any value in removing ZA and installing Online Armour instead? Thanks
tonyseeking, first, welcome to Wilders! What ZA version are you running and what's your OS (XP, Vista, etc.)?
Yep, it is. OA is much safer. But ZA has long history while OA is relatively new product, so there is a chance to get with OA in trouble with some exotic configuration (life is life, there is nothing perfect under the Moon). Thus in case it works OA is preffered, but if it doesn't, than rollback is preffered Edit: I have used OA AV+ for more than a year without any additional security. Taking in acount I do not care much about stopping myself from starting different suspiciouse stuff and having not been really infected during this time (aside from some failed leaktests which ZA fails much more), I can say this is very safe product. But ... as a betatester I can say there is some bunch of compatability issues ...
WinXP PRO SP3 and ZA version 7.0.483.000 Should I be using COMODO or OA instead? Or is ZA version 7.0.483.000 ok to use as I do a lot of netbanking etc?
You can use OA or Comodo, they both are safe. But .. with Comodo you need to be experienced user, because some Comodo setups are less secure than others. With OA it doesn't matter much, its security depends very little on setup. Also OA has at least twice less popups comparing to Comodo.
My personalopinion would be to go for OA... If you do consider installing it though i would suggest you do it under a fresh formatted XP installation as ZA is famous for the b*ttload of clutter it leaves on your system upon uninstallation and imho u got a 90% chance something will go wrong and OA/Comodo will not get the chance they both deserve ;p
There are advantages to using the non-free version of the ZoneAlarm firewall over the free version. FWIW, HERE is the list of firewalls I recently considered considering.
tonyseeking, I'm from the "If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It" school of thought and if your ZA version is working perfectly fine in your PC, without hiccups, why change? I'm still using ZA Free 5.5.094.000 and coupled with AVG 8.0, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, SUPERAntiSpyware, Windows Defender, and Firefox 3.0.3 (AdBlock Plus, NoScript and Perspectives add-ons), I have not had any problems in years! However, I do not venture into the dark side of the force so my Internet vulnerability is rather minimal. You'll need to assess your own personal surfing habits and see if it merits installing OA or Comodo, yet be aware that each will have a learning curve, just like your ZA did. On the other hand, in regards to your heavy netbanking use, if you are not doing it already, I would concentrate on using a more secure browser, like Firefox or Opera, instead of IE, to lock down any exposure to sites, allowing only those you trust. If you are really paranoid about protecting any info inside your PC, I would even suggest doing all your banking while sandboxed, via Sandboxie. There are quite a few posts around Wilders to get a good grasp on this program and people willing to help you. Let us know what you decide to do.
Like I said, it depends on your exposure to the Internet and only you can answer that question. My old ZA Free blocks all inbounds and shows all ports stealth using GRC's ShileldsUp!. My outbounds are so tight, that ZA squeals every time a non-allowed program or process tries a connection. So from my point of view, my ZA works as expected, securing my PC. Is ZA vulnerable to leak tests? Perhaps, but then again I have yet to find a culprit because I'm not actively looking for them, surfing willy-nilly. I switched browsers to secure my PC even more and I intercept email viruses plus nasty downloads with AVG. If I feel adventurous, I fire up Sandboxie, and away goes my worries.
From my experience using the free versions of both products I would say that Online Armor is stronger then ZoneAlarm. For instance, if you login with an admin account Online Armor can reduce rights on a per application basis - you could run your browser with limited user rights to make it safer. OA Free also has limited keylogger protection. Regarding ZA, if you decide to uninstall it I would recommend using Revo Uninstaller - it will catch anything that's leftover after the regular uninstall is finished.
Besides being an excellent firewall and easy to work with, one of the best things I have found about OA is that they will actually fix things that the users ask about. Comodo and ZA pretty much are too busy with their own agendas to do that-maybe the curse/blessing of size, but I certainly find it refreshing. I haven't had a lot of problems, but the ones I have are usually solved within a build or two, often with an immediate workaround. Goodonya, OA.
Sandboxie is not a firewall and wont help you if you already been infected with certain rootkits, trojans etc.
Hello: As a rule, I don't participate in threads that are product x vs product y or those that could degenerate into x vs y. But to answer tonyseeker's question is impossible without knowing much more about his setup and his www risk profile. There are a series of threads here called learning threads one older one dealt with ZA Pro and a current one deals with OA. I suggest you read/study both threads and the stickies on FW's in general before doing anything at all! Then trial OA as you already have tried ZA and make your own decision. Test drive is the only way. Good luck
The simplest "clean" method I've seen/used to remove ZoneAlarm is to go to Start, Run and type C:\Program Files\Zone Labs\ZoneAlarm\zauninst.exe /clean and hit return (or click Ok.) (There is a space between the exe and the /) It is also important to note that when the uninstaller asks if you want to remove the True Vector stuff, be sure to say yes! I know in my case this always did a 1st class job of removal. One other thing is to check the above path in your machine before running it to make sure it was installed this way. I haven't ran the very latest versions to check their path.
For what little it's now worth, I tested free OA 2.x against free ZA 6.1x and had much better luck with ZA. I had the occasional BSOD with OA and never had one with ZA. Higher potential safety didn't mean much to me if I couldn't boot... (I'm now using Comodo Internet Security (firewall (with D+) only) for that PC and haven't had any issues at all. The pop-ups took a little while to calm down but now they are few and far between...)
A few off-topic posts removed. Let's stay with the technical topic and leave other comments by the wayside. Thanks in advance. Blue
