ZoneAlarm 5.5 To 4.5

I was using ZoneAlarm 5.5, but had a problem with it. I went back to ZA 4.5 and that particular problem is gone. Is the firewall portion of ZA 4.5 the same as in 5.5, or am I going backwards when it comes to protecting my machine.

 

you will probably get a few different responses to your question, this and this from the za forum might help. personally, i used 4.5 for a long time after 5.0 originally came out with no problems, and still prefer 4.5 til this day! it was lighter on resources and didn't slow my pc down with all the extra features they've added since. of course i was using the pro version and had upgraded to the zonealarm security suite. if i were you i would try out the latest version first (especially since a new version was just released today) and see how you like it. if you don't, you can always revert back! let us know how it goes. goodluck.

 

Hi Intoxsickated.

I tried the newly released ZA and it causes the same problem as the previous ZA 5.5 I was using. While doing all this, I decided to give Outpost a try. So far it seems ok. I noticed you are using it also. How do you like it?

Wow I can't believe that guy OscarPC at the ZA forum thinking NOD32 is not a major player in the AV world. I use it and think it's a great AV. Maybe he should do some research. Enough of that. I don't want to be repremanded by the mods for being off topic.

 

Depends on what you mean by a major player. Compared to Norton, McAfee and Trend, everyone else is tiny.

It is not on this list:

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=399368&postcount=1

 

tiny yes, but not inferior, .

so far so good, i love outpost. i trialed a few other firewalls after dumping za, and outpost was the only one i really liked. never had any compatalbility issues or bsod's, and it's always easy to find help here, and over in the outpost forums.

there are quite a few threads here at wilder's with people expressing their personal thoughts on outpost, you might want to have a look and see what they say (if you haven't already). it has it's strong supporters......and a few bashers of course. as always the best way to find out how good a firewall meets your needs is to try it yourself. don't forget to check out paranoids A Guide to Producing a Secure Configuration for Outpost, and what to expect. they area a great place to start to answer many of the questions you might have.

 

Sorry about taking so long to get back. I've been doing a lot of reading about Outpost. Thanks for the links Intoxsickated. So far Outpost is running very nicely on my machine. I like the Outpost forum also.

 

New version of ZA out today: 5.5.094.000

 

Creature Shaker,
Your problem is not a secret is it? What type of problem I'm a little curious?

Zone Alarm forums.... I will be kind and say nothing more.

 

FWIW, I'll mention a problem that I have had with 5.5.062.011 and that is that it doesn't properly remember settings across reboots (even if I exit cleanly before rebooting to give it a chance to write its state to disk)

Another issue that I get is that sometimes it doesn't display the alert and ask the question when a program attempts to get network access, the program in question is then hung inside a kernel call. The workaround for me at the moment is to exit ZA and restart it again, then I get the prompt and the hung process continues as normal

beetlejuice69 thanks for mentioning the fact that a newer version is out, I'll check the ZA forums to make sure it isn't terminally broken and probably give it a try and see if its any better

Edit: Looks like I will be waiting for a while, BSOD's being reported during install so I'll give it a while and see if things settle down and let a few more incrementals come forward

 

Welcome gottadoit.

Ya know FWIW I`ve used ZA since it first came out and only had one issue with it back when it turned into ver:5...I think everyone had a problem back then though. Anyway I have 2 months left on this one and was going to go with L`N`S to give it a try but now I think I`ll stick with ZA again. Of course soon as it gives me a problem it`s history.

 

i finally got my outpost fine tuned and running very smoothly. this will probably be the first za version i will not try since i began using them a few years ago, even with over 100 days left on my subscription. as i have said before: i would rather be kicked in the nuts, than load za on my computer ever again.

but honestly: for the most part, i think that if you had problems with the last version, you will probably have problems with this version. if you didn't have problems with the last version, you probably won't have problems with this version. going back to the original question you brought here, the users over at the za forums seems to be somewhat split on whether or not to go with the newest version or the old 4.5. some say 4.5 is outdated, and most people should have upgraded when the last za release in february came out. however, allot of long time za users and some 'gurus' are still running 4.5 to date, and would disagree. only time will tell what's in store for yesterdays update.

goodluck with whatever you decide to go with shaker!

 

Yes me too with any of the five versions fails to remember settings. You are correct it was another reason for my unhappiness with ZA in the later days.

 

Now again the new version is working great on my machine and I`ve never had a problem with it keeping the settings. I`m very grad of that too because I have a lot of rules that I wouldn`t want to have to go through putting in again. Very strange in deed. I guess the different settings on other machines just won`t jive...but why? Hmmm.