ZoneAlarm Security Suite Antivirus

I know that Zone Alarm is using Kaspersky engine BUT I do have some concerns. Kaspersky sell KAV6 for around $50. ZoneAlarm sells the whole Security Suite together with KAV6 for around the same price. In fact the difference in price between ZAPro (which has no AV) and ZASS (which has AV plus Antispam) is about $10. Common sense tells me that there must be something missing. For Zone Alarm to be able to add Kaspersky AV for basically $10 makes me wonder what shortcomings there are. So whats the differences ?

 

ZA's builtin AV lacks teh web antivirus of the full KAV. also it lacks the Proactive Defense, but ZA already has a similar solution (OSFirewall).

I have not tried ZASS, but it could also lack some the options/settings present in KAV.

 

I've installed several copies of ZA AV2007, and it's recommended that you install the version from their website instead of the one of the cd. It also uses the KAV 6 engine.

http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/free/information/zaav/releaseHistory.html

The AV section lacks a lot of customization options that you'll find in the full version of KAV. I also find the GUI a little clunky.

 

The ZASS version does not have the full range of configuration options available in KAV 6, nor does it have the Web-scanner (which slows down surfing incidently) or Pro-Active Defence features.

All of the above would probably not be best suited to the 'average' punter who is going to be using ZA's products. Instead, ZASS has its own features such as the Operating System FW (which is much easier for an inexperienced user to gain benefit from than KAV's PDM) and spyware scanner and spyware site blocking etc.

The whole thing being wrapped up as a package so there is no need to configure one thing with another. As far as the basic KAV AV is concerned, the performance in terms of detection and cleaning should be the same; however demand scans are likely to take longer 'cos some technology is missing (namely i-swift and i-checker which help speed up scans in KAV after you have done your first scan).

The bottom line is that protection from the basic AV should be the same in both units, though what happens in the future when KAV 7 comes along with improved heuristics I cannot say.

 

I am using KIS 6.0.2.621 with default settings on the Web AV, and I don't seem to notice any sluggishness in IE or FF.

 

Sluggishness has greatly improved since the introduction of MP1, but it is certainly still there. I use IE6 and I still find I sometimes have to refresh a page in order for it to load. Generally slowdowns are a minimal inconvenience for me, but I can see it being an issue for some users. I do notice a difference if I disable the Web-Scanner.

I think that if ZASS had the Web-Scanner quite a few users would be going to the ZA Forum and screaming blue murder 'cos it slowed them up slightly. KAV users tend to be more security concious and therefore more tolerant of such things than the great masses of typical ZA users, a percentage of whom find fault with any minor glitch.

 

I use IE 7 and have to refresh threads on this forum when I try to enter them on a regular basis. I don't see to have this problem on any other forums. If I use FF I do not have that problem at all.

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ZoneAlarm AntiVirus is a good product with good features at the moment. Lacks configuration options and the Web Antivirus, but this is not too bad a thing. Do not worry about it.