I have not had much luck with ZA as it seemed to have some sort of conflict with my computer, especially Outlook. I ended up trying about everything and am now pretty satisfied with my NOD32/Comodo set-up. But there are some people who really stand by Zone Alarm. I would suggest you give their trial version a spin to see how it runs on your computer. ZA 2007 is supposed to be a little heavy on resources if that could be a concern. Newegg.com was running a special on ZA Security Suite 2007 where it just costs $10.99 after the instant rebate. You have to pay $4.99 shipping but that gets you a boxed disk. Heck Check Point charges $9.95 just for a back-up disk in addition to their download charge. If I did not have the conflict issue I would probably shell out $15.98 for the software. If for nothing else, just to try ZA's Pro firewall again. Actually it is a pretty hard deal to beat. But I would recommend at least giving their free trial a run for a couple days first. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16832728002
I wouldn't recommend the security suite, but would definitely recommend the stand-alone firewall. I would also hesitate obtaining a product from a vendor with which I wasn't totally familiar. Rather than the security suite, I would recommend using the free firewall (which I use and is very good) along with paid AV (NOD32) and the free version of System Safety Monitor. I know it has kept my system clean. If you also want to run a real-time AS app you can do that, but I've found it to be a waste of resources, as your AV or SSM will catch the malware long before the AS even knows it there.
I ran ZA free for a while with about the same setup you have. If I left the computer inactive for about an hour it would loose internet connection. I am on DSL . Got rid of ZA and don't loose connection. I have Comodo now.
