what is better zone alarm or kerio firewall

can anyone can tell which firewall is better kerio or zone alarm

 

It depends on the user's ability to know how to create secure rulesets in Kerio 2. (Some other people here can comment on Kerio 4 and there's a recent thread here about it. I understand many long time Kerio users are staying with Kerio 2.)

Kerio 2x (like its Tiny2 predecessor) may seem deceptively simple to set up by the casual user since it like ZA has the popups to give or deny permission to apps/connections. But setting up a secure rules set involves a learning curve and more than just clicking yes or no to allow communications and having a default configuration. For those who already have the skills or are willing to learn, Kerio allows as they say, greater "granularity" of control than ZA.

But for casual users and especially newbies to firewalls, ZA IMO is easier to set up and be secure. When I see some users say how "easy" Kerio 2x is to use I think they just responded to the initial popups for configuration and went with that. For people who don't really get into how to have a secure rules set it might be easier for them to be insecure without realizing it. Whereas ZA is pretty much secure out of the box as long as one doesn't allow programs that don't need it to have server rights on the internet (which opens ports on the net that the apps will listen to for incoming connections).

Anyway, I haven't used the old Tiny/Kerio in quite some time. And Kerio 4 sounds like a considerably different case. There are some Kerio gurus about and perhaps they'll stop by to provide more current information on the state of the Kerio firewall today for both version 2 and 4.

I'd encourage anyone who does try Kerio 2x for the first time to seek assistance with their rules sets. Look at the link to BlitzenZeus' thread in the sticky post by CrazyM at the top of this forum. There also are previous threads in this forum on Kerio rules sets and also a Tiny/Kerio forum at broadbandreports.com.

 

The problem with asking questions like "which is best between a or b" is that everybody has their own favorites and thus the replies tend to be very polarised,you really need to try them yourself and see which you prefer of the two(the one that is the best "in theory" may not be the best for you if you just "don't get along with it" or has some conflicts/other probs with other apps you hav installed on your PC)
Steve

 

I have used both, and my vote goes to Kerio out of the two, but I personally like Outpost the best right now.

 

Outpost would get my vote as well but as I said earlier it depends on personal preferences/system compatability and your level of "paranoia" as to what you want to actually have run on your pc regarding email/web pages,with Outpost you can configure it to allow/disallow various components on a site by site basis

 

Yes, that's true but some firewalls may perform better than others. Also, there's the whole "Is customer support reliable? Has this firewall shown any hazardous issues or security holes/exploits in the past?", etc.

I've never tried Outpost. Is it much better in terms of less irritating in comparison to the Norton products?

 

I'm not sure about Norton...

I use Outpost because there is a free version, and also because it can be configured much more than Zonealarm.

Outpost gives a lot more of those "allow/block access" dialogs than Zonealarm, some programs I've had to allow multiple times, but overall I'm more satisfied than with Zonealarm.

 

I don't think I've heard many people speak highly of KPF4. 2.1.5 is great, but 4 has a ton of problems from what I've read. I can give you some links to threads discussing displeasure with 4 if you want.

 

I have licences for both, but I prefer Outpost Pro.

 

Well, if you check out my thread "NPF 2003 doesn't work after broadband", you'll see what I mean about how I hate Norton. Too many problems....Also, Norton is a big powerhog. My computer has literally nothing, no spyware, adware. Only necessary programs run at startup, nothing much. My printer settings, NAV & NPF, and Creative Diagnostics Tool (Not sure why I need this but it's somehow necessary for my sound card). My comp would run at optimal performance, however, it seizes to do so with NIS2003 installed.

I definitely need new internet security software. I may actually upgrade my OS to Longhorn when it comes out. Currently my OS is 2000Pro. Is ICF okay for a firewall? I have a router firewall that blocks every incoming request but I needed something that limits outgoing requests.