ZoneAlarm Pro version 9.0.083.000

Release History
Change log

Please post about any experiences with version 9.0.083.000.

I see they have dropped the anti-spyware feature, and privacy controls and inbound MailSafe have also been removed with this release. I liked the privacy Cache Cleaner feature, but I suppose that is gone.

Other changes look good... I'm guessing quite a change to the GUI.

Before migrating from my current v8.0.400.020, I'd like to hear from others?

 

It is strange that "Privacy Control" is gone. Also, the ZA toolbar does not appear when IE is opened with SandboxIE.

 

ZA toolbar? Can you give us more details? What it does? Screenshot?

Cheers,
Fax

 

ZoneAlarm Spy Blocker toolbar

http://news.softpedia.com/newsImage/ZoneAlarm-Now-Deploys-Browser-Toolbar-2.png/

 

Is that part of ZAPro now?
It was free since version 7 with a Spy Blocker + Ask.com, was it?
Its more likely they added forcefield toolbar instead. No?

Cheers,
Fax

 

Good Evening! Used to use ZA antivirus two years back. Was naturally curious as to the New anti-virus & anti-spyware engine being integrated. I went to ZA site and downloaded the 2010 Security Suite,it kept insisting that my subscription had expired...no kidding! And when I clicked on renew it did nothing,just stating license pending. I then chatted live with their on line rep who was helpful, but essentially told me to uninstall and reinstall. This brought me the occuring dilemma, essentially Buy no Try! I thought I might want too talk to someone in support but apparently you have to subscribe to ZA Premium Phone support for a paltry $49.95 whatever happened to ZA no charge 1-800 #? There has to be an easier way, perhaps someone might have an appropriate answer. Check-Checkpoint! Sincerely...Securon

 

Hi!
left overs from your previous install conflicted with your new ZA installation. Just remove ZA with "/rmlicense" switch to remove the license information. See here.

Of course you can try and NO buy
You may have not explained well your problem to support?
Next time search at the ZA forum. There is full of references on license issues and how to resolve them. You have the same type of information also in the ZA KB

Fax

 

Anybody into posting screen shots?

 

Hey Fax,

Being you a Guru at ZoneAlarm User forum, do you have any information about how easy is to remove the new ZA Pro compared to version 8.0, 7.0, etc. if things go wrong after installation?

I know those old versions were a pain in the neck to remove. A very length set of instructions were given to clean the registry, program files, Win32 folder from traces of ZA Pro.

This an other things turned me away from ZA Pro a while ago.
Among other things I would like to see addressed are the very SLOW Windows startup when ZA Pro was running and the extremely long shot down times and the program list that don't delete old entries even when they are not on the computer anymore.

If all these things have been addressed I'm willing to go back to ZA Pro since I still have like 100 days remaining of my ZA Pro license.

By the way, I'm running Vista Business with SP-2 with NOD32 v.4 on a computer and Vista Business SP-2 with Avira 9 Premium on other PC.
Is this version for Win 7 only or it is compatible with Vista?

Regards,

Carlos

 

The uninstall procedure has been completely re-designed and you have also a new ZA removal tool. So, it should not be a problem.
I don't see any slow boot/shutdown here but I am not running ZAPRO, I am running ZAX 9 on VISTA 32bit. Ensure to exclude ZA executables from your other security tools.

Well, for any new release I am sure users will find bugs or things may not work. If you are stressed about the full integrity and performance of your system just wait a couple of releases before trying.

Cheers,
Fax

 

Looks like no one will post screen shots. Has the GUI changed in the new release?

 

nope

well .........

 

Thanks for those screen shots.

I thought that email scanning was gone, thus my surprise to see E-mail Protection on the navigation panel. The change log says, "and inbound MailSafe have also been removed with this release", so what remains, Outbound MailSafe protection?

Has there been a GUI change for the browser security implementation?

 

Yes. Outbound is still there but no more Inbound. It's strange but true.

'Has there been a GUI change for the browser security implementation?'..... Of course they added the Browser Security section in the main GUI with the option to enable or disable ForceField component... and there is a ForceField browser add-on toolbar that you have the option to show it or show it as a "short toolbar". On my system the ForceField toolbar works for both IE and Firefox but I did not see it implemented when running the Google Chrome browser.

It seems like there will be allot of features to expand on with the ForceField component in the future and that right now it has mostly the basic features. The extreme security product does have the added feature of virualization in the ForceField component. It would be really nice if this was also standard on the ZASS and ZAP products in the future.

 

Thank you for your feed back.

I am at a bit of a crossroads point with ZoneAlarm Pro. After many years of use (since October of 2000), I am on the verge of switching to Online Armor. I have a couple of free licenses I can activate when my ZAP licenses expire in 75 days, and I have been debating whether or not to make the change. In the past, I have experienced corruption in the ZAP settings, and little things would stop working correctly. This alone would probably not be enough to send me off into the OA fold, but 9 years with the same FW company has also left me in a position of not knowing how the competition performs. So many ZAP users complain about slow startups and shutdowns, but for me, it's a case of, well... I've not experienced anything else to compare to, so how would I know if OA would be a difference maker?

Actually, I am glad that v9 has arrived on the scene. There seem to be some significant changes in the FW, and perhaps I will be better able and better motivated to decide whether I should make a change.

I'll probably be upgrading to version 9.0.083.000 very soon. I want to take advantage of as much feed back as I possibly can get before doing so. I always create a fresh drive image before any such significant upgrade, and that alone is a huge safety net.

I really appreciate those of you who are contributing your experiences with this version. I don't think I have read any negative "reviews" so far.

 

I know I'm going to flack over this question, no malice intended, but is valid and a concern to alot of people, has ZA been able to alleviate the calling home stigma that has been around for years, as this is one reason alot of people wont use ZA.

 

Page42, I understand the questions you are going through since I had systems running both ZAPv8 and ZASS v8. Since the Security and Privacy setttings feature is gone I had to evaluate how important that was for security. For online web browsing I feel removing this feature is significant but customizing the Security and Privacy settings in ZAP on each machine and for each frequently visited web site has always been a real pain.

I don't know exactly why they eliminated the S & P settings features but I would guess it was eliminated from the v9 releases because the developers thought that adding the ForceField component is a better and simpler level of browser security for the user. It definitely is easier but the question is whether it is in fact better security than using the Privacy and Security settings method. I still haven't decided what I am going to do with the systems running ZAP v8. I might upgrade those to ZAES v9 (or ZAX v9...same thing). As I said in another thread...ZAP v9 uses ForceField without the virtulization component available..With the vitualization component available and enabled in ZAES v9 I believe it is at least as good a level of security for web browsing if not better than if you were using ZASS v8 with all the S & P settings enabled.

You will have to evaluate whether the AV program you are using complements the level of security for browsing when you use it with the latest ZA v9 (which has a slim version of ForceField without the virtualization feature). If you never used the S & P settings features in ZAP v8 or previous then I wouldn't worry too much about it...just try out the upgrade to ZAP v9. You might actually have less problems with the v9 than with previous versions. You could also consider upgrading to ZAES v9 if you don't feel you have to use the a particular separate AV. However, as it has always been with product upgrades you would lose any time left on your current ZAP subscription if you upgraded to ZAES v9.

 

with zap pro 2010 instead of using the slimmed browser tool bar one can use forcefield beta or sandboxie for that matter.
I have a license for both ZAESv9 and Zap and currently i am using zap pro with avira premium(working great except that it deactivates webguard and mail guard at startup so they have to be reactivated) without the slimmed browser tool bar because i am an addicted opera user and the tool bar is redundant there.
ZAES is nice with fast browsing..no lag but i would like to see some tests on its security potential...before ditching avira etc for it

D/l link for forcefield beta....http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/beta/forcefield/index.html

 

Great information, great post with interesting options to try out. Sandboxie is an option...I never tried it but I read allot of good things about it in the past in this forum. Doesn't Google own it now? That link to the ForceField beta is another intereting option but I noticed it was beta 1.3.x while the version of ForceField in the latest ZAES v9 is 1.5.x.. I wonder if there is any difference between the two even though the beta number is lower than the active one now used. I also can't wait to see what the independent AV, ASW, FW and antimalware tests show for the results of the new ZA products. The populist reviews sure like ZAES v9. We shall see what the independent security tests say in the coming months.

 

Hello SoCalReviews

WRT to the independent security tests, which ones have covered ZA products in the past?

Regards

 

.
There is a review of ZAX 2010 coming from PCmag.com soon (so says their reviewer) so keep an eye out. I personally find Neil Rubenking's reviews quite thorough and bet that he's going to note the same improvements over the previous version that others here have mentioned.

(anyone so inclined can take this as a cue to criticize pcmag.com reviews because they advertise, recommend Norton, gave an unfavorable review to your favorite product, and so on and so forth... )

 

VB100 Awards:
ZoneAlarm® Extreme Security 8 - April 2009
ZoneAlarm® Internet Security Suite 7.1 - April 2008

Cheers,
Fax

 

Hi Escalader, That isn't a bad idea. I pretty much already know how the previous products worked. I will be waiting for the independent reviews on all the new 2010 ZA v9 products. I want to see results from the real independent reviews not the computer magazine or retail box cover reviews.

 

Thanks everybody.

Yes, I can't imagine that anybody here on this forum would use the retail box cover. But all kidding aside, I've seen people in stores reading those and then buying so it does happen.

As to magazines, well I read them but with advertising revenue in short supply it always make me a bit suspicious of the results.

It would be great to have recognized testing centre results since stress testing these kinds of products on an even up basis is what we need.

But it's early days yet.

 

Can anyone answer this? This is one of the reasons I never revisited ZA.
Also, wasn't ZA one of those firewalls with hard-coded rules to give internet access to itself? If true, is this still the case?