I have never had good luck with Zone Alarm either. It always surprises me when one of their products gets a good review. I then usually suspect any subsequent reviews from the same person.

I have tried their products on several machines, usually a customer who got it along with something else, as it tends to get bundled. Usually when ZA goes, so do the problems. I feel the same way about Norton Internet Security. It may work well, but it takes way too much effort to administrate it, and if I, as someone with lots of experience say this, I don’t know how anyone who doesn’t even grasp the concept of need for a firewall will get it right on their machine. Oh…the ‘default’ settings always seem to screw up something.

As I get older, I tend to stop trying new ‘flavors of the month’ as it takes up too much time I could devote to something else. When I find something that works, I use it with no change, unless there is a salient reason.

Hi Marc,
Agree. If it wasn’t for doing a review, I wouldn’t have even bothered with ZA. But I am glad I saw for myself, or maybe didn’t see for myself, what they offered.

One of the concepts that is difficult for people to understand is that not all software will run properly on every PC in the entire world. It is just the nature of the beast. Once one accepts that, it does make life easier.

Thanks for the comments, Ron

I’ve used ZA’s free firewall for a couple of years now and like it. Yes there is more setup to do than on other firewalls, but it is a 2 way firewall and this I like.
I don’t mind the popups as they tell me who wants to get out to the web and gives me the choice to allow it - I like this as I have more control over my PC and files.
BUT it isn’t for everyone. People who just surf the web don’t need it but I would recomend it to anyone who keeps personal info on their PC.

Hi Ben,
Please don’t get me wrong. ZA makes a good product. It just doesn’t like my PC.
Thanks for the comments, Ron

Was a happy camper with ZA 4.5. Did an excellent job as a firewall. Then made the big mistake by upgrading to their “suite” offering. Nothing but problems, especially after I installed SP2 for my Win2K OS. It also had some serious conflict issues with Norton’s AV. Now I have a ZoneAlarm Z100G router and uninstalled everything. Just installed Ron’s highly recommended AVG (free version), and it’s like a marriage made in heaven! Nice, clean and trouble-free (so far!). LOL.

As has been pointed out in previous comments, once companies go the “suite, all-in-one” offerings, their software tends to create more problems than it cures. Just curious if anyone here has purchased the “paid” version of AVG and if so, their comments (pro/con).

Hi Don,
I don’t believe you will experience any problems with AVG free. I’ve been using it for 3 years+ without a whimper. And have installed it on at least 200+ client machines. Now that I have said that, the problems will begin! LOL

I haven’t tried the paid. But if I recall, you can try the paid version for a 30 day trial.

And maybe someone else will have more info.

Later, Ron

Hey, I’ve just been reading your review. I must say that it is strange to hear so many people complaining about Zone Alarm…I have tried this product and it worked. I took it off to try another program - only because I got bored - and had so many troubles that my internet stopped working. I tried other programs which may have looked nicer and been easier to setup, but I was still having numerous issues.
The only way I could manage to fix the issues was to remove all the firewall/anti-virus/spam software, or reinstall Zone Alarm.

But you know what…after reinstalling Zone Alarm, I’m completely happy. Sure, I tweaked a few of the settings to my better suit me, but even the default ones worked like a charm.

I have not decided to get bored with this again because it caused too much trouble. I’m happy with Zone Alarm, and would not change if it was going to kill me.

To everyone having issues with it, I’m sorry that you’re missing out on what I believe to be an excellent program.

I have to agree with joss…

ZA has to be the best thing ive ever used in my life.

It is abit hard to get working from start.

But it sure is worth it!

Trend micro, f*ckes up everything,
Norton has a lack of virus protecting,
and avg works for you guys because you don’t eaven know
when someone gets into your computer…
TRUST ME, free or paid! I hack through LAN,
and i found avg the easiest of them all to break through.

Zone alarm was so hard for me to break through that
i actually gave up!

I recommend it to everybody!

Seriously an amazing internet security!