Rating: 
Summary: Best Software-based Firewall Available
Review: You may be shopping around and comparing Norton Internet Security vs. Zone Alarm Pro but in a feature-to-feature comparision you would need to own the Pro version to compete with the Norton product.
Just to set the record straight (and in case you've seen any of my other reviews of Norton products), I have been using Peter Norton's (Symantec) products since the Norton Utilities v4.5 for DOS. Having said that, I do believe ZoneAlarm Pro has got the Norton version of the software-based firewall beat. It loads faster, takes up less memory and system resources, and has a lot more fine-tuning options available.
I would highly recommend Zone Alarm Pro based on several years experience in running it.
Rating:
Summary: Surf in Peace
Review: Zone Alarm installs seamlessly. I bought Zone ALarm Pro about 2 weeks after I had a broadband (cable) connection installed. I let it set itself up, defaults, down the line. On default, popup windows identify the computers that are trying to gain access to your computer. They are identified by name and geographical address as well as ip address. To my surprise, some of these intruders were the same computers repeatedly pinging me on, according to the alerts set up by Zone Alarm, ports that have no legitimate function for most computers except to search for trojan horses to awaken! Directions for other features are easy to find and follow. Although Zone Alarm kept my computer from being accessed, I wanted more protection. It was simple to find and follow the instructions to make my computer invisible to repeatedly intruding computers. Zone Alarm is flexible. You can set the level of security you want. You can also turn off these pop-up alerts, but it is fun to identify computers all over the world trying to access yours. There is even an option to require Zone Alarm to notify you when a previously unauthorized program on your computer accesses the internet, or accesses it in a different role (server/client). Zone Alarm works efficiently. Most times, the intruder is harmless, but it is pretty nerve wracking to see two or three computers pinging mine every couple of hours. Zone Alarm reassures you every time you are pinged that you are protected. Only two weeks after installing Zone Alarm, I find very few computers pinging mine. Even if most intruders are harmless, it only takes one malicious user. I use ZoneAlarm with a companion program offered in some boxes, Pest Patrol, which cleans spyware and adware off your computer. I highly recommend ZoneAlarm. Surf in peace.
Rating: 
Summary: Mild improvement over the free version
Review: Zone Alarm Pro (ZAPro) 3.0 offers mainly 5 things that the freeware Zone Alarm doesn't: (1) port configuration for each application, (2) cookie control, (3) ad banner blocking, (4) blocking of "mobile code" (i.e. scripts, applets, etc.), (5) "quarantining" of 46 e-mail attachment types. No. (1) is probably the most noteworthy security addition, but its usefulness depends on the programs you run. It lets you explicitly specifies which TCP or UDP port(s) an application can or cannot use. In the free version, you can only allow an application to use either all or none of the ports (which, admittedly, is good enough for most applications). Some users may find it useful to allow certain ports, while also disallow other ones, that an application can use. For instance, if you run a mail server that offers POP3 and SMTP services, you may want to enable port 110 and 25 while disabling port 143, which is normally for IMAP service that is not always used by mail servers. Also, port configurations must be associated with an application. There is no "global" port configurations available in ZAPro. You are not able to configure a port for all applications. Before you can configure ports, you must add the application to the program list. (2) and (4) are content-control features that let you control acceptance of cookies and active content. It lets you accept or refuse temporary or permanent cookies, and enable or disable "mobile code" -- scripts, embedded objects, and MIME-type integrated objects. One major plus is you can configure these settings for EACH WEB SITE, which is something you can't do in most browsers. For example, you can enable permanent cookies only for those web sites that require them to function properly; you can disable mobile code for sites that may use harmful scripts; you can set different cookie expiration times for different sites; and so on. There is a "site list" that shows the settings of every site. Every time you go to a new web site, its domain name appears on the site list, so you can modify its settings on the fly. Best of all, even third-party sites appear on the site list, which is useful in dealing with third-party advertising sites that force their way into your browsers (often in the form of pop-up ads). Some reviewers wrote that ZAPro's ad-blocking feature doesn't work all the time, and pop-up ads are not often blocked. The truth is that advertisers use a variety of ways to create pop-up ads, and I suspect ZAPro's ad-blocking feature cannot catch them all. Some web pages use scripts to create pop-up ads, and you need to disable mobile code in ZAPro in order to block them. Some use cookies to "tell" the web page when to create pop-up ads, and you need to disable cookies. Therefore, you really need to configure DIFFERENT settings for different web sites in ZAPro to deal with them. As mentioned in the last paragraph, this is exactly what ZAPro lets you do. ZAPro also has the so-called Advanced Mailsafe feature that "quarantines" e-mail attachments. Don't be fooled; this is a useless feature. All it does is RENAME the file extension of the attachments. An e-mail attachment named SETUP.EXE would be renamed to SETUP.ZLn (where n would be from 0 to 9). The problem is obvious: to truly prevent viruses coming out of an e-mail attachment, you need a VIRUS SCANNER. And ZAPro isn't one. Simply renaming the file doesn't solve the problem. Also, after the file is renamed, you are not told what the original file extension was, and you have to open up the ZA log to find out, which is inconvenient. This is poorly designed, poorly implemented feature. Speaking of the ZA logs, be sure to back them up and read them regularly. They are text files that can be renamed to CSV files so you can import them to a worksheet or database for easier viewing. From the logs, find out which of your ports were probed most frequently, which ones were not probed AT ALL (perhaps ZAPro didn't detect any probe because the ports were WIDE OPEN!), which originating IP addresses have probed your machine the most often, etc. My logs from the last five months show that among the 4000-plus probes detected by ZAPro (which comes to about 20 a day), TCP port 1433 were probed 3000-plus times! (Port 1433 is normally used by Microsoft SQL Server. I do have a MS SQL Server, but it's behind the firewall and invisible from the internet. Also, the popular firewall-testing web site grc.com DOESN'T check port 1433.) My conclusion is the ZAPro's additional feature are a mixed bag, and they don't justify the additional price. One last thing is that even though the system requirements don't explicitly say so, ZA and ZAPro do run on Windows 95 (I tested it on OSR2).
Rating:
Summary: Mild improvement over the free version
Review: Zone Alarm Pro (ZAPro) 3.0 offers mainly 5 things that the freeware Zone Alarm doesn't: (1) port configuration for each application, (2) cookie control, (3) ad banner blocking, (4) blocking of "mobile code" (i.e. scripts, applets, etc.), (5) "quarantining" of 46 e-mail attachment types. No. (1) is probably the most noteworthy security addition, but its usefulness depends on the programs you run. It lets you explicitly specifies which TCP or UDP port(s) an application can or cannot use. In the free version, you can only allow an application to use either all or none of the ports (which, admittedly, is good enough for most applications). Some users may find it useful to allow certain ports, while also disallow other ones, that an application can use. For instance, if you run a mail server that offers POP3 and SMTP services, you may want to enable port 110 and 25 while disabling port 143, which is normally for IMAP service that is not always used by mail servers. Also, port configurations must be associated with an application. There is no "global" port configurations available in ZAPro. You are not able to configure a port for all applications. Before you can configure ports, you must add the application to the program list. (2) and (4) are content-control features that let you control acceptance of cookies and active content. It lets you accept or refuse temporary or permanent cookies, and enable or disable "mobile code" -- scripts, embedded objects, and MIME-type integrated objects. One major plus is you can configure these settings for EACH WEB SITE, which is something you can't do in most browsers. For example, you can enable permanent cookies only for those web sites that require them to function properly; you can disable mobile code for sites that may use harmful scripts; you can set different cookie expiration times for different sites; and so on. There is a "site list" that shows the settings of every site. Every time you go to a new web site, its domain name appears on the site list, so you can modify its settings on the fly. Best of all, even third-party sites appear on the site list, which is useful in dealing with third-party advertising sites that force their way into your browsers (often in the form of pop-up ads). Some reviewers wrote that ZAPro's ad-blocking feature doesn't work all the time, and pop-up ads are not often blocked. The truth is that advertisers use a variety of ways to create pop-up ads, and I suspect ZAPro's ad-blocking feature cannot catch them all. Some web pages use scripts to create pop-up ads, and you need to disable mobile code in ZAPro in order to block them. Some use cookies to "tell" the web page when to create pop-up ads, and you need to disable cookies. Therefore, you really need to configure DIFFERENT settings for different web sites in ZAPro to deal with them. As mentioned in the last paragraph, this is exactly what ZAPro lets you do. ZAPro also has the so-called Advanced Mailsafe feature that "quarantines" e-mail attachments. Don't be fooled; this is a useless feature. All it does is RENAME the file extension of the attachments. An e-mail attachment named SETUP.EXE would be renamed to SETUP.ZLn (where n would be from 0 to 9). The problem is obvious: to truly prevent viruses coming out of an e-mail attachment, you need a VIRUS SCANNER. And ZAPro isn't one. Simply renaming the file doesn't solve the problem. Also, after the file is renamed, you are not told what the original file extension was, and you have to open up the ZA log to find out, which is inconvenient. This is poorly designed, poorly implemented feature. Speaking of the ZA logs, be sure to back them up and read them regularly. They are text files that can be renamed to CSV files so you can import them to a worksheet or database for easier viewing. From the logs, find out which of your ports were probed most frequently, which ones were not probed AT ALL (perhaps ZAPro didn't detect any probe because the ports were WIDE OPEN!), which originating IP addresses have probed your machine the most often, etc. My logs from the last five months show that among the 4000-plus probes detected by ZAPro (which comes to about 20 a day), TCP port 1433 were probed 3000-plus times! (Port 1433 is normally used by Microsoft SQL Server. I do have a MS SQL Server, but it's behind the firewall and invisible from the internet. Also, the popular firewall-testing web site grc.com DOESN'T check port 1433.) My conclusion is the ZAPro's additional feature are a mixed bag, and they don't justify the additional price. One last thing is that even though the system requirements don't explicitly say so, ZA and ZAPro do run on Windows 95 (I tested it on OSR2).
Rating:
Summary: norton pfw is no match...get zonealarmpro.
Review: zone alarm pro is indeed a must for cable/dsl users
when i first installed the cable intenet service i
worried about win98se 's security problems so i tested
demo version of zone alarm pro and thought it's ok.
but when the buying moment came i couldnt deny the
nortons reputation because i'm using norton utilities
and very satisfied ...but.after buying it(norton pfw) and
installed ... internet gaming ,web browsing ,became a little
slower and aspecially MMORPG games performance dropped noticably
.some websites do not even let nortonpfw access thier
server but zone alarm pro can access them..with the least protection when norton pfw stays dumb.
if you have fast pc consider zone alarm pro. and if you want
flexibility consider zone alarm pro. if you play online games
you must have it
Rating: 
Summary: Don't forget to download updates before support expires
Review: Zone Labs has recently made an updated version of Zone Alarm Pro 3 that may solve the problem of not being able to view certain web pages, especially those that use javascripts, even at low privacy settings. The latest version as of now is 3.1.395, dated 9/6/02. To check your version, go to Zone Alarm Pro's Overview, click the Product Info tab, and look at Version Info. Before I installed the update, I couldn't browse the DVD Price Search site at the lowest privacy settings, and resorted to browsing it with another browser (Netscape) while having its privacy control turned off in Program Control. After I installed the update, I could browse the site even at high cookie control and ad blocking settings. Zone Alarm Pro comes with free 1-year online support for the first year, but $.... for each additional year. You need online support in order to download updates. So be sure to download them before your support expires. To download updates, go into Overview, click the Preferences tab, and click Check For Update.
Rating: 
Summary: It is a piece of rubbish, Do NOT buy.
Review: ZoneAlarm has gone from being one of the best Windows Firewalls on the market to quite possibly the worst. If you are lucky it will serve you well. If you are unlucky you will find it buggy, and want to uninstall it ; that's when your life will become miserable. The uninstall procedure is completely broken. Zone Labs document an extremely complicated way of uninstalling it manually, involving deleting dozens of system files manually and editing the registry. This procedure is not something the average user will want to contemplate doing. Even after following this procedure many people, including highly qualified and vastly experienced computer professionals, are left with partially or wholly crippled PCs, their only recourse being to wipe the hard drive and reinstall Windows and all of their software from scratch. Do NOT buy Zone Alarm, it is utter garbage. A much better idea is to buy a hardware based firewall/router.
Rating:
Summary: It is a piece of rubbish, Do NOT buy.
Review: ZoneAlarm has gone from being one of the best Windows Firewalls on the market to quite possibly the worst. If you are lucky it will serve you well. If you are unlucky you will find it buggy, and want to uninstall it ; that's when your life will become miserable. The uninstall procedure is completely broken. Zone Labs document an extremely complicated way of uninstalling it manually, involving deleting dozens of system files manually and editing the registry. This procedure is not something the average user will want to contemplate doing. Even after following this procedure many people, including highly qualified and vastly experienced computer professionals, are left with partially or wholly crippled PCs, their only recourse being to wipe the hard drive and reinstall Windows and all of their software from scratch. Do NOT buy Zone Alarm, it is utter garbage. A much better idea is to buy a hardware based firewall/router.
Rating:
Summary: Do you really need this version?
Review: ZoneAlarm is one of the best firewall programs on the market. Compared to Norton it was unbelievable how many intrusions were caught. It works seamlessly and rarely messes up new installs or access to web sites. Of course it depends on how you are going to set up ZoneAlarm. As for the Pro version I agree with other reviewers, you do not get a lot more for the money and although I want to see these developers do well I can't see the need to purchase to more expansive package. Also, several of my friends warned me to pass on this version as they had problems with unexplained shut downs and difficulty disabling ZoneAlarm Pro 3. In fact, both went back to the free version. Between ZoneAlarm and the (free) AVG anti-virus software except for automation there is no need for the commercial versions other than business licenses and more control. For home and casual users it's not worth the possible intrusions.
Rating:
Summary: A star that shines no more...
Review: ZoneAlarm Pro was one of the best around. But, now it is constantly having quality issues. Mine throws away the firewall settings at least monthly. I have gotten to the point where I refuse to re-enter them again. I am looking for a new star.
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