firewalls?

Hi all

Relatively new here, though helped enormously already (thanks).

Have a pretty straightforward question, I think. On a long malware post I've seen, a list - in order - of preferred firewalls is given. Top is Online Armour (free) or something. Zone Alarm free, which is what I have, is way down the list.

Should I swap? Or upgrade the Zone Alarm (the paid version is still lower down the list).

cheers

Andy

 

Personally, I would never recommend haphazardly un/re/installing software firewalls. My opinion is that you're better off becoming comfortable with one, and sticking with it. There's two reasons:

1. I've had many issues from just ripping out and slapping in software firewalls. In windows, the firewall controls the network card through entries in the registry, and I found, particularly with Zone Alarm, they didn't always get cleaned up nicely. I think Zone Alarm has hardened itself against being disabled by malware, and as a consequence, has a tough time giving up control over the system.

2. The learning curve. Not sure what your level of skill is at, but I find a lot of people have trouble administrating firewalls. Switching between them can cause the user to make a lot of mistakes, which causes application troubles, which gets the user mighty frustrated, usually at the software, and not at themselves.

 

Thanks MM,

For the quick reply and the no-nonsense advice. Short answer is that I am not very skilled/experienced at all. I have no trouble working through instructions and am not 'afraid' of the pc. I'm learning fast and have already been helped re: malware after only being here a short while. I suppose I understand the 'issues' although I'm not adept at the solutions....yet.

ZA is the first firewall (apart from Windows) that I've used. Think I'll stick with it then, but is it worth upgrading to the paid version, can you tell me? I don't mind if it's going to be worth it.

best

Andy

 

Again, this would take some research, but I have a friend (my best, actually) who was so happy with Zone Alarm that he ran out and bought the professional edition.

He was very disappointed that the version he bought was dropped from active support within a few months of his purchase.

Not sure if he got a bum deal from Zone Labs, or bought something he shouldn't have from an unscrupulous retailer, but it hurts in any case.

Typically, when a company offers home and professional editions, they are designed exactly for that; a home user can get a free product that works just as well, but doesn't have some of the features a professional would use.

Some examples of professional features I've seen are things like easy deployment and management of installations on multiple computers, advanced settings....

Again, this is all just anecdotal justification, but why pay for something you get for free?

 

Ooops! Seems I should have done more research beforehand. But all in all I'll stick with the free version of ZA for now. Thanks again for the help!

A

 

I like Comodo myself, the free version..

 

Ive used comodo as well, seems to work fine, tho i dont notice any activity that has needed to be blocked, but i guess it's better to be safe than sorry