Note: Replying to various people from this thread, so quotes are from various people
>Used ZoneAlarm 2.6 "free" painlessly for about a year, then took the bait to upgrade to 3.1.395, and >hereafter was plagued with consistent disconnects (with an "always on" ADSL connection). Unable to >resolve, attempted to revert via this site to the old 2.6 version, and was "locked out" by ZA, taking 2 hours >of hell to get back to simply being able to have internet access.
That's too bad. I've used several versions of Zone Alarm Free and Zone Alarm Pro with Dial-up 56k and have had no problems whatsoever. ZoneLabs have a forum now on their site where you can discuss their Zone Alarm Free and Pro versions. You might look there if you continue to have problems, if you even stop back to here to read this post, that is. I also recommend news.grc.com and subscribe to their newsgroup for security.software (or software.security, one of the two).
>I recall once noting on another bbs, which one I am not sure, that trying to uninstal ZA was a horrendously >treacherous process.
It's simple to uninstall. It depends on who is doing the uninstalling and how they go about it.
>ZA "free" is NOT free, it COSTS you in wasted time
Any program that requires more than point-and-click mindlessness is going to require some time put into it. Zone Alarm is one of the most EASIEST software firewalls to install, configure, maintain, and uninstall! If you think Zone Alarm is hard, try setting up and configuring a command line only firewall program for Linux.
>Good product, unethical practices......I guess there is no "free lunch"... Thanks for any help.
Unethical practices? I disagree. No evidence for this claim. There IS a free lunch for those who do their reading and obtain a little product knowledge! Try the zonelabs forums and grc.com newsgroups. Good luck.
>If you try to uninstall or upgrade there is a good chance it will mess up your system.
I disagree. Please state how Zone Alarm has "mess"ed up your system in the past. Please explain with technical details.
>If a hacker wants in your computer, zone alarm will not stop them.
If a hacker wants into a computer bad enough, nothing will stop them. Obvious point that includes all software firewalls, not limited to Zone Alarm.
>Its an annoying program with all the popups.
Pop-ups? You can disable them. If you knew enough about firewalls you'd more than likely be running Linux where the firewalls don't have popups.
>ZA mess up my computer when I uninstall it.
Then you should allow someone else to admin your system or read a few books (or at least learn how to properly uninstall Zone Alarm).
>My ISP ran several tests with me and everytime, it was ZA that was causing the problem.
Probably because it wasn't configured correctly.
>Must say that I have had absolutely no problems with ZA. I guess I lucked out. I have the option of Useing >Norton Personal Firewall what do you all have to say about NPF?
Avoid Norton anything. In my opinion, all Norton software is Bloat-ware.
>I have no problems with ZoneAlarm, but that is only because I know
>how to configure it. ZoneAlarm is great...if you know how to use it.
>If you don't, then you are going to have a fit trying to work with it.
I agree. I think too many people download and install Zone Alarm with little to no knowledge on networking. They expect it to magically protect their computer and when something doesn't work the way they expect it to, oh no the program is crap in their opinion. Oh no a pop up! Well maybe they should've configured it. The problem is with these types of people to begin with, not zone alarm.
>The new free version of ZA is a contradiction of what a firewall should do. It attempted to make a dial-up >connection everytime I started my pc. Thought I had a trojan until I uninstalled ZA.
>It sucks! Big time. DL'ing old version now. And hey Zonelabs! I'd never buy anything from somebody that >uses these tactics.
Yes, there was a bug with a previous version of Zone Alarm that would cause a dial-out. Zone Alarm updates are pretty frequent and as with all software, you have to expect some bugs to slip in each version. If you kept up with NEWS about Zone Alarm you would have known this. It doesn't "suck", your lack of knowledge on the product is what "sucks". As for going back to an earlier version, I wouldn't recommend that. With firewall software, it is always best to run the current version as earlier versions are more likely to be exploited some how. The newest version of the zone alarm FREE will not dial out now when you boot your PC. Give it a try, it's great to use.