ZoneAlarm all in one Firewall and Antivirus

[Martin963]

Has anyone tried this?

I gave it a go yesterday,   complete hang during the installation (had to pull the mains plug in the end) although when it was repowered it carried on where it had left off.   Installed OK.

Then another indefinite hang when I tried to de-install Avast (unsurprisingly the two can't co-exist) - more mains plug pulling and a forced de-install via Advanced System Care.

OK - so more or less all right,   but my (oldish!) copy of Mozilla email now won't start up while ZoneAlarm is running.   I have to close ZoneAlarm,  load Mozilla,   then re-open ZoneAlarm.

So I tries to install Thunderbird - it's about time I modernised myself.    Thunderbird installs OK but totally fails to spot my existing Mozilla email profiles,   and so fails to import them,   (although bizarrely it spots Outlook Express,  the one thing I never use).

By this time I'm thinking that these programs are confusing me with someone who gives  a ****,   so I've de-installed Thunderbird and it can whotsisface as far as I'm concerned.   If it really can't spot my profiles in a program made by the same company then I can live without it.....

Can anyone recommend an email progam that will import my existing profiles from Mozilla without my almost beginning to wish that my Linux computer (which I still don't really love) was here....

If there isn't a simple program for email then I may well tear this new ZoneAlarm out and go back to the simple Firewall only version and re-install Avast.    What a waste of my time....

Thanks if anyone can help...

[Chezstevens]

Hi Martin,

Computers are an ache when they don't work. To help folks, what OS are you using (Windoze 7, Lion, Linux 12.04 etc)?

If it is Windoze7, why not stick with defender/inbuilt firewall?

If Lion, good to see you appreciate Apple OS is no longer guaranteed to be safe :)

I am currently playing with 12.04 and XMBC.

Vern

[Martin963]

Goodness me no,  I'm still with XP and service pack 2.

I could probably busk the email profiles by creating blank profiles in Thunderbird,   then deleting their inboxes/outboxes in Windows Explorer and substituting the old folders from Mozilla (done that before when moving to a new machine) but I suddenly felt mutinous and thought "why should I?".

It's probably my fault for wanting to stick with separate profiles for each email address,   but it worked well for me in the past and - getting older as I am - I don't see why it should be me that changes!!!

Thanks for any thoughts.....

[Martin963]

Well I seem to have wasted most of this afternoon ripping out ZoneAlarm Firewall/AntiVirus combined - and re-installing Avast and Zone Alarm Firewall pure and simple.

The moral of the story - if it ain't broke etc etc.

But I would STRONGLY recommend that people don't try this combined ZoneAlarm package unless they are a lot more computer savvy than I am....

[nomoss]

After such criticism I feel I should say something.

I've been using ZA Security Suite, then Extreme Security, for years (at least six, ZA Pro before that, after another well known AV supplier failed badly) on XP, and have had no problems except new versions are getting a bit heavy for my clunky system, which slows down during automatic updates and regular automatic scans. Their customer service via a live chat is exceptionally good.

And what I don't know about computers would fill many volumes....

[Martin963]

Fair comment...   I'm aware that my experience may well be exceptional.   And the problem was compounded by the idiotic inability of a modern Thunderbird edition to "see" the existing profiles from Mozilla - I don't know why that no longer works - it has in the past on another machine.

But in addition the new version of ZoneAlarm for some reason would not display the details of which programs were "secured" and which weren't - it said there was a list of 272 programs but the actual columns in the list were completely empty.    Something not right there,   and not something that I'd caused AFAIK.

[Quillan]

I don't know why people pay money (or not) and install PC Firewalls. The one you get with Windows is quite enough considering that nearly all routers now have a built in Firewall and DMZ. My wife's new computer came with one (popular brand, use for six months then start paying) which I removed (reverting to the MS standard software) and it speeded up her PC on the Internet and in particular downloading large files which she does a lot (like three or four per day). I won't bother with explaining why you don't need them because it will be quite long and complicated but you might try a search on "why should you use extra firewall security" where you will find loads of information and a lot of it from none commercial sites. The only ones that tell you that you should have it are companies that sell firewall and PC security products yet they fail to mention router firewalls and DMZ's.

[Rabbie]

AS a retired IT professional I can endorse Q's comments. The Windows fiewall with the built in router firewalls should provide you with  protection withour costing you hard earned money

[AnOther]

I concur but do yourself a favour and Martin and at least update your system to SP3 !

Perhaps Seamonkey will work for you if Thunderbird doesn't.

[Martin963]

Thanks for the advice.   I'll see if I can get SP3 on (I shall then go for a long walk/lie down/drink while our 512 kbps download battles with it!).

It's a thought about Seamonkey - maybe it could act as an interim stage.   But now I'm back up and running I may well leave les chiens qui dorment tranquilles.....

[nomoss]

I didn't know routers came with a built in firewall.

I have used a proprietary AV since my machine (on W98) was infected in 2000. I had to reformat and reinstall the OS. Nothing in Windows gave any protection then, which gave me no confidence in what was later offered.

I have XP Home (on a machine built in 2007, installed from a genuine disc from Amazon and updated with SP3).

I first used the Zone Alarm Security Suite which was on my previous machine and later switched to ZA Extreme Security. This now costs US$59.99 per year for 3 licences (about €47 this year), and is also installed on my wife's machine.

Looking at the guide for my Orange Livebox, installed a couple of months ago after we moved and took the opportunity to ditch SFR, I see there is an option to install "Anti-virus firewall" when installing with the CD, but my installation via CD failed more than once. I got a message that there was no WiFi connection and I should use a cable, but I don't have an ethernet port.

I eventually removed the CD and somehow managed without it. As there was no firewall mentioned I assume I don't have it.

I guess it is on the CD, but after the previous problems I am rather loth to insert it.

[Quillan]

Your Livebox has a built in Firewall and DMZ. You don't need any disk to activate the firewall. it's automatic. That coupled with the Microsoft Firewall that comes as part of Windows XP (or Vista or W7) is quite sufficient.

AV or Anti Virus software does not come as standard with Windows although they do produce a free product (Microsoft Security Essentials) which you can download HERE . If you have automatic updates (for Windows) running every month they send you a program that run's looking for any spyware regardless of if you have Microsoft Security Essentials installed. There are many other free AV programs around like Bitdefender or probably the most popular AVG. Regardless of which AV program you install there is no substitute for common sense. Never open an email, or more to the point an attachment unless you know 110% the place it came from. Never respond to a credit card request if it does not have your name actually in the document etc. etc.

Personally for emails, and in my business's I have quite a few email accounts (12 excluding personal ones) I prefer to use something called MailWasher which allows me to see whats in the emails while they are still on the server before they even get to my PC. It also uses the same two Spam databases used by most ISP's so all the junk gets deleted.

I do know a person who has never installed any AV software for the last five years and has never had a problem mainly because he uses his common sense.

Here's a little trick. Under certain circumstances I can tell you what the IP address of your PC is if your using a LiveBox and have no other computers connected to it. It will be 192.168.1.10. You can check this by going to your DOS prompt (found under accessories) and typing in ipconfig.

Thing is my computer, if that is correct, has the same IP address as yours and so have sever hundreds of thousands of other computers connected to LiveBox's in France. How strange when your supposed to have a unique IP address!

Well the thing is it's the router that has the unique address and not your computer. The Internet knows this which is why any IP address starting with 192.168 is actually invisible on the Internet because obviously if you tried to link through the Internet to IP address 192.168.1.10 you would be linked to all those PC's hanging of Livebox's all over France. This is because your computer (or computers) are on a totally different, invisible, network to the rest of the Internet and the router only passes very specific information from your network to the Internet. That's why it's actually so hard to hack in to peoples PC's.

By far the most common way people hack your PC is by tricking you in to opening an attachment to an email which is actually a program to monitor what you do and send that information to a central collection computer somewhere. Another way is to send you some email with a link to a website and when you click on it it downloads and installs the same sort of program. This is why need good AV software as it detects this sorrt of program.

This is a very simplistic description, it's a lot more technical than this but this so I have only given you the very basics.

[nomoss]

Thanks for the information, Q. IP address is as you say.

My current ZA subscription has 357 days to run, but I'm tempted to uninstall it and try running with the setup you suggest, to see if it speeds up the machine. I think it would be easy enough to reinstall it again. Apart from general slow operation when ZA is updating or scanning, Internet Explorer tends to run slowly most of the time and some sites will not load at all, although they are OK with Firefox. OS is up to date, with Automatic Update enabled.

I sometimes use Firefox, but have not made it my default browser. The last time I did that it removed IE. I could not access MS update directly, and could only get updates through Automatic Update. I had to reinstall the OS to get IE back again.

[Quillan]

[quote user="nomoss"]

Thanks for the information, Q. IP address is as you say.

My current ZA subscription has 357 days to run, but I'm tempted to uninstall it and try running with the setup you suggest, to see if it speeds up the machine. I think it would be easy enough to reinstall it again. Apart from general slow operation when ZA is updating or scanning, Internet Explorer tends to run slowly most of the time and some sites will not load at all, although they are OK with Firefox. OS is up to date, with Automatic Update enabled.

I sometimes use Firefox, but have not made it my default browser. The last time I did that it removed IE. I could not access MS update directly, and could only get updates through Automatic Update. I had to reinstall the OS to get IE back again.

[/quote]

You shouldn't have to do a manual update if Automatic Updates is enabled. If you want to see what Microsoft is wanting to install you have the option to automatically download then ask you to install them. You can then click on the little update symbol on the bottom right of your screen and see what the updates are.

I use Vista on my personal machine and it's a lot better than XP. A lot of private users would disagree but they are wrong mainly because of how the product was sold, quite different to XP. My machine has been running for (pause while I check) 174 days continiously i.e. never turned off with absolutly no problem what so ever. The only reason it has not run longer is because of power outage. It just never lets me down and I have loads of very heavy weight software running on it, more probably than any of the users of this forum. I also program with it. My point is I have the updates installing automatically and I never 'fiddle' with it. The only thing I have added is AVG anti virus software. I would be using W7, well I did for a while, but it does not support older media extenders very well so I went back to Vista but thats just me. So if I were you I would remove all those programs you have been talking about, use the Windows firewall and install something like AVG for virus protection and leave it at that.

Good luck.

[AnOther]

[quote user="nomoss"]I sometimes use Firefox, but have not made it my default browser. The last time I did that it removed IE.[/quote]

I can't say what happened but can say that Firefox cannot and did not remove I.E. !

[nomoss]

[quote user="AnOther"][quote user="nomoss"]I sometimes use Firefox, but have not made it my default browser. The last time I did that it removed IE.[/quote]

I can't say what happened but can say that Firefox cannot and did not remove I.E. !

[/quote]

I did not say Firefox removed IE.

In the last sentence, "it" = "that", "that" = the act of making Firefox the default browser.

Strange language english....

[Rabbie]

[quote user="nomoss"]

[quote user="AnOther"][quote user="nomoss"]I sometimes use Firefox, but have not made it my default browser. The last time I did that it removed IE.[/quote]

I can't say what happened but can say that Firefox cannot and did not remove I.E. !

[/quote]

I did not say Firefox removed IE.

In the last sentence, "it" = "that", "that" = the act of making Firefox the default browser.

Strange language english....

[/quote]Making Firefox your default browser should not remove IE.

[nomoss]

OK. I'm sure you are right.

This was about 6 years ago, possibly with W2000, but as I recall I first found I could not go to MS Update. Auto Update does not offer every available update and I like to check occasionally.

Then I could not find a way to make IE the default again and could not open IE from Program Files. I recall that I asked friends and on forums but nothing suggested worked. I think some options I needed were greyed out, but can't remember that far back. I have difficulties with last week [:D].

I checked my computer log book, but looks like I forgot to record it [:(]

Anyway, it put me off Firefox for a long time.

[Quillan]

There is a difference between Recommended and Optional when you download. Recommended ones will by default be installed. If you set the option to "Download updates but let me choose whether to install them" got to via the Control Panel and looking for the "Windows Update" icon you can choose. Updates will be downloaded, you will get the little Windows Update icon down on the bottom right of your screen. If you click on that then you can also tick on other updates you might need for other Microsoft software you may have installed. With some versions of Vista and W7 the 'options' for instance include languages so you can change the language of your operating system (say to French from English or whatever) which you wouldn't probably bother with.

[nomoss]

A month ago I uninstalled Zone Alarm Security Suite, in spite of having just renewed it at some expense, enabled the Windows Firewall, and installed AVG Anti-Virus.

My computer is now much faster and no longer has stability problems. Erratic behaviour causing failures to start properly seems also to have stopped.

This latter seemed to be caused by ZA trying to do a scan or an update before the machine had completed starting.

At the end of the AVG free trial I decided to accept their offer of 2 years subscription for €38.21, as it compared more than just favourably with the €47.63 I paid in May to renew my ZA subscription for 1 year, and avoids my having to remember such things as regular updates.

Thank you to those who gave advice on this.