need a new antivirus and firewall...

@Tegumi, sorry, just want to post in this section '~'

I use AVG and Ad-aware, then for my firewall I use sygate.
AVG free + Ad-Aware free + Sygate firewall free = Awesome.

Windows firewall + AVG protection = No spyware/viruses in 2 1/2 years on this laptop. And I visit various porn sites often. And torrent.

Not according to the multitude of users whose systems have been rendered unusable.



I would sure hope so.



This is another pertinent discussion, as there needs to be a trade-off between requesting the user for action and automatically performing tasks. There is the psychological part of this which is conditioning people to just click 'Allow'.

Who are all these "people" you speak of? Could you give me a link of their accounts or some tests? I'm calling bullshit on this one.
If you were to speak about Symantec's Norton Antivirus product line I might even agree with you, however as I've yet to read about, experience or hear any account that casts Zone Alarm Firewall (...and I'm *only* speaking about the firewall product here) in a similar light I'm given to think that you're dissing a product on hear-say and little actual experience.

I'm even willing to give you, that Zone Alarm may not be the best firewall product out there. I even concede that they had several issues and their product shouldn't be recommended right now as they don't seem to be on the bounce lately...

...however unless you can give me some solid proof or at least verifiable claim by users that Zone Alarm Firewall was what screwed up their system than I can't agree to your claim that it's a "bad product".

I'm not pulling shit out of my ass just to smear some mud on a program. What would be the reason for me doing so? I'm a bit miffed that you would suggest that. In any case,
Search Google for "ZoneAlarm uninstall"



I formed my opinion on the program after having to assist a number of people with their ZoneAlarm problems, so my views are not unfounded. I have not used the program myself, so it could work perfectly fine otherwise in the interim - but this was not within my scope of handling it.



Google search it yourself. Really, now. I was actually surprised that you weren't aware of the widespread problems it gives people. I'm not even in the workforce and I've run into it myself.

...all I do see is issues when one didn't upgrade their software for a long time then problems arose when they tried to uninstall the product.

Yes. Grave problems as the average user should not be forced to jump through these hoops. However Zone Labs has long ago published both detailed instructions and uninstaller apps to fix these problems. Good? No. This is why I don't recommend them anymore.

However this is a problem that only involved some outdated version of their product and the problem only arose when the user failed to upgrade for a very long time.

...so no, I don't think Zone Alarm is the worst shit ever.
I've used their product for close to 10 years, and while there *were* (...and *are*) problems, they've reacted in a timely manner and did their best to support thier users.



If you want to see a real horror show, check out what Symantec Products do: I've seen machines loose as much as 50% of their performance even after their product was successfully uninstalled. Their's left around so much crap (by default) that I had to several times reinstall the OS to get anywhere.

Symantec never acknowledged these problems and tried to actively suppress any posts about them. It took years of user outrage until they finally released a removal tool to clean up after their crap instead the user having to hunt it down, file-by-file own their own.



...so yes. There *are* problems with Zone Alarm. However given that it has had a long history it was inevitable that compatibility issues would crop up when it was used on OSes in situations it was not designed to handle. (In most cases when these problems occurred the user had an outdated version on their system.... however yes, there were issues like when a Windows update broke the firewall (though simply turning it off restored your net)) that was *not* this case).

When I look at the final balance, Zone Labs has released a good product for free and they did an acceptable job of supporting their free user base. They made mistakes, and problems cropped up every once in a while. Unlike Symantec I can in good faith say that their efforts in the end were positive and they did their best by their customers.

i guess i initiation a discussion on firewalls. or a intellectual war.

Norton is pretty bad, I agree. I don't oft get a chance to be the anti-recommendation for them though, probably the stated reasons. However, I won't be recommending ZoneAlarm anytime soon either. At least not until the stigma surrounding their product clears up.

i've been used nod32 for 2 years and it's pretty strong to handle virus+spyware,plus it's not as annoying as the other AV..

Check the settings in your account's control panel. Most ISPs have an option for their own firewall protection on certain ports, but you should be able to turn it off. If not, sucks to be you.

OT, I use Avast! with Windows Firewall and haven't had a virus in years; I'm told by friends who use it that AVG is also very good. The problem with something like ZoneAlarm, as has been said, is that you have to let everything through it one-by-one. Programs will essentially have been allowing themselves through Windows Firewall as you've been using it, with the odd request using game multiplayer, for instance, so it's already both adequate and well stocked.

As for premium anti-virus software, for personal use, it really isn't necessary. Free software isn't invulnerable - I've installed Avast on a couple of people's computers and they've still managed to fuck them up - but no antivirus software is (I've dealt with more borked PCs using Norton and McAfee), and it's pretty difficult to do any damage if you have any common sense in using the internet.

use avg i know some that just downloads the trial every month after removing all the file and preferences