Thread: ZoneAlarm Suite?

I'm running a 15 day evaluation of the zonealarm security suite. It has the best ad blocking I've seen yet but seems to interfere with viewing thumbnails of photos attached to posts.

Using either Firefox or IE I can see the attached thumbnails box at the bottom of the posts, but with no contents. If I pass my cursor through that box slowly I can see the cursor change to a hand when it passes over an invisible thumbnail, and when I click it'll display. Changing the forum's display style doesn't seem to make any difference either.

I'm guessing this is related to the settings zonealarm is using for ad blocking/cookies/web bugs/private headers etc on this site, but can't find a setting that'll show those thumbnails.

Has anyone else had this problem and cured it?

I have zone alarm and did some tests. If you click privacy tab it will bring up the cookie and ad control. In the middle is ad blocking. On the med setting I could view all attached images on threads but on high the only way I could get the option to view them is to move the slider on high and click custom. In the ad void control box click the option that allows you to move the mouse over to allow the ad to appear.

But not all the pics show up under this setting, there were some that didn't show the pic but just a box with words. You could still click the box to view the pic. If you like the ad blocking to be on the highest setting then you will probably need to try it this way. but maybe try it on med and see if it performs well

good luck

Can't comment on Zonealarm as I'm running Vista and they didn't have a compatible version last time I looked. I'm currently using Kaspersky Internet Security which seems very good and I'm told is one of the best solutions out there, I've not had any problems with it so far.

Details here http://www.kaspersky.com/kis6 , they do a 30-day free trial.

Originally Posted by chris10

I have zone alarm and did some tests.

Thanks, this helped a lot.

I ended up changing the ad block settings for straightrazorplace to allow banner ads, and that seems to have fixed the thumbnail problem.

One other question on ZA if you don't mind - it's causing the desktop to load much slower than usual before it shows me the trial period dialog window. The desktop wait to load from login on a cold boot is around 2 minutes. Does that improve with a regular licensed installation?

I like the effectiveness of ZA, it found some problems that had gone unnoticed when I was using PC-Cillin the past couple years.

Originally Posted by DMS

One other question on ZA if you don't mind - it's causing the desktop to load much slower than usual before it shows me the trial period dialog window. The desktop wait to load from login on a cold boot is around 2 minutes. Does that improve with a regular licensed installation?

Not sure. I downloaded the program and then bought a license key off of ebay the same day. So I never really tested the program in the trial mode or period. I have read that a few people complain that after they installed ZA that it slowed down a bit. But I have installed ZA on about 4 of my friends computers and they have no problems with loading. Sorry I couldn't really help
Take care

My suggestion, chunk zone alarm and download avast.

http://www.avast.com/

it's free for desktop use at home and automaticly updates upon detection of a connection to the net. also, it passes one of the strictest standard tests in the software av industry and yes, it works on xp64 and vista. Also the resource footprint is tiny compared to just about anything else iv'e seen. It also covers protection of pretty much everything your system will probably need from networking, to email, to peer to peer...not that anyone of you would download music or movies illegally mine you.

Originally Posted by somewierdguy

My suggestion, chunk zone alarm and download avast.

Avast is what I use. It's free and it works well. But it's just for virus protection; it's not a security suite. You still need spyware/malware protection as well as a firewall.

hey guys,

kaspersky seems to get some of the best reviews for its anti virus software. the kaspersky internet security includes a firewall also.

i trialed this latter product but found the firewall too sensitive - seemed to think that any user action or download was altering my registry, etc. eventually got tired of the constant authorisation prompts, etc.

however, i really liked the av part and fortunately a free version of the kaspersky av software is available from aol. it does by the the name active virus shield (avs).

here's a link:http://www.activevirusshield.com/ant...eav/index.adp?

you only need to provide an email address for a registration key (so far (c3 months) i have received no junk mail) and u don't ned to use aol as your isp or pay them anything. i would definitely say that this av software is much better than avg free (which picks up very little); avast (girlfriend likes it but i think it slows the processor down and updates less frequently); or symantec /norton (slows computer and is close to impossible to truly uninstall!)

on the firewall side, i use zone alarm but am considering alternative. so far i have been unable to find an alternative quality free firewall - don't like comodo- so would appreciate any feedback. the most recent za update (7.0.337.000.) caused me real grief - had to do a system restore and follow guidance on their forum on how to manually edit the registry, etc. that said, until now i'd had no problems.

summary: av? use the avs; firewall? za but the jury's out.

Originally Posted by dM/

hey guys,

kaspersky seems to get some of the best reviews for its anti virus software. the kaspersky internet security includes a firewall also.

i trialed this latter product but found the firewall too sensitive - seemed to think that any user action or download was altering my registry, etc. eventually got tired of the constant authorisation prompts, etc.

however, i really liked the av part and fortunately a free version of the kaspersky av software is available from aol. it does by the the name active virus shield (avs).

here's a link:http://www.activevirusshield.com/ant...eav/index.adp?

you only need to provide an email address for a registration key (so far (c3 months) i have received no junk mail) and u don't ned to use aol as your isp or pay them anything. i would definitely say that this av software is much better than avg free (which picks up very little); avast (girlfriend likes it but i think it slows the processor down and updates less frequently); or symantec /norton (slows computer and is close to impossible to truly uninstall!)

on the firewall side, i use zone alarm but am considering alternative. so far i have been unable to find an alternative quality free firewall - don't like comodo- so would appreciate any feedback. the most recent za update (7.0.337.000.) caused me real grief - had to do a system restore and follow guidance on their forum on how to manually edit the registry, etc. that said, until now i'd had no problems.

summary: av? use the avs; firewall? za but the jury's out.

The previous version of Zone alarm security suite added kaspersky av engine

New and improved ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite version 7.0.302.000

• All new antivirus engine from Kaspersky includes a new virus database and extended spyware database as well as the industry's only hourly update system.
• An optional "silent start" mode called auto-learn has been added that detunes the OSFirewall and parts of the network firewall for the first n days (n is variable, default 7) while ZoneAlarm learns the user's unique PC environment. After n days, security reverts to maximum. This dramatically quiets the user experience, while maintaining high security including full stealth mode, Trojan protection, and all signature protection layers.
• Product set-up process has been redesigned and shortened.
• A pre-scan has been added to the start wizard that scans the user's PC for program files, compares programs with ZoneAlarm's SmartDefense Advisor database, and applies policy to said programs, both legitimate and malicious.
• Settings in the Program control panel, Programs tab (Maximum, Auto-learn, Low, Off) have been revamped.
• The UI has been refreshed, with new ZoneAlarm/Check Point branding.
• Anti-spyware has been improved for better discovery and cleaning.
• The spyware update system has been improved for reliability and responsiveness.

Zone alarm works good for me. Not sure if kaspersky engine in za works as well as there own because I have never tired it. But no complaints. I suggest you read reviews (from many sources) on all of the popular firewalls and find one that best suits you. good luck

I ended up uninstalling ZoneAlarm - it was just a little too buggy and slowed the machine a bit more than I was willing to settle for. This was on an AMD 64X2 box so not as if there was a horsepower problem. The last straw for me was interfering with the ability to wake up from hibernation.

I'm running Avast right now, need to find something that'll co-exist with it for spyware/malware and thinking about Spysweeper.