Customer Reviews

Zonealarm Internet Security Suite 2009

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

The last user who gave this a one star is talking nonsense and obviously knows little about firewalls. I've used ZA for years, I have a very good understanding of network security because I run a server at home with a software and hardware firewall combined. Features like ICMP Echo, which stops your PC replying to hackers who ping large numbers of IP addresses are a must. I've never had any security issues using this because I know how to use it. Letting a firewall do it's own thing automatically without any configuration or understanding is always gonna cause problems no matter what software you use. I've never found ZA CPU intensive, I schedule scans when I'm not around, plus I have a dual core cpu and 4gb memory with Sata II hard drives, so it runs easily even when I am playing games at the same time. If you want a real resource hogger then try Norton Anti-Virus...never like it and never use it.
ZA only pops up messages until it get's used to the programmes on your machine, all you do it tick a box and it won't bother you...easy.

I can't see what all the complaining is about. This is the best security software I've ever had on my computer. I have XP on my computer. It only took 5 minutes to download. It installed flawlessly. Once my system restarted, it was up and running.

Norton is like an overexcited boy scout when internet traffic is detected. The pop-ups are extremely irritating because 9.9 times out of ten, it's just telling me that there's internet traffic coming and going...and it's a resource hog. Once I uninstalled it, my computer magically got faster...and less annoying.

This software just works in the background so I can get things done. It's so quiet that sometimes I have to check to see if it's still running. I did a virus scan and it scanned so efficiently that I had to check to see if that was actually running too. It was. Scans usually slow down my computer to a crawl, but I didn't even notice this one. The parental controls were a cinch too. All I had to do is create a password for the filter and that was up and running within 10 seconds.

This software is well worth the price. It's easy to set up, and it so far works flawlessly. I'm not sure about Vista, but I've never had a better internet security program.

I am a software developer, and I have been using Zone Alarm for years. Easily the best firewall, and it uses the Kaspersky anti-virus engine, which is also excellent. The suite contains other must-have features, such as browser pest protection. I have installed this (I buy license packs) on several relatives' and friends' computers, and it works well on all of them. All these products use a lot of resources, and inexperienced users can have problems with any of them. However, not using one is not an option, and I have found Zone Alarm Suite to be as good as any and better than most.

I've been using Zone Alarm products since 2003, and my experience has generally been good.

This software may not be for everyone. While it is very versatile, there is a significant learning curve for many of the functions. However, this doesn't need to be a problem for anyone, since it DOES have auto-settings in the more complicated areas.

One of the things I like best is the availability of customizing the internet access and cross program access of individual programs, as well as being able to customize the security and what is allowed on individual websites. I originally got the Zone Alarm software when my computer at work was hacked... with someone I traced to the Netherlands hijacking it as a download server for pirated movies. The company I worked in at the time hadn't secured their servers.

When it comes to website privacy, there is no better application. This is totally customizable as to what types of cookies you wish to allow, and whether you want to allow the website to use mobile code, ads, popups, Java, scripts, and more. You can filter out web bugs and private headers. You can even set cookie expiration.

Some people complain about getting popups from this platform all the time, but this is quite easily remedied. All you need to do is set your defaults to manage your security for you and turn off the advisories. If you encounter something where you want a different level of security, you can always go in and tweak that individual item.

My only gripe is that the virus monitor and scanning functions are rather CPU intensive. For this reason, you will want to schedule your virus scans for a time when you are not using your computer. You can tweak your settings to reduce CPU usage, but as I tend to be rather paranoid, I direct my computer's resources to lean toward the safety side.

All in all, I would recommend this for anyone. It's worth taking the time to go through the learning curve that goes with it. I've used Microsoft's built in security, Norton, McAfee, and Avenger security in the past, and none of them come even close to the versatility and customization of Zone Alarm. Moreover, the built in virus protection, Kaspersky, is among the highest recommended utilities.

It's hard for me to give this product a reasonable star rating. Read on. I run Windows Vista Home Premium on an HP laptop. I've been using Zone Alarm for almost a year with no incidents. It seems like a good package. When it's in learning mode, it throws a lot of prompts at you to allow/disallow different programs, but after a while it's not a problem. But what is a problem is huge .... about 6-7 months ago, my Windows Update stopped working. I couldn't get automatic updates. I couldn't even open Windows Update. The window opened, but no text and I had to kill it with Task Manager. What does this have to do with Zone Alarm? Zone Labs sent me an offer about a week ago to upgrade to their Extreme Security package, so I did. When I did, Windows Update suddenly started working again. But ... 2 days later, Windows Update stopped working and displayed the exact same problem it had before. So I uninstalled Zone Alarm. Behold! Windows Update works fine. At this point I haven't reinstalled Zone Alarm. In fact, I got a refund from them and I'm now searching for a new security suite. ZA might work for you, but something is broken and I don't have the time to mess with it.

This product was very difficult for us to load on our computer and it has not worked well since. The Zone Alarm support is done by e-mail unless you want to pay for it and it did not help. We can't even remove this program from our computer now. I would give this product a negative 5 star rating if I could. I totally agree with the other reviewer who rated this product with one star. Buy something else from Amazon and save yourself the hassle.

My 32 bit vista "ultimate" system was running slower than I liked with Norton, so I uninstalled Norton and installed the ZA Suite. I have well over a terabyte of attached storage on this laptop. I had used ZA for years before, and figured I'd be back to a lean system. I don't doubt that on a small system it works just fine. I didn't think it could possibly be worse than Norton, but it is. I'm a systems programmer. It's been getting worse for months and recently has become terminal. My Vista mail is constantly thrashing, virus scans go on for days and cannot be aborted. It's hard to describe the depths of despair it drove me to. As I type this I'm again having to constantly click to dismiss virus scan windows, where I'd WANT it to destroy the infected files, it just keeps popping up to inform me, it grabs focus, and disrupts anything I'm trying to do. I keep turning it off, telling it YES CANCEL THE SCAN, at this point all I want is for it to GO AWAY and let me work! But within minutes or seconds it will be back. The boot disk has filled up and it's become an impossible vicious circle. I'm in bad health and don't have the energy to get around this in any clever way. My laptop has become unusable, and this is where all my most important stuff is. I've gotten so depressed, I've stopped using e-mail and responding to anyone. People have to fax me to get to me. If I ever get my hands on one of the cretins who designed this "product", I don't know what I might do. The Zonealarm "suite" was apparently designed with small systems in mind. In this age? What WERE they thinking? If your disks total say a couple of terabytes, the antivirus scans will go on longer than the weekly interval they default to. So what will happen when the next scan starts up before the first one ends? I can tell you, I've seen it, and it's not pretty. And what's the point of bothering the user with these constant popups if he's trying to turn them off? And people, if your mail storage is over a couple gigs, the ZA mail scanner demonstrably goes nuts, looping on the same detections, and refusing to stand down. Then you get into various forms of downward spiral, and as your boot drive gets filled up with byproducts of this tailspin, you are going to lose the machine and everything on it. I can see that I'm going to have to reformat this machine. I CURSE YOU ZONEALARM! YOU HAVE MADE MY LIFE A LIVING HELL. As to people who have not yet purchased this disease, if you are running Vista, trust me, don't take the chance. As to installing it on other Windows versions, I think it's going to depend on factors we can't anticipate, but certainly the more storage and the more programs you use, the less the chances of a smooth ZA experience. They apparently haven't thought a lot of issues through, and frankly, I wouldn't trust people who make mistakes like this with ANYTHING important. The people who are reporting serious trouble are not making it up. The ones who are OK are just lucky -- so far. You can decide.

Overall, I don't think any of the Security Suites are very good. Zone Alarm just happens to have gotten unusually bad. We have made thousand-fold gains in processing power over the last 2 decades only to use 99.9% of it on running firewalls and antivirus software on every PC! Think about the reasons. The main reason for spreading trojans and viruses is to collect e-mail addresses and identity information. Spammers use this data. Targeted advertising violates privacy. It is based on fraudulently claiming people asked to be targeted, and uses e-mail addresses and other info purchased from hackers who have culled them by breaking into our computers. Spam is not legitimate advertising. It is a crime that breeds crime and costs the world billions each year. If our govts. made spammers pay a $1000 fine for each unsolicited e-mail message, the majority of the problem would disappear overnight, we could uninstall 99% of that armor, and get back to using our PCs for useful work. When targeted advertising is banned, targeting will stop. Write your representatives today, we want simple anti-spam legislation that will stop security breeches at their root. Meanwhile look for better security products than ZA.

there are pages and pages article and complain on internet, regarding conflict between Window Vista and AZ . I had to reformat both my computer and laptop to completely solve my problem. This issue is going on for more than a year but obviously AZ doesn't care about it. If you have Vista on your computer do not waste your time and money for it

I was a bit unsure whether I should buy a ZoneAlarm product or not. After extremely low protection from Norton Antivirus 2006, I decided to give this product a try. I'm glad I did. The product installs quickly with little reboots. It was also user-friendly and even let me upgrade to the latest software...FREE! It is definitely not like Norton; it does not use up a great amount of space or slow down programs. It is in fact the opposite. The software gives you a choice of whether to trust a certain program or network, which is the only downside if you are not familiar with computer program names. Still, it provides some if not the best computer protection on the market.

It is a bit advanced for the average computer user. When one first installs it, the program will constantly ask whether to allow an unknown program to execute or not. Make sure that if you recognize the program, allow it (and set it so it will always allow it) because otherwise, you're going to have problems running certain programs. Once you get through the learning period, it gets easier. And the level of protection for browsing the internet (I set it to the maximum) is wonderful for keeping out viruses and most spyware.

I highly recommend this, especially to Norton users. If you like Internet Security software that has the user control its features, this is for you.

I switched to ZA after using Norton System works, AVG, etc. AVG was great, but no firewall. Norton was horrible, it slowed down my system and I still got a few viruses. I've been using ZA on a shared computer for ~18 months now. Although there is a firewall pop-up at startup that I can't seem to get rid of, this computer doesn't have any viruses that I know of.

If you're sick of Norton, give Zone Alarm a try.