| reply to Damon85
Re: They're not wrong... I don't get it ? I read all these horror stories about Zone Alarm and Zone Alarm Pro version 6. When my previously latest version 5.5 told me a new version was available I went to the Zone Labs site and took a look. There was one update to ZAP 6 so I downloaded it and ran it for an install. ZAP 6 install shut down the older version of ZAP and asked me how I wanted to install version six and I chose to do a clean installation. It installed perfectly even though my Webroot Spy Sweeper and MS Antispyware went nuts requesting approval. I simply allowed the changes, rebooted and all was good. I let ZAP 6 set up all the preferences to make it easier and I even kept the ZAP 6 antispyware portion running. I went through the usual set of training and made sure that I checked the box so that it would remember my preferences for all the applications that needed access through the firewall. All other applications were handled by ZAP's automatic settings that determine whether the app is legitimate or not. I did one more reboot just for fun and all was well. Sure I did get the Windows Messenger is logging the keystrokes warnings but I figure this is a bug and should be fixed in the next release. Meanwhile I notices that Windows Messenger was trying to run all the time even though I have it disabled. I simply Googled Windows Messenger and linked to the Microsoft Support site where it showed a simple five step regedit to completely stop Messenger from running at all. After editing I rebooted one more time and Messenger quit running and all has been good since.
Zone Alarm Pro Version 6 is one of the most impressive security programs I have ever used ! I love it! It tells you whenever any program is accessing parts of your system that it shouldn't, it monitors for spyware using the Pest Patrol engine, its smoother and faster than ever. I think it runs much more stable that any previous version. If the security warning pop ups keep annoying you just check the box to remember your setting to always block or always allow and you are good to go. After using ZAP 6 I don't understand what all the negative hype has been about. The first releases of ZAP 5 were bad and that I will admit but ZAP 6 is really good. Anyone bitching and moaning about bloatware are completely nuts. I don't consider an 8MB Zone Alarm Pro file bloatware. I find this latest version to have zero connection problems and many little fixes from the 5.5 and lower versions. I have all the settings set to maximum security. In addition to having the Zone Alarm Antispyware (Pest Patrol based) I also am running McAfee Antispyware, Norton System Works 2003, MS Antispyware, Webroot Spy Sweeper, SpywareBlaster and Spybot S & D. I have FOUR antispyware programs running in real time. My computer is not a power house. It is rather average Athlon XP 2600+ with 512MB DDR. My version of XP Pro was installed on this machine over three years ago. Zone Alarm Pro and Norton 2003 have been protecting it solidly for that entire time along with the addition of various antispyware products through the years. I HIGHLY recommend Zone Alarm Pro 6 for all heavy users of the internet. I only might post a warning for pure novice users who might get frustrated at the new Zone Alarm's incredible number of options and settings. Anything you don't like in the new version can be turned off or tuned down to your liking to make it more like previous versions.
One more point to make regarding the ZAP antispyware...I did one deep scan of the system which took over an hour and I believe it came up with what I think are two false positives that are well documented as being a carry over from Pest-Patrol false positives that have not yet been corrected. One was relating to a file in Spybot S & D that is a fix for computers using Kazaa software and the other was a dll file that was related to benchmarking software. Neither false positive came up on the quick scan. Other than those two issues I really like the antispyware portion of Zone Alarm Pro as it is added to my collection of working antispyware programs already installed. Even will all this running my computer runs fast and snappy without any slowdown that other people have reported after installing the Zone Alarm update. I actually think that the new Zone Alarm is faster than any previous version I have used in the past two years. ZoneAlarm Pro 6 is an amazing security firewall package !!! |
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| if bugs manifested themselves in every instance then the product would not be released. you just got lucky. |
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| reply to Tech-2005
I agree with you re:problems. I've been running ZAP for about 3 years with not too many problems . My only one persistent problem is my desktop takes longer to fully load. It used to take ~45s to load. Since the upgrade to v6
load up time has doubled. I've gone through the usual msconfig fiddles with no success. ANY SUGGESTIONS?
HOWEVER i can live it knowing my comp is safe.
My system is AMD64 Winchester 3200+,av8 pro mobo, 1GB OCZ ram:):) |
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