GRC's Steve Gibson does not recommend Zone Alarm

[Jimmy]

Steve Gibson of GRC.com does not recommend Zone Alarm.

"I would not, could not, and do not recommend
ZoneAlarm today."

http://www.grc.com/x/news.exe?cmd=article&group=grc.security&item=104301&utag=

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

I know a lot of people that don't recommend Steve Gibson either,
particularly not on networking issues. Not that I'm a fan of ZA, but you
gotta consider the source......

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[R. McCarty]

Gibson's posting doesn't elaborate on what it is he doesn't like about
ZA - beyond feature sprawl. Perhaps it goes against his minimalist
approach to coding. Also, whenever you kick a specific product it
helps to make your case by offering more viable solutions.

He should stick to fixing disk drives.

 

[Lil' Dave]

He also says this:
"It may still be the best solution for many, if not most, people ... "

My take on this webpage discussion is that ZA is leaving a few holes due to
the box-clicking setup technique used by all 3 software firewall makers.
And does not allow a tighter setup that people versed in setting up a
firewall can perform in a less stringent click-box setup.

His was a reply about ZA "phoning home". This is because this was setup
intially to allow ZA to check for updates automatically. AV software with
auto virus definition updating has a similar feature and is typically
allowed by most users either manually, or setup to allow automatically
within the firewall setup.

 

[Ron Martell]

Steve Gibson of GRC.com does not recommend Zone Alarm.

"I would not, could not, and do not recommend
ZoneAlarm today."

http://www.grc.com/x/news.exe?cmd=article&group=grc.security&item=104301&utag=

Steve Gibson should confine himself to programming, especially to
writing utitilies and diagnostics for disk drives. His hard drive
utility (Spinrite) and his Zip disk repair utility are the best of
their kind.

But on other matters.......


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm

 

[David Morgan \(MAMS\)]

Steve Gibson of GRC.com does not recommend Zone Alarm.

"I would not, could not, and do not recommend
ZoneAlarm today."

http://www.grc.com/x/news.exe?cmd=article&group=grc.security&item=104301&utag=

I don't know what anyone else was using, but for a free firewall, there
wasn't much considered to be better than the original Zone Alarm.

For what it's worth, the latest MS updates issued for Win98SE
seriously crashed ZoneAlarm Free and ZoneAlarm Pro versions
4 and 5 on a bunch of PCs with 98SE which I support.

I'm personally going back to ZAPro-3 or the older free version on
my 98 boxes... the newer stuff is affecting the simplest .gifs and
pictures from loading when using settings that would previously
pass these items with ease, and doesn't display a file path for
quarantined items. It's also writing boot reminders into DOS...
and this program was at one time one of the least invasive on
the market. The addition of "Protect the Zone Labs Client" has
been serious trouble to configuring the wall.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Steve Gibson of GRC.com does not recommend Zone Alarm.

"I would not, could not, and do not recommend
ZoneAlarm today."

Which would be an excellent reason to use it.

Gibson is a very poor source for computer security advice. Gibson has
been fooling a lot of people for several years, now, so don't feel too
bad about having believed him. He mixes just enough facts in with his
hysteria and hyperbole to be plausible. Despicably, Gibson is assuming
a presumably morally superior pose as a White Knight out to rescue the
poor, defenseless computer user, all the while offering solutions that
do no good whatsoever.

Perhaps you should read what real computer security specialists
have to say about Steve Gibson's "security" expertise. You can start here:
http://www.grcsucks.com/


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[David Candy]

But he is an expert on RLL encoded hard disks (about 10 mb in size from the 80s)

 

[Bruce Chambers]

But he is an expert on RLL encoded hard disks (about 10 mb in size from the 80s)

Granted. When Gibson sticks to hard drive maintenance and recovery
utilities, he's in his element. Unfortunately, expertise in that area
doesn't carry over into the security realm.

--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[Marko]

Opinions are like bung holes...everybody's got one!

| Jimmy wrote:
| > Steve Gibson of GRC.com does not recommend Zone Alarm.
| >
| > "I would not, could not, and do not recommend
| > ZoneAlarm today."
| >
|
|
|
| Which would be an excellent reason to use it.
|
| Gibson is a very poor source for computer security advice. Gibson has
| been fooling a lot of people for several years, now, so don't feel too
| bad about having believed him. He mixes just enough facts in with his
| hysteria and hyperbole to be plausible. Despicably, Gibson is assuming
| a presumably morally superior pose as a White Knight out to rescue the
| poor, defenseless computer user, all the while offering solutions that
| do no good whatsoever.
|
| Perhaps you should read what real computer security specialists
| have to say about Steve Gibson's "security" expertise. You can start
here:
| http://www.grcsucks.com/
|
|
| --
|
| Bruce Chambers
|
| Help us help you:
|
|
|
| You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
| both at once. - RAH

 

[David Candy]

I was last at his hysterical site during the XP beta.