Replacement for Zone Alarm?

[Walter R.]

I am using Win XP SP2 and continually have trouble with Zone Alarm Pro. The
folks at Zone Alarm are not very helpful, either. I would like to replace
Zone Alarm.

For a new Firewall, I would like to use the Windows XP firewall. However, I
will miss the anti-ad features of Zone Alarm. Are there any other programs,
preferably free, that prevent banner ads and other flashy ads?

Thank you

 

[Galen]

In Walter R. <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

I am using Win XP SP2 and continually have trouble with Zone Alarm
Pro. The folks at Zone Alarm are not very helpful, either. I would
like to replace Zone Alarm.

For a new Firewall, I would like to use the Windows XP firewall.
However, I will miss the anti-ad features of Zone Alarm. Are there
any other programs, preferably free, that prevent banner ads and
other flashy ads?
Thank you

You might like to take a look here:

Firewalls - Basics:
http://kgiii.info/windows/all/security/firewalls-basics.html

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind,
which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply
there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations." -
Sherlock Holmes

 

[Vanguard]

Firewalls - Basics:
http://kgiii.info/windows/all/security/firewalls-basics.html

Note the Sygate got bought by Symantec who promptly killed the product which
was their intent (and it has been with other competing products that they
have acquired in the past). Be aware that many of the features mentioned
for firewalls in many reviews is against the paid or Pro version and not the
freebie version.

You can do a Google to find product keys published online for the Sygate
Personal Firewall Pro (stick with the prior 5.5 version and not the 5.6
version). Obviously you are cracking the product to, ahem, steal it, but
are you really stealing when you are grabbing something out of someone's
garbage that they threw away? I leave it to you to figure out your ethics
regarding digging in someone else's software trashbin and despite that doing
such will affect absolutely no loss in revenue for a product that Symantec
deliberately trashed. It's not like you can actually buy the firewall from
Symantec so they cannot lose any revenue on it. For sure they still retain
their intellectual property rights to it.

Some reviews will tout the DLL authentication feature of Sygate. However,
it had a vulnerability in version 5.5 for which there was never a report
that it got fixe in version 5.6. Also, DLL authentication is flaky. It
will report DLLs that are not called by a program so I don't know on what
event Sygate is triggering. For example, a background program that has no
I/O (no window and no keyboard or mouse input) will alert that a Logitech
DLL was called, yet if you use SysInternals' File Monitor you will not see
any calls made to that DLL. What Sygate is using for its trigger regarding
which program is calling another is flawed, so disable that flaky feature.
You'll be answering prompts forever, even after authorizing the access and
later getting the same prompt for the same program and DLL, and getting it
again and again. Otherwise, I like the Sygate firewall a lot.

The Sygate firewall is just a firewall. It is not censorware. That means
it will not block ads. It does its job very well because it did not devolve
into bloatware. It has an IDS (intrusion detection system) which will
become stale due to the lack of any updates after Symantec killed off the
product. You can use the free Prevx 1R product to compensate by adding its
IDS function (the 1R full-function version is beta, always will be, and why
they offer it for free; the old Prevx Home free but reduced functionality
version is no longer available).

 

[Ted]

I am using Win XP SP2 and continually have trouble with Zone Alarm Pro. The
folks at Zone Alarm are not very helpful, either. I would like to replace
Zone Alarm.

For a new Firewall, I would like to use the Windows XP firewall. However,
I will miss the anti-ad features of Zone Alarm. Are there any other
programs, preferably free, that prevent banner ads and other flashy ads?

Thank you

Maybe you should try Zone Alarm Free. Works great along with AdMuncher, one
of the best ad removers I have tried. Not free but only $25.
http://www.admuncher.com/
Ted

 

[Lars-Erik Østerud]

Ted:

Maybe you should try Zone Alarm Free. Works great along with AdMuncher, one
of the best ad removers I have tried. Not free but only $25.

I use ZA Free together with WebWasher (http://www.webwasher.com, free
version is accessible from a link far down to the left on the page).

WebWasher filters all commercials and stuff, needs some work to
configure what you want to filter. But then it is truly great !

 

[jt3]

I share the view you suggest regarding commercial practices like Symantec's,
but the Devil's advocate in me points out how contrary this is to the good,
tried-and-true, 'capitalist model' that is so widely used as an excuse for
everything under the sun.
After all, Symantec paid good money to remove competition.
They should get value for their money.
Value for money invested is more important than the short-term general
public good, after all. Naturally staying employed is the public citizen's
most pressing interest, and who else will employ them, especially since it
is a given that only big business is efficient (at crowding out the smaller
competitors).
The Sherman and Clayton anti-trust acts, if they have not been totally
eviscerated by this time, should be ignored insofar as is possible, since
everyone knows big money would never do anything to the detriment of the
public. After all, the welfare of the country is in everyone's interest,
and they wouldn't do anything to harm their own interests, would they?
But if they happened to, by accident, of course, they could be paid money by
the government (the conservative government, of course, doing its
'conservation') to fix it. And if there were any problems in how that might
look, why just pay off a few politicians--after all, big money *has* the
money!

hth!
Joe

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Maybe someone could purchase Symantec and kill them. ;-) I'll chip in ten
bucks.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Rock]

Vanguard wrote:

You can do a Google to find product keys published online for the Sygate
Personal Firewall Pro (stick with the prior 5.5 version and not the 5.6
version).

<snip>

What's wrong with the 5.6 version?

 

[Galen]

In Vanguard <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Note the Sygate got bought by Symantec who promptly killed the
product which was their intent (and it has been with other competing
products that they have acquired in the past). Be aware that many of
the features mentioned for firewalls in many reviews is against the
paid or Pro version and not the freebie version.

You can do a Google to find product keys published online for the
Sygate Personal Firewall Pro (stick with the prior 5.5 version and
not the 5.6 version). Obviously you are cracking the product to,
ahem, steal it, but are you really stealing when you are grabbing
something out of someone's garbage that they threw away? I leave it
to you to figure out your ethics regarding digging in someone else's
software trashbin and despite that doing such will affect absolutely
no loss in revenue for a product that Symantec deliberately trashed. It's
not like you can actually buy the firewall from Symantec so they
cannot lose any revenue on it. For sure they still retain their
intellectual property rights to it.
Some reviews will tout the DLL authentication feature of Sygate. However,
it had a vulnerability in version 5.5 for which there was
never a report that it got fixe in version 5.6. Also, DLL
authentication is flaky. It will report DLLs that are not called by
a program so I don't know on what event Sygate is triggering. For
example, a background program that has no I/O (no window and no
keyboard or mouse input) will alert that a Logitech DLL was called,
yet if you use SysInternals' File Monitor you will not see any calls
made to that DLL. What Sygate is using for its trigger regarding
which program is calling another is flawed, so disable that flaky
feature. You'll be answering prompts forever, even after authorizing
the access and later getting the same prompt for the same program and
DLL, and getting it again and again. Otherwise, I like the Sygate
firewall a lot.
The Sygate firewall is just a firewall. It is not censorware. That
means it will not block ads. It does its job very well because it
did not devolve into bloatware. It has an IDS (intrusion detection
system) which will become stale due to the lack of any updates after
Symantec killed off the product. You can use the free Prevx 1R
product to compensate by adding its IDS function (the 1R
full-function version is beta, always will be, and why they offer it
for free; the old Prevx Home free but reduced functionality version
is no longer available).

Alas, another link to remove from the page... I'll be down to just one
pretty soon from the looks of things or I'm going to have to start
recommending shareware products.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/
http://kgiii.info/

"We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind,
which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply
there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations." -
Sherlock Holmes

 

[Rock]

In Vanguard <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:




Alas, another link to remove from the page... I'll be down to just one
pretty soon from the looks of things or I'm going to have to start
recommending shareware products.

Kerio is back.

 

[Fuzzy Logic]

I am using Win XP SP2 and continually have trouble with Zone Alarm Pro.
The folks at Zone Alarm are not very helpful, either. I would like to
replace Zone Alarm.

For a new Firewall, I would like to use the Windows XP firewall.
However, I will miss the anti-ad features of Zone Alarm. Are there any
other programs, preferably free, that prevent banner ads and other
flashy ads?

Avant Browser <www.avantbrowser.com>. It's an IE shell with tabbed browsing,
ad blocker, flash blocker, popup blocker and a whole lot more.

 

[jt3]

Someone said that the outfit that purchased it was known as a spamware
provider, and though that might make them better at stopping it, it seems a
little chancy. Do you have any specifics?

 

[Rock]

Someone said that the outfit that purchased it was known as a spamware
provider, and though that might make them better at stopping it, it seems a
little chancy. Do you have any specifics?

Galen wrote:


It's

However,


Kerio is back.

Sunbelt bought it. I don't think they are a malware provider.

 

[jt3]

Yes, I recall that's what previous poster said. But another one said
Sunbelt was involved with malware. I know nothing about them other than
what the two said and what you have said. Do you have any experience with
them?

J

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Sunbelt CounterSpy is powered by Giant. Sunbelt is legitimate.

GIANT AntiSpyware is what Microsoft bought so they could have Microsoft®
Windows® AntiSpyware.

http://www.sunbelt-software.com/

http://www.giantcompany.com/default.htm

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Rock]

Yes, I recall that's what previous poster said. But another one said
Sunbelt was involved with malware. I know nothing about them other than
what the two said and what you have said. Do you have any experience with
them?

J

Sunbelt is not a malware provider. They are the makes of CounterSpy - a
good anti-malware product.

 

[jt3]

Thanks, Wesley.

That is definitely good news, since I had gone to Sygate after trouble with
the ZA firewall (as part of the CA EZ Armor) but just about the time I
decided to go with it, I learned Symantec had its hooks into them. And then
the bad news about Kerio, initially.

One thing puzzles me--where you say Sunbelt CounterSpy is powered by Giant?
Does this mean that this product is licensed to Sunbelt and actually the
same thing that MS bought?

Joe

 

[jt3]

Thank you for your response. I notice that they have a special offer for
the paid version--looks like a good thing to try.

Joe

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Joe,

Info from Eric L. Howes...

[[Legitimate/Licensed Clones
There are licensed clones of legitimate anti-spyware applications. What
follows is a list of rebranded versions of legitimate anti-spyware products
and/or prominent affiliate web sites for legitimate anti-spyware products.

Sunbelt CounterSpy
sunbelt-software.com
powered by GIANT (code independently owned by Sunbelt) ]]
from...
Spyware Warrior: Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Products & Web Sites
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

That's all I know.

Do a Ctrl + F for CounterSpy.


--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Rock]

Thank you for your response. I notice that they have a special offer for
the paid version--looks like a good thing to try.

Joe

jt3 wrote:


with


Sunbelt is not a malware provider. They are the makes of CounterSpy - a
good anti-malware product.

You're welcome. I read one review of it. The free version should work
fine.