ZoneLabs: The Hot Stuff In Firewalls

BusinessWeek ^ | Alex Salkever

[Reaganwuzthebest]

Despite the tech doldrums, this computer-security outfit has just secured $24.3 million in new VC funding, and sales are exploding.

Can you give something away and still make money? That was the way of the early Web, and few companies that charted that course in those treacherous waters lived to tell the tale. Then there's ZoneLabs, which started out in 1997 handing out free downloads of an advanced personal firewall.

[NerdDad]

..it only shows 248.0 MB of RAM

It's all there. Just being used by Windows. Can't remember how much mine shows but it is a little less than the 512 I have. 98SE is better than the previous versions about giving back memory. But it's not always Windows' fault. Many apps running under Windows are horrible about leaking memory. We have one at work called MetaViewer that almost always requires a reboot after use. A tidbit many folks don't realize is that the Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar takes a meg of memory just to sit on your desktop. Insane.

[WaterDragon]

I finally figured it out. Went there and liked what I saw. Got Pest Control, but now it's exit button isn't ennabled and it tells me to use the finish button on the current logs tab. But that didn't work either. So it's sitting here, the Pest Control window, open and won't be closed. I wrote ZoneAlarm, but who knows when they'll write back? So, when I shut down, what happens?

[lexington minuteman 1775]

Freeper Techie question: I have Norton Internet security which contains a firewall can i also install zonelab firewall or that ad spy stuff without conflict? I am on DSL service which is kinda finicky on firewalls. Any help would be appreciated.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

I'm not familiar with the pest patrol program, but NerdDad said he got it, you might want to ping him.

The only thing I can think of is if the window won't close, try the ctrl/alt/delete keys to shut it. You also might want to reboot and try it again. If you still have problems with it, uninstall and then reinstall the program. Maybe you forgot to do something in the configuration setup.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I don't know the answer but I would suspect they are going to conflict!

I need to know the answer because I will be using norton Professional on my new machine when I get it going! Would prefer to stay with Zonelab for windows XP Pro.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

Wish I could help you, I don't know, although I did find this link to ZoneAlarm help which discourages more than one firewall.

[Ford Fairlane]

I run zone alarm on my server & esafe desktop on my laptop & workstations. It makes a great combo that nothing gets by. (But you must be somewhat computer literate to keep esafe set up properly)

[tet68]

Bump

[meyer]

BTW, if you have a cable modem or DSL and don't have a hardware or software firewall, you may as well let your computer have sex with Haitian males in a San Francisco bathhouse, while eating imported UK cow brains.

That created, for me, the weirdest, most bazaar visual you could imagine. My computer would never do such a thing.

Of course, its protected by Zone Alarm as well.

[WaterDragon]

Thanks. I closed down and windows closed it down first. I've sent off an email to tech support.

[GregoryFul]

I had been using Zone Alarm regularly for about a year and had no problems. But recently I installed WallStreetCity ProStation, which collects and displays real-time stock market data. Zone Alarm slows this application down to a

c r a w l . . .

I cannot use the two together. It also seems to interfere with on-line banking sites that I connect to using Quicken. So I often zap Zone Alarm when I'm on the internet, because of the way it slows things down.

[TN Republican]

That stupid thing is useless. I have always named a folder as Office, placed it on my desktop, and put links to any programs I wanted in it. Once I open it in the morning, it sits in my taskbar all day long until I need to open a program from one of the shortcuts. At that time, all I do is hit Alt-TAB or click on the taskbar icon to restore it, plus, it's easier to navigate from the keyboard too.

[NerdDad]

Haven't tried running 2 software firewalls together. I'm running Netgear hardware firewall and Norton software firewall. This config makes Norton's firewall kinda lonely. I run both because I prefer Norton's content filtering.

I do suspect 2 software firewalls will conflict if you have both running. Norton has a way to disable each part of its suite. That is, you can run the AntiVirus but have Firewall turned off. That would be the safest bet if you plan to run Zone's firewall. PestPatrol seems unaffected by Norton. I run all of Norton's stuff except ad blocker on my supervisor profile and all of it on the wife and kids separate profiles. Then I add PestPatrol for overkill on trojans. All these programs including PestPatrol have Updaters be sure to run them regularly. PestPatrol doesn't have an automatic and you should not rely on the automatics for Norton. Let the automatic run, but also run the live update manually every week. Little known tidbit here--Norton's automatic update is for virus protection only. If you are running the Internet Security suite, you need to run live update manually to get fixes for any of their other products.

I guess it would help to explain why I do all this. As a techie, I'm constantly being asked by family and people at work to "fix" their personal machines. I generally yank their HD and hook it to my machine so I can scan and fix. The added protection comes in handy when dealing with other folks' suspect drives.

[NerdDad]

Sounds like you had a program running during installation. It tried to update a DLL that was already open and hung. My guess is that it probably fixed the last little bit on reboot (that updating drivers thing Windows does sometimes when you reboot) or it fixed it the next time you opened the program. Be sure to run the Updater regularly. They put out new bug fixes that you will need to fight the newest pests.

[FreedomPoster]

Been using ZoneAlarm firewall for almost two years, no problems, works great. And it's free.

I'm using Ad-aware which appears to work very well, and is free also.

Bingo for me, too, on both. I'm also behind a router/NAT appliance (Linksys) on my DSL. I feel reasonably secure.

[wattsmag2]

Zonelabs makes a good product. Even the freeware version rocks.

[TechJunkYard]

.. be sure that your public key is never "exported."

Minor exception here, but it's okay to share public keys, that's why they're called public keys... but your private keys must never be transferred and should be readable only by root (or Admin).

[TechJunkYard]

Here's the configuration that I like best:
Firewall: Zone Alarm from Zone Labs.
Virus Protection: VirusScan 6.0 from McAfee Internet Security 4.0
Privacy: Guard Dog from McAfee Internet Security 4.0
Ad Blocking: AdSubtract from Intermute.
Each of these applications has features that, when combined, make a great privacy suite.

I would suggest that you're creating a single point of failure by installing multiple software packages on a single machine.

And especially if you have more than one computer, you might consider my tiered approach:

• Linksys router box, or similar, which can block incoming OR outgoing ports, as the border firewall.
• A separate Linux firewall for a finer control over the ports and traffic that you DO allow in and out.
• Also install a Junkbuster proxy on this box, to block banners/pop-ups and control cookies.

Now, your bug/virus/trojan exposure is controlled by the OS and applications you use on your computers. Certainly you'd want a decent virus scanner and spyware detector on those.

This is a must for broadband users, but for you dial-up users, the Linux box can also be configured to dial into your ISP and log you on.

[dheretic]

Probing can be as simple as a program testing ports 22 and 23 to see if ssh or telnet respectively are installed. Probing is not an attack by default. It is no different from someone going around door to door to see if someone is in. The motive is what makes it ethical or unethical.