ZA Pro VERSION 6.0.631.003

[Rick]

ZA Pro VERSION 6.0.631.003


Is it a beta or final version ?

If it is a Beta it needs work.
If it is a Final. It needs to be recalled ..

To many of the bells ans whistles are blocking too much
The pop-up blocker stops Pop-ups , But it also blocks web page buttons that need to be there.
It stops Hyperlinks from working from within programs ( Like E-Mail)

The OS firewall blocks Browser Add ons ( Adobe reader for one)

[PrntRhd]

Moved to PC World as post is not a help question.

I would tend to agree with your take on version 6 so far and ZAP in general.
:rolleyes:
I am running ZAF on a few PCs behind a hardware firewall and it is functional but not complicated enough to trip on itself.

[123456]

ZA Free is better than McAfee Firewall Plus, IMHO.
I've seen some pop up stoppers prevent me from opening a new window, (eg. building a car on www.mbusa.com).

[Rick]

I've seen the same thing happen with just about all pop-up stoppers on the Sky and Telescope site.
When ever I try to use the view sky

I have disabled just about all the bells and whistles in ZAP and will be taking it back to version 5 on this system.

I do like the OS firewall on the laptop.
I Use it a lot on wifi and it has stopped a number of portals from making changes

[deddard]

I tend to wait a while before upgraidng ZAP - it can be problematic.
Having said that, it's a good firewall when it is running

[FrankSG]

My original ZA was ZA free version. One day I decided to get some of my money out of the moth balls and spend it on the Pro version figuring that the Pro must be better than the Free. Well--I'm back to the free. I think the Pro is too bloated and trys to do too much. As a result, it blocks out a lot of stuff that it should not block. From what I've read about their latest version, it's packed with a whole lot more stuff which is--the kind of stuff that will be more of a headache then anything else. I think I'll just sitck with the free.

[pop pop]

ZA Pro's bloat and other very significant problems began as soon as they went from 4.x to 5.0. That was when they began trying to be an all in one suite. I had bought 4.0 Pro and made the mistake of making the upgrade. I wound up deleting it and never looked back, seems like little has changed except maybe for the worse.

I do still install the free version for some people. It seems fine, maybe because it does largely one job and not many.

[Paleo Pete]

I'm still using and installing the free version, works fine and just does its one thing...straight firewall. Never was interested in the Pro version, really never saw anything in the list of included features that I thought I might need, and lack of functionality was never an issue with the free version, it always has worked well. I've used ZA since early 4.x versions and possibly 3.x, never had any complaints or problems with it. I'll have to check and see what version I'm using on the win98 machine these days, seems like it's about 5.4 or so, maybe 5.6, I know at least 3 or 4 versions have been produced since then. After reading through the issues pointed out here, I'll probably stick with that version or possibly one in the 4.x range, I think I still have the zip file I downloaded long ago on a CD floating around here.

Hmmm..just got curious and looked before posting, I have versions 2.6 and 3.7 zip files still stored. Guess I was using it earlier than I thought...and running 3.7.193 on the win98 machine, but it hasn't been online in at least 6 months...

[PrntRhd]

5.5.062.011 version of ZAF on this PC, works fine, the later ones gave me fits.

[FrankSG]

Let me tell you one little setting that I changed in ZA that has eliminated a problem. As I said, I'm using the latest free version. There were so many times when I went to send or receive my e-mail where I would get a message that said it couldn't find my server (or some such thing--I can't remember exactly what it said.) It didn't happen every time, but often enough that it made me cuss. When it did happen, the only way I could correct the problem was to shut down ZA. As soon as I got my connection, I would then of course enable ZA again. I don't like the idea of shutting down my firewall even though it's for only a few seconds. So I decided to look at all the settings in ZA. I noticed that the default firewall setting in the Internet Zone was set to High. In the Trusted Zone it was set to Medium. From the reading I did concerning those settings, I found out that the only difference from the High and the Medium setting is that in High, your computer is in Stealth Mode. That is, it's invisible to to the rest of the world. In the Medium setting, it's not invisible, but it's still protected. They know it's there, but can't get into it. So, I set it to Medium and haven't had a problem since. What's strange though, after I set it to Medium, I went to Steve Gibson's site to check all my ports and it showed them all as "Stealth". So, I'm leaving it at the Medium setting. I've had it that way for about 2 weeks now. I run a virus scan every now and then along with my spy-were checks and everything seems to be OK.

[123456]

5.5.062.011 version of ZAF on this PC, works fine, the later ones gave me fits.
Yeah. I had that on my windows 2000 when it worked.

[Rick]

ZAP Ver. 5.5.062.011 on the old work house

My reason for the pro version is simple.
I am a cheap old goat

The Pro version has direct support with my Linksys router.
This allows me to run the cheap old laptops and a couple of desktop systems without a firewall running on them.
Let the main system carry the load of ZAP and the combo of zap/linksys protect the slow units.

I do mean slow also.
Like the old amd 1.4 the PIII 1.2 and the p4 2.4
512 in each and NO firewall running
The combo supports 5 systems .. All for the price of one

[123456]

I'm using a P4 a.4GHz 512mb RAM. Not too shabby, althouhg I DO get a lot of spyware entries. I'll fix it myself. I do have mcafee on this. And I need to install mcafee's firewall.

[ErnieK]

The old ver 5.xx was approx 5MB the latest ZA with all the bells and whisltes is about 22MB. A hell of a difference in size. Even though some might say "But it now does..." I would say have a look at Symantic security Suite and the problems it causes. From the little I have read of the the latest (full) ZA it is heading the same way.

[FrankSG]

I have read the same thing as Ernie is saying from a pretty reliable source.
I think if ZA would just stick with being a firewall and only a firewall, it would be better. I believe that if you have too many things trying to do the same thing, they will start to fight with one another.

[Paleo Pete]

I really hope ZA doesn't go downhill, it's been my favorite firewall for a long time and has always been reliable and trouble free. But the comments above are correct, virtually all of the "security suite" software out there has gotten really crummy once it started to try and do a dozen things instead of just one. McAffee did pretty well with Nuts & Bolts, as long as you disabled everything that wanted to run at startup while installing it. Run it only when needed and it worked great. The only thing I ran at startup was the system monitor. Once they went into antivirus, firewall, antispyware, system maintenance and everything else they could think of, I won't touch McAffee software any more. Especially since I had a problem with their stand alone antivirus on Win98SE and 3 emails in 2 months received no response at all. My 4th email was to tell them their CD was in about 183 pieces in the trash can and I would never spend another penny on software they would not support.

Ditto for Norton, I never liked their antivirus to begin with, then they started to try and cover too many bases at once in addition to charging for the software then charging for database updates. They and McAffee both became huge corporations providing free database updates for 5 or 6 years. Charging for database updates was not because they needed more money or were losing income by providing updates free. It was because of two words.....corporate greed. And the first time I tried to uninstall Norton's antivirus, 20 minutes later I was reinstalling Windows it trashed the system so bad. Installing Norton system Works had the same result. After their software caused me to reinstall Windows twice, I will never again let any more Norton software even in the same room with my computer. I've seen their firewall in operation on customers' computers, I'm not impressed...

Zone Alarm, as long as it's just a firewall, runs great, doesn't seem to hog a lot of resources and bog the machine down, and does a nice job of being a firewall. I don't think I'll even consider trying a different version that tries to do any more than that. I have a couple of versions that work well, until a better one comes along I'll keep using those. Guess I need to look up some info on the newer versins, I haven't kept up with it but did hear rumors about the newer ZA not being as reliable as what I've been running for at least 4 years. As long as the Gibson Research scanner still says I'm invisible, I'll stick with ZA...on the rare occasions I bother to get online with Windows anyway...

[123456]

I hate Norton too, mainly because my cousin is constantly irritating me about his norton subscription and stuff.

I personally use McAfee firewall Plus, it does the job for me and my family. Every PC in the house has it. Except my 233MHz laptop, that has ZoneAlarm Free.

[FrankSG]

McAffee did pretty well with Nuts & Bolts, as long as you disabled everything that wanted to run at startup while installing it.
Do you think it's a good idea to get into in Safe Mode before installing that stuff?

[PrntRhd]

I think Pete was talking about the startup items in the program itself.

You don't want a whole suite of programs to start automatically or the PC will be so busy running it that the PC will be unable to do useful work.

[Paleo Pete]

Right, installing in Safe Mode probably wouldn't make much difference, use the custom installation and pick what parts of the program to install, (I installed the whole thing, since I wanted to try everything out) and Nuts & Bolts also has a screen during the custom installation that allows you to choose which programs run at startup, at least the older version I had did. I let the System Monitor run at Windows Startup, nothing else, I can turn it on when I need it.

That way it's not a resource hog, use only what you need when you need it. I can't remember what the Norton System Works installation options were, or if it had the option to choose what to run at startup, but when I installed it on Win98SE I had to completely format and reinstall to get things right again. Also an older version, but both were new or one version behind at that time.

[FrankSG]

I see what you mean now, Pete. When I install anything with their "recommended" installation it puts some stuff on that I don't want. I'll choose the custom installation from now on.

[123456]

I always use the custom installation.

[PrntRhd]

Pete,
The recent Norton SystemWorks is really a hog if you allow it to load and run all the whistles and bells, but you can select what options you want to have running, either through Options in the interface, or by purging Startup folder items or by using Custom Installation and installing only the features you want to install.

The problem with Suites is "Marketing" drives the software engineers to add more "features" than the competitors product suite, so they can charge more than the competitor's product. Most users only need one or two features once a year, and will install Everything and have everything running at the same time, and don't know what is important or not, the end result is conflicts, sluggish performance and "bloat", and can break the PC as often as fixing it.

The amazing truth is a few individual programs can do the fixes needed without requiring big $85 All-In-One Suites.