Comments for Zone Alarm firewall: do I need it if I'm behind a NAT router?

Comment from Rick on 2009-01-15

2009-01-15T18:26:32Z

I've had nothing but problems using software firewalls such as both the free zone alarm and the pay-for zone alarm pro, norton's firewall, sygate's firewall. I've done lots of port scanning using all those previously mentioned software firewalls and found that 1 or more of my ports were showing up as being closed which is not good. You actually want your ports to be a ghost...to be stealthed out like a black hole. I use NetGear's WGR614 v7 router alongside those previously mentioned firewalls such as norton and zone alarm and again I say the ports were closed. I had lots of problems with zone alarm and norton. I then removed them and decided to try Windows xp own firewall with my netgear router and found during the port scanning that my ports were now being shown as fully stealthed. I quit having problems using the combination of a netgear router and windows firewall. Scan your ports at https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

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A comment on: Zone Alarm firewall: do I need it if I'm behind a NAT router?

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Comment from Leo A. Notenboom on 2008-01-20

2008-01-21T00:29:00Z

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The problem with outbound protection is that when it traps
something real, it's too late - you've got outbound bad
traffic because there's something bad on your machine. If
you don't have malware on your machine, then the outbound
warnings are just so much noise (that often serve to mask
anything valid that might come up anyway).

IMO inbound-only firewalls - particularly NAT routers - are
the way to go.

Leo

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A comment on: Zone Alarm firewall: do I need it if I'm behind a NAT router?

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Comment from Nick on 2008-01-16

2008-01-16T14:32:09Z

It's a constant debate whether a router peforming NAT is just enough. From what I've heard and read, a software firewall will add an extra layer of protection, and block outbound traffic, your router is just going to do what comes in. Not what goes out. Overall, reading about firewalls and security I find very interesting. Windows Firewall at least in XP, lacks outbound protection. This is one of the cons of it. I've used ZA, Sygate, and one other firewall and ZA I've found myself coming back time and time again. It's easy to use and configure, and effective. You can get rid of the nagging alerts if you go to the alerts tab and choose off, program alerts will still be displayed. I admit ZA has gotten more bloated. It works well though and I highly recommend it. If your router does SPI, that's extra protection, again--no outbound protection on your router though. ZA free version is very configurable and you can get rid of the nagging alerts if you know how to press the correct buttons.

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A comment on: Zone Alarm firewall: do I need it if I'm behind a NAT router?

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Comment from winsonkoh on 2007-06-06

2007-06-07T03:39:35Z

Hmmm, one thing I don't like about zonealarm is that when I start up Pangya, during that time it shows up the box then my Pangya hangs or can't login at all. Normally i would shut down zonealarm when I'm playing online, save the trouble of restarting my pc again.. -.-;

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A comment on: Zone Alarm firewall: do I need it if I'm behind a NAT router?

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Comment from eggwonda on 2007-01-27

2007-01-28T00:42:19Z

Ask Leo ..... great site. I have a router and i use ZoneAlarm Pro. As my ZA is up for renewal i might well not bother. Trouble is its the paranoia that kicks in. I cant see my hardware firewall so does it really work ? !! I even disabled my ZA and went to grc.com and ran the LeakTest ..... guess what .... my firewall was penetrated !! Looks like ZA free might get my vote or maybe Comodo ;)

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A comment on: Zone Alarm firewall: do I need it if I'm behind a NAT router?

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Comment from Mike B on 2007-01-06

2007-01-06T20:09:48Z

Ask leo is an excellent help.Regarding Zone Alarm, I have been using it for years and have had no problems. I recently went wireless and have a 192..168 address when i look at the DOS prompt as suggested.Ian Gizmo Richards has recently said he is going to change over to Comodo Firewall early 2007. This is a free programme and comes well recommended, a friend of mine who is very particular and a born sceptic recommends it highly as well.I would think that Gizmos recommendation alone should carry a lot of weight, as, like leo, he is ultra well experienced and informed.Hope this helps.

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A comment on: Zone Alarm firewall: do I need it if I'm behind a NAT router?

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Comment from sanjay on 2006-12-13

2006-12-13T10:32:31Z

in my co there are 50 comp's all is having win2000 and winxp, the problem is when we access a programm2 from data server it is database programme and all the machine is accessing from the data server and when we access it its running very slow what could be the problem please help me it is urgent.

thanks

sanjay

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A comment on: Zone Alarm firewall: do I need it if I'm behind a NAT router?

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Comment from VIC on 2006-09-04

2006-09-04T07:48:46Z

I learned the hard way that Zone Alarm could NOT be overwritten (address redirected),(by malware, etc.). Norton can. I have nothing but praise for my Zone Alarm free firewall. Sure, it has it's quirks but for a lower level computer user like me, well, It's worth it's weight in gold. VIC

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Comment from Ivan Tadej on 2006-09-03

2006-09-04T02:31:08Z

1. Well as first, regarding the other free firewall alternatives beside Zone Alarm (and beside the mentioned Sunbelt Kerio Personal firewall), I would also recommend trying the Sygate firewall. Oh and btw. I also used Kerio firewall back then for some time, but it was still the old "non-Sunbelt" version.

2. As second, regarding the "outbound protection"; you see, many people argue (especially on Ars Technica forum that I frequently visit/participate on it) that the outbound traffic monitoring firewalls are more or less useless, since once the malware is on your computer you are already owned and that the malware could in turn turn-off your firewall and disable the Windows "Security Center" altogether. If you want to, see the recent "Do we need an outbound traffic monitoring firewall ??" thread: http://www.castlecops.com/postitle165221-0-0-.html that I opened on CastleCops forum about this.

3. And as third, regarding the Zone Alarm that doesn't remember the setting for a particular program (btw., I don't use the program anymore); in my opinion one of the reasons might be that the program is launched from different locations (for instance TEMP sub-directories), and the other one being the possibility that the "database" was corrupted (as already mentioned by the poster above), which actually doesn't occur so rarely at all in Zone Alarm's case. If I recall correctly the "database" is a common .xml file (or two .xml files) that you need to delete along with logs' folder, and after that reboot to start "fresh".

P.S. -- I would also recommend searching Zonelabs site for older non-bloated versions of Zone Alarm firewall that were certainly more resources-friendly and stable in general !!

________

best regards,
Ivan Tadej, Slovenija, EU
http://www.tadej-ivan.be/

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Comment from mike yaros on 2006-09-03

2006-09-04T00:29:05Z

I have zone alarm pro version 4.0123.012. I have certain problems as follows: Whenever a program tries to access the internet, I get an alert asking my prmission. I usually check off a box asking it to remember my answer. Recently it began to "forgret" and ask me for certain programs over and over. Then it got real bad and the whole database erased each reboot. I did a search and on a user forum was told to reboot and delete certain files. Then reinstall the program in safe mode. The reason was that these files were likely corrupted. I did this, and it's a lot better, but I still forgets some, but not all programs. This is liveable, but annoying.

Michael J. Yaros

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A comment on: Zone Alarm firewall: do I need it if I'm behind a NAT router?

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Comment from Fred Howard on 2006-09-02

2006-09-02T10:30:31Z

I love Zone Alarm. It asks you to OK a lot of programs, etc., at first. But after using it awhile, it only has to ask you whether you want to accept or reject files that would otherwise be sent to you from sites without your knowledge that they are being sent.

This is very valuable.

I almost always refuse to accept anything that I am not certain will not hurt my computer. If what I want to view at the site I am visiting will not display because it NEEDED the material that I decided not to accept, I realize what has happened, and I go back to where the spot where the program will resend the needed file or files, and this time I accept them.

Zone Alarm is great and has saved me many major headaches.

Fred Howard

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Comment from Dr. Phil on 2006-09-02

2006-09-02T10:16:49Z

If you're getting too many alerts from Zone Alarm, tick the "remember my answer" box before Accepting/Denying. Also, in the ZA Control Centre, "Alerts & Logs", set to OFF (Do not show any informational alerts).

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A comment on: Zone Alarm firewall: do I need it if I'm behind a NAT router?

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Comment from Edwin on 2006-09-02

2006-09-02T09:28:19Z

I don´t think you do Zone Alarm´s outbound protection justice. You can disable all information alerts and keep the program alerts. It has alerted me more than once to malware that was trying to ´phone home´. So it´s a blessing not a curse.

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A comment on: Zone Alarm firewall: do I need it if I'm behind a NAT router?

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Comment from MILES STONE on 2006-09-01

2006-09-02T01:34:59Z

TRY ASHAMPOO'S FREE NEW EASY FIREWALL.

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Comment from JAT on 2006-08-28

2006-08-28T14:07:48Z

If you are looking for a good and free Firewall (the free version has some minor features disabled though), you should try Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall.

I used Zone Alarm before, but Kerio offers a better user-experience IMHO.

Also note that, like Zone Alarm, it blocks network access in both directions. The XP-firewall lacks that feature IIRC.

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A comment on: Zone Alarm firewall: do I need it if I'm behind a NAT router?

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