ZoneAlarm vs BlackIce

[bolsen]

I see that a lot of people are using zone alarm. I would like to know if there are any diffrences between the two.

Is it because ZoneAlarm is free?

 

[joinT]

what? ffm hasn't posted in here yet ?!?! :Q:Q:Q someone check to see if the devil's scored some hardcore AC

Well, I can tell u his response - the free version of ZA SUX~! I personally have heard of people having no problems with it, but I hated it when I used to use it.

There's another free app called Tiny Personal Firewall. Search on google & you'll find it.

 

[bolsen]

what? ffm hasn't posted in here yet ?!?! someone check to see if the devil's scored some hardcore AC

Well, I can tell u his response - the free version of ZA SUX~! I personally have heard of people having no problems with it, but I hated it when I used to use it.

There's another free app called Tiny Personal Firewall. Search on google & you'll find it.

What do you think of Tiny personal firewall? I currently use BlackIce and have been comfortable with it. I do not like ZoneAlarm.

Let the rants begin

 

[joinT]

ever since I got a residential gateway/router with a built in hardware firewall, I haven't needed such appz.
I didn't like BlackIce either truthfully. Would always get false alerts, etc. (from FTP, playing UT)

 

[43st]

Tiny Personal Firewall is know known as Kerio Personal Firewall. It can be found here.

I like it better than both ZA and BlackICE. It's a bit less "user friendly" but it's totally configurable rather than making assumptions, like the other two products. If you're a nerd then you'll like it.

 

[nealh]

Here is my 2 cents...I find ZA very easy to use..I tried Tiny personal firewall...but I did not configure it properly and received a virus and several attacks...so i went back to ZA.....ZA Pro version works great....very user friendly...I have no experience with Blackice...

I would expect a hardware firewall to be better and would consider one except for cost

 

[hclarkjr]

i have used blackice, zonealarm and norton personal firewall ( internet securuty, depending on which package you buy) and like the symantec products the best. they give you the best service IMHO.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Ask 100 security professionals whether black ice is any good, and you will get 50 saying it is and 50 saying it sucks. ZA is fine for many people, and its free, although the pro version is better. Tiny Personal Firewall is great, I use it on Windows machines I use (dont currently own any ). I like it better because I can configure it the way I want to.

Hardware firewalls are fine, as long as you dont need ultimate configuration ability. A Linux machine with IPTables or OpenBSD with PF would be my first choice because of the customizability and ease of use/administration.

 

[ElDonAntonio]

AFAIK, hardware firewalls don't protect you from trojans though...zonealarm will at least alert you of a program connecting to the net.
I'm using zonealarm and I'm pretty happy with it, but I find their whole TrueVector thing suspicious. Steve's Gibson absolute devotion to ZoneAlarm makes me 2 times more suspicious.

 

[bolsen]

Interesting, I think I may try Tiny Firewall.

A note tho about hardware firewalls... Hardware firewalls block ports and use NATing to hide your PC from the net. There are many other vaulnerabilities especially when you are running a web server behind it.

Personal firewalls are good to control what goes in and what comes out... and I will just mention that a hardware firewall is no good for protection inside of your network!

 

[Aquaman]

I've been using Zone Alarm Pro 3.0 for about a year......... no problems yet

Cheers,
Aquaman