Zone Alarm Blocked intrusion help

Caso_2

squirri wrote:

As a genral point - it's a very good idea to avoid websites that offer to do a free virus / spyware scan on your PC - they genrally infect you.

*ahem*

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=78360

opportunity_cost

I used ZoneAlarm for 5 years and it was the best firewall in 2000 when it came out but over the years it has become bloatware and other firewalls have surpassed ZoneAlarm in terms of easiness of use and out-of-the-box protection.

ZoneAlarm is not optimised for routers and however much I tinkered with the settings, it just wouldn't make all my ports stealth (Shieldsup test on grc.com) once I changed from a simple dial-up connection to a broanband router setup. Also, it was a resource hog and the settings would eventually get corrupted so it needed reinstalling every now and then.

About a year ago or so I found Sygate Personal Firewall and I couldn't be happier with it. I basically installed the program, ran a port test on the grc.com site and all of my ports were stealth with the default settings. All I've ever done since then is to answer the 'Do you want to allow (program name) to access the internet' kinda pop-up when I've installed a new program that needs internet access and that's about it. I've done the odd port scan every few months and everything is still a nicely green stealth. SPF is one of those rare gems in the software jungle. A free program that does a great job without any fancy bells and whistles or any fuss.

Sygate was taken over by Symantec (the company behind the dreadful Norton programs) a few months back so the program is not on Sygate/Symantec's website anymore but a Google search for 'Sygate Personal Firewall 5.6' gives you websites to download the program from.