ZoneAlarm

CNET Editors' review

An effective and easy-to-use firewall program, ZoneAlarm does a great job of keeping your PC safe from a variety of threats. ZoneAlarm uses a simple wizard to make configuring a firewall, which seems like a daunting task to many computer users, incredibly easy. Maintaining and updating settings also is a snap when you're using the stylish interface and its simple slider controls. The program's Zones feature allows you to assign different security levels for a local network and for the Internet.

A great recent addition is small but quite helpful. A new "Game Mode" lets you automatically allow or deny alerts when you're in the middle of playing a video game. We found ZoneAlarm very good at recognizing and automatically including settings for our local network. In all our tests, the firewall guarded against all external and internal threats it encountered. ZoneAlarm is an excellent firewall choice for just about any average user.

Zonealarm Free Firewall - Protect your PC from online threats - Download Video Previews:

Publisher's Description

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All User Reviews
  • All versions:

    3.4 stars

    out of 3,407 votes

    • 5 star: 1289
    • 4 star: 739
    • 3 star: 299
    • 2 star: 284
    • 1 star: 795
  • Current version:

    3.7 stars

    out of 261 votes

    • 5 star: 95
    • 4 star: 86
    • 3 star: 19
    • 2 star: 20
    • 1 star: 41
  • My rating:

    0 stars

    Write review

Results 1-10 of 224

  • 5.0 stars

    "The best, free or otherwise"

    July 11, 2007  |   By Gordon Colby

    Version: ZoneAlarm 7.0

    Pros

    1. User friendly

    2. Easy to use

    3. This is the BEST firewall that i've ever used. Over the years I've removed Zone Alarm to try another firewall program (dumb old me). In each case I always went back and got Zone Alarm again. Now I'm going to stay with Zone Alarm only ( dumb old me is getting smarter).

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  • 5.0 stars

    "Very effective firewall."

    July 10, 2007  |   By dnldallen

    Version: ZoneAlarm 7.0

    Pros

    Most of all, I like that it doesn't "harass" me or bombard me withother offers and that it is very easy to configure, and is very low maintenance.

    Cons

    Not so much a dislike, why can't ZA have a variable setting for notifications of attempts, rather than on/off?

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  • 5.0 stars

    "excellent"

    July 9, 2007  |   By martycaine

    Version: ZoneAlarm 7.0

    Pros

    auto updating

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  • 2.0 stars

    "Free ZA 7.1 for Vista looks good, but doesn't work with dial-up"

    July 7, 2007  |   By Shakescene

    Version: ZoneAlarm 7.0

    Pros

    It seemed to work the way it has in the past, with appropriate questions about programs to admit or deny. It also installed fairly easily (giving me the option of saving to disc or installing instantly) and uninstalled cleanly, without a lot of authoritarian scare stories (such as H-P, Microsoft and Norton like to use). Once ZoneAlarm was uninstalled, the huge problem described below disappeared, so that I could get back on the Internet and write this review.

    If pressed, I would recommend this for broad-band and local network (LAN) users, since the other features all look perfectly fine.

    Cons

    However, I had to uninstall it after wrestling for over an hour with Zone Alarm and various elements of my computer, because it assumed I have a Local Area or High-speed cable connection, and my computer kept telling me to plug in a non-existent cable to reconnect. I connected to Earthlink dial-up OK, and also to NetZero, but then Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and utility updates like Computer Associates' anti-virus would not connect with the connection and returned various DNS (Domain Name Server) error messages. A much smaller, and far from decisive, drawback is the huge size (18-19 MB but thankfully not the 36-38 MB they advertise) and unpausable download.

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  • 5.0 stars

    "no separate available updates. Hmmmmmmmmmm........."

    July 7, 2007  |   By agpat223

    Version: ZoneAlarm 7.0

    Cons

    no separate available updates as of norton are...

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  • 2.0 stars

    "OK if you have a huge amount of resorce on your computer"

    July 6, 2007  |   By hacking_school_computers

    Version: ZoneAlarm 7.0

    Pros

    pros: great protector awesome some of the best protection ive ever seen if you have a good cpu i gave up mcafee for it

    Cons

    cons: have to have a lot of resorces i crashed like 4 times in two days and you have to program it a lot other wise it will block things like StopZilla

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  • 5.0 stars

    "Zone Alarm works great."

    July 5, 2007  |   By jaylyn1969

    Version: ZoneAlarm 7.0

    Pros

    I have never had any problems with any previous version of Zone Alarm, and I have yet to have any with Zone Alarm 7.0. It's done very well at blocking intrusions from my computer.

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  • 2.0 stars

    "The most effective freeware firewall I've seen if you have a fast system."

    July 5, 2007  |   By Robert Arrington

    Version: ZoneAlarm 7.0

    Pros

    It seems to be capable of blocking everything-up to and including P2P, various browsers and any software you have seeking internet access-be careful with the setings.

    Cons

    Unless you have a fairly powerful and speedy system be prepared for major slowdowns on just about everything.

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  • 3.0 stars

    "Great Free"

    July 5, 2007  |   By earlrdove

    Version: ZoneAlarm 7.0

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  • 4.0 stars

    "Its really Good but consume a huge of resources"

    July 4, 2007  |   By Prince.Arthas

    Version: ZoneAlarm 7.0

    Pros

    it really protect you from hackers i think is the best free firewall

    its very easy to configure

    and let you the total control of your pc security

    Cons

    It consume all the resources of the machine, when you put the firewall in autostart the Pc late in load near to 2 minutes, consume a huge of resources.

    It has a very ugly interface i think.

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Results 1-10 of 224

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