Check Point Software and Zone Alarm...

[frostbitetwice]

Zone Alarm, is IMHO an excellent firewall after having used it for a year, however, hear is my beef with this company.

I was using the machine when all the sudden a point and click box appeared on the screen. Zone Alarm was indicting that the firewall was no longer protecting the computer and that I should renew the software.

Thank you, Check Point, for showing up late in the night and knocking on my front door, much like your local SWAT team or home invasion crew would do. Perhaps you should rename your software to Zombie Zone Alarm.

Since I just got my Flu shot I thought I better protect my good friend, Herr PC. I click to pay the user fee and it would not tell me the length of service, as if they are embarrassed by it..

Could it be that this company has hired the complete class of graduates from Head Start?

In order to determine the length of service I had to go to Check Point website. Holly Hell, this small program is going to cost another $40.oo for a year! Not a penny saved for a repeat customer! It must be all of those bonus and stock options for the COE, CFO and the entire board of directors. Damm, this small fry program, will in three years, cost the same as my OS.

Thanks, Check Point, for the such lengthy advance notice of renewal. What about those volks who lack CC? Who cares, right?!

Thanks, Check Point, for your Repeat Customer Discount Program. I have three computers, do you really think I am going give you $120.oo per year.

You are such a nebulous company that you should re-brand yourself as CIA Software.

Hear is the good news readers, there is a company called Sunbelt Software, which has a fine firewall and offers multi year and machine discounts. Yes, I can guard all my three PC for three years, for under $70.oo.

Zombie Alarm is a good program, however, the rest of the company operates out of Haiti.

[nomaxim]

The ZoneAlarm Security Suite 3 User license is only $49.95 per year. This includes Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware. Just the Firewall is free.
Complete pricing list for Zone Alarm products. It looks like you were looking at Zone Alarm Pro ($39.95) which is Anti-Spyware and Firewall.

Senbelt's Firewall is $29.94 for a one year 3 user license, $68.88 for a 3 year 3 user license. Just the Firewall, no A/V. Best pick per PC Magazine. Sunbelt's A/V and Anti-Spyware uses a similar pricing as the firewall, $89.95 for a 3 user license for 3 years.

Comodo Firewall Pro, just the firewall (no A/V), is free. Picked as the best firewall in the latest issue of PCWorld. Comodo also has a A/V, but I cannot locate a price.

There are also some good free A/V programs like Avast and AVG.

So over the course of 3 years for 3 computers; (At current pricing)
ZoneAlram Suite $149.89 (Firewall only Free)
Sunbelt $158.83 (Firewall only $68.88)
Comodo Can't locate price for A/V (Firewall only Free)

Personally, I have 5 boxes. I get McAfee Enterprise free from work and use Comodo Firewall. PCTools Spyware Doctor (Free with Google Pack) and Lavasoft's Ad-aware, free version. I have Spybot's S&D instead of Spyware Doctor on 3 Computers.
My cost for four computers- zero. One computer runs Linux, Ubuntu.

EDIT:
My ISP (Earthlink) also provides a free online Norton A/V service.
PCTools (Spyware Doctor) also has a Free Firewall.

[frostbitetwice]

Originally Posted by nomaxim

It looks like you were looking at Zone Alarm Pro ($39.95) which is Anti-Spyware and Firewall.

Yes, thank you it was the Pro that I used.

Comodo, is an excellent firewall, however, we had problems with it much like PC Tools.

ZAP, also worked splendid, cannot say the same for Check Point marketing and sales department.

[RobRich]

Originally Posted by nomaxim

Comodo Firewall Pro, just the firewall (no A/V), is free. Picked as the best firewall in the latest issue of PCWorld. Comodo also has a A/V, but I cannot locate a price.

Comodo offers lots of free products:

http://www.comodo.com/products/free_products.html

Firewall protection, antivirus protection, malware protection, memory buffer overflow protection, data encryption, email encryption, data backup, registry cleaning, etc.

[michaels39]

Has anyone else had a problem with McAfee and Spybot S&D ? My ISP provides McAfee for free,and I've used both up to now with no problem.But when I tried to install the latest McAfee update,it said Spybot would cause compatibility issues and wouldn't let me install the update until I removed Spybot.There seemed to be a whole list of similar programs,including Zone Alarm,that are suddenly "incompatible" with McAfee.

[nomaxim]

Originally Posted by michaels39

Has anyone else had a problem with McAfee and Spybot S&D ? My ISP provides McAfee for free,and I've used both up to now with no problem.But when I tried to install the latest McAfee update,it said Spybot would cause compatibility issues and wouldn't let me install the update until I removed Spybot.There seemed to be a whole list of similar programs,including Zone Alarm,that are suddenly "incompatible" with McAfee.

I've never had a problem. I use McAfee Enterprise 8.5.0i and not the online or retail versions. Os's for the boxes that are running both apps are W2k, XP Pro, and XP MCE.

There does seem to be some issues with S&D's notification about changes McAfee A/V and SiteSdvisor make to the system during installation.
See;
safer-networking.org/en/faq/46.html-Spybot.
service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=106806&lc=1033-McAfee.
forums.mcafeehelp.com/showthread.php?t=217635-McAfee forums.
forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=24156- Spybot forums. This one appears to pertain to your issue.

Google Search results for "McAfee and Spybot".

[michaels39]

Thanks,sounds like McAfee is playing dirty.Think now that I have it updated I'll just reinstall Spybot and see what happens.