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Topic: Be aware of Zone Alarm 5 (Read 11466 times) previous topic - next topic
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Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

For those of you who use that software firewall, few days ago there was an update from version 4.5 to v5 (5.0.590.015 to be precise) - DO NOT update it. There's a new team at Zone Labs and they developed that version (beta in fact) and for some reason decided to release it prematurely as it seems - it has more bugs than anything else I saw. It caused havoc in my system and in hundreds of other people systems, it's even hard to uninstall that shit. Just stay with v4.5 until they release a decent v5, I mean it.

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #1 –
Thanks for the warning.

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #2 –
Zone Alarm is shit anyway.  After a few hours it would take up ~300Mb of memory.

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #3 –
I actually have had it installed (clean install) and running on this Windows 2000 SP3 box for several days. No problems yet encountered, have not observed excessive RAM use.
I have it's Antivirus monitoring function turned off.

Any specific type of problem you could list?

Anyone needing a 'wall anyway can try Tiny  or Sygate personal instead.

Zone Labs forums.
Zone Alarm 5.0 FAQ.

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #4 –
Here is the list of some issues. Generaly you can browse through Zone Labs forums to see what they did, unbelievable.
For me that "update" caused hangs of internet traffic anytime I tried to use at a time more than one application which uses net (especially those which cause extreme traffic, like P2P clients), after a while the whole system was hanging.

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #5 –
Quote
Zone Alarm is shit anyway.

For me to like any version of ZoneAlarm we'd have to go back several years to version 2.2. Everything after v2.2 is indeed crap.

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #6 –
ZA 5 is working fine for me.  It seems to be working for other folks, too.  Maybe we could arrive at a better description of the problem than a flat "it does not worK", etc., etc., etc. 
Nov schmoz kapop.

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #7 –
Quote
Here is the list of some issues.

That list is definitely not accurate for all configurations; I'm running Outlook and Netscape (at the same time) and using an AV program that Zone Labs doesn't recognize. Perhaps many of these issues are due to people not turning off the EMail Safe and VirusScan functions of the 'wall?
  The only symptom that I've been able to observe from that list is the boot-time defrag problem with Diskeeper,  which doesn't bother me at all.

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #8 –
The list surely isn't accurate for all configurations and there surely are people for who ZA5 doesn't cause serious problems, but it doesn't change the fact that proportion of people for who it works without problems, to people for who it causes serious problems, is like 1:100. My system is generally very stable, clean, up to date, etc. and in the past years I had problems with updated ZA only once (it was another famous bad update), but this time it was so bad that I got scared that my reset button will run out of MTBF. I like ZA and all I mean is that updating it to v5 isn't worth the risk until they fix the bugs (of which you can read in hundreds of posts on Zone Labs forum). Bug fixed version is said to be available next week, so sticking with v4.5 for a couple more days is a good idea ...unless you like extreme sports

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #10 –
a lot of people attribute the crappy release of ZA5 to the recent acquisition of zonelabs by checkpoint software. either way i still use the old yellow ugly zonealarm 2.6, and after reading all the problems people have with ZA5, i won't be updating it despite the temptation to do so. most of the problems i read have to do with ZA5 pro or security suite running on winxp. some people reported getting rid of some issues by disabling their old anti-virus because ZA5 already has an anti-virus client. other people say it's just a buggy release overall and avoid it altogether.

putting all the new problems aside for a moment, ZA is a very good firewall. it analyses and handles traffic in intelligent ways that other firewalls don't (read some of the reviews written by steve gibson). is there anything better than ZA out there at the moment? i'm looking for a free version if anyone can suggest anything, i see all those extra features you need to pay for as stupid and redundant.
Be healthy, be kind, grow rich and prosper

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #11 –
there has been an update to za from  5.0.590.015 to 5.0.590.043.

changelog:
    * Fixed Norton AV e-mail scanning issue
    * Fixed issue with SSH timout
    * Fixed installation issue with McAfee Security Center
    * Fixed system stability issues
    * Routine maintenance items
Nothing but a Heartache - Since I found my Baby ;)

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #12 –
It still causes the same problems with P2P clients (eMule, KazaaLite, etc.) as the 5.0.590.015 version - after a couple of minutes they freeze along with all the net traffic and the whole system. Ckhdsk problem isn't fixed yet either. Some other serious bugs are left to fix too... I'd stick with v4.5 for another few weeks.

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #13 –
Sounds like most of the people who had trouble before probably won't have less trouble with the update

    I've downloaded the update and it works fine, but I was lucky enough not to have problems in the first place.

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #14 –
I can confirm that. I was using ZoneAlarm 4.x, and an update to version 5 caused a lot of undesirable effects - system instability, applications not loading, etc..
I've switched to Kerio Personal Firewall, and i think it's a better firewall than ZoneAlarm anyway, so...

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #15 –
Quote
I've switched to Kerio Personal Firewall, and i think it's a better firewall than ZoneAlarm anyway, so...

I'm also using Kerio.

2.1.5, because I have no use for the HTTP filtering bloat.

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #16 –
Quote
I can confirm that. I was using ZoneAlarm 4.x, and an update to version 5 caused a lot of undesirable effects - system instability, applications not loading, etc..

never change a running system 


still using za 4.5.594.000 here (latest 4.5 version), no real problems. I had a hard time myself to upgrade from 3.1 and I don't think I'll do it soon again.
it's a nice thing though zonelabs keeps a former verion at their servers for ppl who didn't archive things (which SHOULD not be necessary, but, ah well, don't take good software for granted...)
Nothing but a Heartache - Since I found my Baby ;)

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #17 –
Quote
I'm also using Kerio.

2.1.5, because I have no use for the HTTP filtering bloat.

Yeah, I don't like that either. But you can easily disable web filtering somewhere in the preferences, i'm sure you know that. Is that the only reason you're using 2.x ?

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #18 –
Quote
For those of you who use that software firewall, few days ago there was an update from version 4.5 to v5 (5.0.590.015 to be precise) - DO NOT update it. There's a new team at Zone Labs and they developed that version (beta in fact) and for some reason decided to release it prematurely as it seems - it has more bugs than anything else I saw. It caused havoc in my system and in hundreds of other people systems, it's even hard to uninstall that shit. Just stay with v4.5 until they release a decent v5, I mean it.

Confirmed. ZA 5 caused my XP system to reboot intermittently.

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #19 –
Another "Confirmed": Friend of mine has been having similar issue's (which makes for boring conversations when I see him)...

Off topic - A while ago, I remember reading a thread here about how "Software Firewalls, by design, are not perfect, and can never stop everything", anyone remember that?  I need to re-read

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #20 –
Outpost Firewall?

;-)
3.90.3 --alt-preset extreme -V0 --lowpass 20.5 -> yeah!
"extremist of extreme", johnV @ Sep 13 2002 - 02:01 PM  ;-)

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #21 –
New update of ZoneAlarm is available - v5.1.011.000. At last seems to work perfect here, except that it swallows 20MB/h when eMule is running (I'm glad it's running at all).

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #22 –
Another horrid "update" just came out from hell - 6.5.722.000 - steer clear from it, it doesn't work, and uninstalling it is pain in the arse. The last good working version is 6.1.744.001.
 

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #23 –
Quote from: rutra80 on
Another horrid "update" just came out from hell - 6.5.722.000 - steer clear from it, it doesn't work, and uninstalling it is pain in the arse. The last good working version is 6.1.744.001.
I tried ZA Pro v61.744.001 when it came out and after properly installing it WinXPSP2 didn't boot successfully anymore. it hang at the user profile screen no matter what I did.
booting in safe mode and uninstalling worked.

I'm still running the latest v4.5pro and are happy with it. at least it works without any major bugs on my system and have all the features I want form a firewall that I understand (e.g. Look'n'Stop was a little to complex with it's non preconfigured settings at first glance).

all versions of the 5 and 6 line have been utterly buggy for me so far (I tried it 5 or 6 times).
Nothing but a Heartache - Since I found my Baby ;)

Be aware of Zone Alarm 5

Reply #24 –
Hm. I used ZA 61.744.001 Free and my system's all okay.

What's new anyway? I mean, what 'killer' feature of the newer version that we should upgrade?

ZA 61.744.001 + Avast! + SpyBot S&D = secure enough for me