Do I need ZoneAlarm?

Ramen Noodle

I've had it installed on my computer for a long time but I now have a router with a built in firewall. Do I need to use it or will the hardware firewall work fine?

iTunesIsEvil

I vote for "no, you don't need it." If you've got a router basically acting like a firewall, and you're not an absolute idjit about what you download and run you'll be fine.

Let the "OMG you'll be PWNT by teh intarwebz" posts begin.

Mmmm... Cocks...

I was in the same situation a couple years ago when I got a router.
Got rid of zone alarm and I've been fine. Personal choice I'd guess. I figured it was just a waste of my little resources having it there though.

Ramen Noodle

Sweet, thanks.
Mods, you can close this if you want.

Atlus Parker

But your internets!

What if all your IPs are hacked simultaneously?




One firewall is more than enough. Heck, the XP firewall and smart browsing habits are more than adequate.

KingSpike

I don't know if it's still the case, or if there's an easily reversible fix now, but when I uninstalled Zone Alarm Pro a few years back I found out a stupid side effect. If you close all the ports on your computer and then uninstall, it keeps all the ports closed. I think I had to reinstall Zone Alarm Pro just to get my internets back. Not sure what I did after that, but it wouldn't surprise me if I just kept it on that computer.

Eat_Fire

of all the computers that come in for Viruses and Spyware in my shop, at least half have Zone Alarm installed...

Argus

Eat_Fire wrote: »

of all the computers that come in for Viruses and Spyware in my shop, at least half have Zone Alarm installed...

My mother is the kind of parent who doesn't really understand the difference between "Internet Explorer" and "The Internet." We have ZoneAlarm and other things on her computer, and when we ran anti-virus stuff after about six months of her not running any of it because "I don't want to learn how to do it, I'm too old, you do it" the report said there were 900 viruses. NINE HUNDRED. On her computer. We did it again later, and got 600.

She used AOL up until about three years ago, and still uses it for e-mail address AND pays for it, even though we have broadband.

romanqwerty

I still use it on my computer, but not because i am worried about stuff getting in. I use it to ensure only the programs that i want to have internet access, for reasons i wont mention on this forum.

mastman

Zone Alarm is nice to restrict outgoing interntes b/c Windows firewall only restricts incomming. But even then, your router is usually a good enough shield to protect you from the dangerous interwebs unless you go around acting like a fucking retard and opening viruses and trojans.

a simple netstat -n, and a google search of the current ports talking is good enough once a month if yo uwant to get rid of zone alarm.