Aqua-Soft ForumsHey guys, had a quick question for all of you out there...i'm currently using the latest copy of zone alarm for my school PC and its really taking a toll on my system. Its not enabling me to load adobe photoshop CS and its really slowing down my internet connection. I'm on a T3, running windows xp, 3 GHZ, 2GHZ DDR Ram, with a 200 GB harddrive. So, my new topic question is really what would you suggest to make even my Apple stuff i get from here run alot better with the same protection? Is there a firewall that works better than others and i just wanna make sure i don't get any virus's off the network here? I would contact zone alarm support, but i trust you guys more on what works best. Thanks...PM me with suggestions or make a reply here.
Windows And Zone Alarm...
I don't know how your computer will react, but there is also Tiny Personal Firewall (It has gone a little downhill, but will give you protection and is still free). And also, I have heard many good things about McAffee Firewall. Though there is no free version of it. I think it is $50, I may be a little off. Are you sure it's not something else that is slowing your computer down? You comp and connection are faster than half of us combined here are.
id say ZA is the best in terms of resources/protection/transparency(Easily unblock/block ports and stuffa t your will)
Its gotta be zone alarm...here's a list of programs i am running...
AOL Instant Messenger 5.2
Alcohol 120% 1.4.8.1222
MyIE2 (0.9.13)
Winamp 5.01
Adobe Photoshop CS
Norton Antivirus 2003 (latest updates)
This is at the moment, but whenever i load photoshop with zone alarm active i get a "please reinstall the application due to a libraries error", but when i disable zone alarm, it works just fine...weird? So, i have plenty of RAM and a fast internet connection with our network working faster than ever...and still zone alarm blocks me from using AOL..and all this stuff. I have it configured to "trust" AOL and all these programs, it just refuses to. I am going to look into McAfee, i had their online virus scan trial thing for 3 months and it did an amazing job, so thanks for your help...any other suggestions are always welcome...
A firewall isnt all the nescary,expecialy if your on a campuse network, as the school probaly has a preaty good firewall already. Just use antivirui programs and you should be fine. The only time i ever needed a firewall was the great MSblaster rampage.
Might want to check out tiny persional firewall too
i've had great luck with kerio and sygate, though i like kerio more.
ram usage is around 6000k and the protection is good--plus it's supereasy to configure.
Originally posted by lostspyder@Jan 31 2004, 12:52 AMA firewall isnt all the nescary,expecialy if your on a campuse network, as the school probaly has a preaty good firewall already. Just use antivirui programs and you should be fine. The only time i ever needed a firewall was the great MSblaster rampage.
Might want to check out tiny persional firewall too
I must stay i agree, do you really need it?
maybe. my school has been getting bombarded with all sorts of threats. they've even issued warnings and threatened to close off our ports if we didn't stay updated and whatnot.
[Edited because I don't know WTF I'm talking about - nor do the upholders of online privacy]
Originally posted by DTOXX@Jan 30 2004, 09:32 PMWell, the real need for a firewall comes when you share a lot of files, such as through a P2P app like Overnet or eDonkey. If you check over at PeerGuardian you'll see what I mean. The main emphasis is on protecting one's system from the prying eyes of agencies which are out to extinguish the free sharing of files over the net. PG produces "block lists" of known IPs on a regualr basis which can be used with their own app or ZA, etc.
Personally, I've had great success with ZA, with the single exception of not being able to use PayPal no matter how I configured the permissions.
umm no.
Firewalls were around long before the RIAA ever came into being and are an extremly critical part of the internet. For persional use there realy not all the nescary, unless you store realy sensitive info on your PC. A firewall realy doest protect you at all from the RIAA and whatnot. If you download the file off them, they see your IP address, and can quicly resolve it. The RIAA can easly egnouf just change there IP range, go on a rampage, collect a bunch of names, and get ready to supena you while your sitting there oggling your preaty interface of a poor excuse of protection that pops up with a little popup saying "threat neutrilised netbios attack has been deflected" eating cheetos and downloading the newest britny spears song.
Firewalls keep hackers out of your computer, and keep applications from accesing the web (ie a backdoor virus). If you practice safe internet surfing (ie not instaling that dancing girl thing you found on the website with the black background and green lettering whos address is "ubberl33twarzorz.tk") you dont realy need it.
Originally posted by Tylrmdetb2@Jan 30 2004, 03:16 PMIts gotta be zone alarm...here's a list of programs i am running...
Winamp 5.01
Adobe Photoshop CS
Norton Antivirus 2003 (latest updates)
WORD. It *HAS* to be that damn zone alarm. Not that huge drawing application which uses countless megs of resources. Nor that norton antivirus which is non stop checking out every file that so much as thinks about touching/moving/opening on your PC. Or that winamp which is non stop accessing your HD with your 10mb skin on it.
damn that zone alarm. DAMN THEM TO HELL.
1. On a highspeed connection, a firewall is necessary. Otherwise you have a very good chance of being hacked. Also, remember MSBlaster? People with decent firewalls were immune. Don't assume something like that cant happen again, BEFORE ms patches.
2. For a windows-software firewall, I like "Sygate". Its free, and pretty nice.
3. I would suggest a hardware firewall though,since its a seperate box and wont drain your system or connection at all.
You have two choices (since you dont want to spend $10,000):
a. Get a router. NAT acts as a firewall, and its pretty good. These are usually about $50 for a nice one (make sure it has NAT).
b. Make your own. This will be better than any router you buy, and if you have an old PC, at least a Pentium1, its free. You would use Linux for this, and there are some nice, easy-to-setup distributions out there made for firewalling. For example, ClarkConnect can be administered purely from a webbrowser (on your main machine).
4. Firewalls do help keep you anonymous on the net. If someone is port scanning and you have a firewall up, very often you will look non-existant, so the cracker will go right by you.
But, when you use P2P, that opens up a port on your computer, e.g. you are poking a HOLE in your firewall, so it will do you no good.
Oh, and its probably Norton AV slowing you down, that thing will slow down ANY computer to a crawl. Too bad you need it though. ESPECIALLY if you use P2P.
Originally posted by contrasutra@Jan 30 2004, 10:21 PMb. Make your own. This will be better than any router you buy, and if you have an old PC, at least a Pentium1, its free. You would use Linux for this, and there are some nice, easy-to-setup distributions out there made for firewalling. For example, ClarkConnect can be administered purely from a webbrowser (on your main machine).
doesn't that require you to keep that comp on at all times? or at least all times that you want to get on the net?
Originally posted by daclothe@Jan 30 2004, 06:55 PMdoesn't that require you to keep that comp on at all times? or at least all times that you want to get on the net?
That's a problem? 
Thanks for your responses...first off..my school is running a firewall called, "St. Bernard" its really expensive software i guess, anyways, its not that Photoshop CS is boggin me down or loading a skin from winamp that is 10mb. I'm amused by that, but i think its coming down to plainly that zone alarm isn't working for me, i'm gonna try this sygate and thank you all for your help.