ZoneAlarm Pro 4.0 Review The PC Equivalent of Tinted Windows and a Bodyguard Eric Grevstad
Mon 6/30/03 -- It may not be a hit at the box office, but this summer's comic-book movie The Hulk offers a memorable image -- a cute, fluffy French poodle turned into a snarling Hulk dog. Zone Labs' software firewall ZoneAlarm has become a hit in much the same way -- as we noted when reviewing the previous version in April 2002, the program is so novice-friendly and easy to configure it practically wags its tail, yet deters network hackers and DSL- or cable-modem probes as effectively as a ferocious Doberman.
This month's ZoneAlarm Pro 4.0 offers a handful of helpful refinements to its predecessor's recipe -- not only beefing up the firewall that fights would-be hijackers or Trojan horses, but adding outbound as well as inbound e-mail scanning to ensure you don't inadvertently help to pass along the next Bugbear or Sobig, and improving its cache- and cookie-management options for protecting your privacy and saving hard-disk space as well as blocking annoying pop-up ads.
Its retail price is unchanged at $50, though Zone Labs' Web site is currently offering the 4MB download for $40 with one or $60 with two years of updates and support. (A version that adds Web-site filtering to keep kids from seeing smut or hate sites is $20 more.)
Our biggest complaint 14 months ago is still true today -- ZoneAlarm Pro isn't a complete PC protection package, because it doesn't include an antivirus program as Symantec's $70 Norton Internet Security does. Nor does it help you fight the fastest-growing headache of the past year, e-mail spam. But though 4.0 isn't the major upgrade that 3.0 was, it still gives both beginners and firewall power users a lot to like. It's the Hulk poodle of the online-security world.
The Strongest Icon in Your System Tray
From a simple setup process through hand-holding tutorial and help screens, ZoneAlarm Pro makes adding firewall protection a no-brainer, even for users who don't know a port from a packet. The default settings provide ample protection for either dial-up or always-on Internet connections; while you'll need to enter your gateway system's IP address if you're using Windows' Internet Connection Sharing, ZoneAlarm otherwise takes care of the process of detecting networks -- whether wired or WiFi -- and, in this version, walks telecommuters through the worst of virtual private network (VPN) configuration.
You can leave the program's mini-dashboard on your screen for at-a-glance viewing of Internet activity (plus a panic button to lock down your Internet connection if you're under attack), but most users will mostly leave ZoneAlarm Pro sitting quietly in the Taskbar system tray -- where they won't see it unless the utility pops up a notification that it's deflected a would-be snooper. You can configure the firewall to interrupt you for every drive-by intrusion attempt, only the more serious ones (identified by a red rather than orange alert caption), or just to stay in the background.
As in past versions, each alert's "More Info" button offers thoroughly detailed yet understandable and reassuring explanations of what's happened and how ZoneAlarm Pro foiled the threat. Version 4.0 extends the utility's whois and location-map identification of doorknob-rattlers with optional forwarding of the fiend's information to the MyNetWatchman service, which tallies reports and squeals on repeat offenders to their ISPs. You and your PC remain anonymous the whole time.
