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Zone Alarm anti virus?

stlucia2
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Posted May 18, 2012 at 11:58AM

I have ZA free firewall and Avast free anti-virus running on my Windows XP computer. For a short while now I've been getting regular ads from ZA asking me to upgrade to their combined firewall and anti-virus which, I presume, is still free.

Anyone else using this combo? I can see some advantages of it over two separate programs, providing it's just as efficient as they are.

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buteman

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Posted May 18, 2012 at 12:13PM

I would leave it the way it is.I would imagine Avast Anti Virus would be far superior to the Zone Alarm one.

If you want to spend a small amount on Avast.http://store.downloadcrew.com/p27298-avastproantivirus_7

Or even better with Eset from Amazon 3 user.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ESET-Smart-Security-User-Year/dp/B005NPFOBM/ref=sr11?s=software&ie=UTF8&qid=1337339546&sr=1-1

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Belatucadrus

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Posted May 18, 2012 at 3:22PM

Looking around it would appear that the Zone Alarm AntiVirus component is provided by Kaspersky and they're pretty good. Nice review of it here if you want a read.

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steviekm

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Posted May 18, 2012 at 6:22PM

Hi,

I understand that the antivirus part is exactly the same as the paid version-zone alarm internet security 2012 I've been using the paid for version for some time now and have found it to be spot on. It uses the same antivirus engine as Kaspersky alongside its own firewall. Initially I tried the trial version of Kaspersky but found that - just like Trend Micro Titanium 2012 slowed my (lowish spec pc) down quite badly. I don't have any such issues with zone alarm and am more than happy to recommend it to anyone.It's all down to personal preferences-you pay your money (not in this case as it's free!) nad take your chances. I would however suggest 1 thing though; if you do opt for zone alarm make sure that during the installation routine you pick custom and cancel deselect the installation of the tooolbar/change home page etc. Good luck!

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steviekm

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Posted May 18, 2012 at 6:28PM

sorry to re-post; forgot to mention that when I used to run Avast on my pc I found that although it was pretty good it was also something of a resource hog as well. If you check out the independent antivirus reviews etc you will find that in general the best protection comes from the paid/premier versions. Its fair to say that my pc actually runs faster or at least feels more responsive with zone alarm than it did with Avast Once again-good hunting!!

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stlucia2

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Posted May 18, 2012 at 8:00PM

"... forgot to mention that when I used to run Avast on my pc I found that although it was pretty good it was also something of a resource hog as well ..." I haven't checked what resources it's using, but my beef is the way it updates the virus database every time I boot up my PC -- not just once per day as AVG Free used to do -- and almost prevents anything else running while it's doing that.

But the review in Belatucadrus's link seems to suggest that ZA might do that too ("... Big drag on boot time in performance tests."), though maybe it's configurable to update only once a day.

Anyway, I think I'll give it a try; I can always reinstall Avast if I don't like it.

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