[tmarkoski]

I recently read the PC World review of Zone Alarm.
It is now obvious to me that PC World is either being paid off or reviewers simply don NOT test the products they review.

A cursory search of CNET would show what a steaming pile of dung the latest version of Zone Alarm actually is.

I HAD been a ZoneAlarm user since it first hit the market over 10 years ago.
What CheckPoint has done to what used to be a stellar application should be considered a criminal offense.
It is an insult to the millions of loyal customers.
This setup is horribly broken. The app itself does not work as advertised and will hose your system.
It is as if a used-car salesman become the product manager at Check-Point.
The person in charge of this update should be fired IMMEDIATELY
Avoid ZoneAlarm at all costs. It is PURE JUNK.

As a professional developer I find the fact that CNET & PC World allows this for download inexcusable.
I must now question the validity in ANYTHING that CNET or PC World says.

I have now switched to PC Tools Firewall Plus.
CheckPoint has blown it BIG TIME with this version.
SO far, they don't appear to care that this newest version of the Firewall is pure junk.
Customer service is nonexistent.
Support is impossible as their Web Chat doesn't work and they don't allow new users to post on their forums.
Support is limited to a 67 year old SysAdmin in Texas.
I'm not joking, this is absolute truth.
Yeah, I'm sure a 67 year old is really up on current software and technology. <rollingeyes>

[LincolnSpector]

Hi, tmarkoski, and welcome to the forums.

Are you talking about Eric Geier's review from last month? I'm wondering what specific opinions of Eric's you disagreed with. I haven't used ZoneAlarm in years, so I couldn't possibly have an opinion on Eric's conclusions.

I have, however, written a great many reviews for PC World. I can assure you that I have never been pressured to praise a product because of a financial relationship between the manufacturer and PC World. Editors expect us to test the products thoroughly and give an unbiased opinion.

Having just read Eric' review, I can say that if Check Point Software (ZoneAlarm's publisher) had paid PC World or Eric for a positive review, they didn't get their money's worth. This lukewarm review hardly makes me want to rush out and download ZoneAlarm.

Lincoln

[tmarkoski]

LincolnSpector, on 16 January 2012 - 08:17 AM, said:

Hi, tmarkoski, and welcome to the forums.

Are you talking about Eric Geier's review from last month? I'm wondering what specific opinions of Eric's you disagreed with. I haven't used ZoneAlarm in years, so I couldn't possibly have an opinion on Eric's conclusions.

I have, however, written a great many reviews for PC World. I can assure you that I have never been pressured to praise a product because of a financial relationship between the manufacturer and PC World. Editors expect us to test the products thoroughly and give an unbiased opinion.

Having just read Eric' review, I can say that if Check Point Software (ZoneAlarm's publisher) had paid PC World or Eric for a positive review, they didn't get their money's worth. This lukewarm review hardly makes me want to rush out and download ZoneAlarm.

Lincoln

What I disagree with is that is useable at all.

Even a CURSORY testing would have found that the setup ALWAYS installs their spyware toolbar, regardless of the user declining that option.

The problem is that the online review does NOT match the print review even though they are by the same person.
All it takes is for anyone to simply look at the reviews on CNET from actual users to see that the product is pure crap.

PCWorld owes it readers a real apology for actually suggesting that Zone Alarm is in anyway a suitable product for any user.

[LiveBrianD]

I just downloaded the free version of Zonealarm firewall to a Windows 7 VM and can confirm what you're saying about the toolbar.
I selected this:

Yes, NO toolbar, I do NOT accept the agreement to install it.

And after setup was done, guess what I saw in IE?

(It wasn't in Firefox or Chrome though.)

Things that install toolbars and other crap without even asking me or ignoring my preference definitely aren't welcome in my book. (I installed something before that changed my homepage and search engine in IE without asking me. As a result, I gave that program a 0.5/5 rating, the lowest possible. Plus, that program wouldn't even uninstall, as the uninstall entry in Control Panel didn't work...)

[tmarkoski]

LiveBrianD, on 21 January 2012 - 05:11 PM, said:

I just downloaded the free version of Zonealarm firewall to a Windows 7 VM and can confirm what you're saying about the toolbar.
I selected this:
Setup toolbar.png
Yes, NO toolbar, I do NOT accept the agreement to install it.

And after setup was done, guess what I saw in IE?
Clone of Windows 7 Home Premium-2012-01-21-17-07-04.png
(It wasn't in Firefox or Chrome though.)

Things that install toolbars and other crap without even asking me or ignoring my preference definitely aren't welcome in my book. (I installed something before that changed my homepage and search engine in IE without asking me. As a result, I gave that program a 0.5/5 rating, the lowest possible. Plus, that program wouldn't even uninstall, as the uninstall entry in Control Panel didn't work...)

What I find most objectionable is that the reviewer actually states "...it's a good choice to download."

PC World, How about a REAL review of what happened to what once was arguable the best personal firewall available?

Checkpoint's tactics are everything that is wrong with the industry and PC World is giving tacit and explicit approval
by not even discussing them and the unethical actions of CheckPoint.

If PC World is going to review a product, how about actually testing it?

[Zelwin]

I fully agree that Zone Alarm has been declining since Check Point started changing it. (I have used Zone Alarm for over 10 years.) It still seemed to function well enough through version 92-076-000. After that, the decline has become precipitous. Version 92-105-000 still works on my ASUS when running Windows XP, but will not fully initialize and blocks the wifi from starting on the same machine when running Windows 7. (Both OSs are also running the latest Avira antivirus.) The latest Zone Alarm prevents the wifi from connecting in all instances. I won't even go into unwanted toolbars etc., which, as I think about it may be one of the causes of the problem.

[mjd420nova]

On some difficult clients machines, I download the free ZoneAlarm to help with the network diagnostics. For a beginner, it can be enlightening to see each and every program that wants to access the internet, for whatever purpose. For me, it become easy to find those bots, worms, trojans and spyware that want to call home. Then I uninstall it as it can be a resource hog and even create a problem when the LAN is experiencing problems.