Zone alarm vs sp2 firewall

[geekster]

Ive noticed lately zone alarm loads too slow when I boot up. My family got irritated , so I switched to sp2's built in firewall. I just need some feedback from those who use it. Is it dependable , and can I trust MS to protect my rig? Your ideas would be appreciated. Hey , Warez, whats your opinion? . I almost feel like Im letting big brother watch over my comp.

 

[EricB]

SP2 only block inbound connections, not outbound, so if you something is already on your computer it can spy on you.

 

[jcortes]

the service pack 2 fire wall is very bad it doesnt protect much of anything. however zone alarm is one of the best firewalls i have ever used,

 

[Blitze105]

.....sp2 isn't that great doesn't protect u from everything... and ur trusting microsoft to fully guard ur pc? they cant even guard their own butts offline what are they gonna do online? any how i suggest keeping z/a its a great firewall very supported on this forum... and its free =)

 

[SkyHi]

Let me let you guys in on a little secret.. As many of you know, a firewall is there to protect incoming/outgoing packets of information. I will tell you, I have read an interview of two hackers, and, being a hacker myself (no I don't do bad things, I do things to experiment and get better at computers, I won't EVER do anything malicious), I can tell you a firewall won't do anything, except against some _newb_ hacker, or cracker. It is not possible to ever block all daemons on your computer.

 

[bigstanklo]

I use ZoneAlarm and really like it. Definetly better than SP2's firewall which let a virus through to my friends PC. I'd re-download Zonealarm and try it again.

 

[Osiris]

Use both. I dont think ZA is the problem with your pc. You might have other problems that is making it load slow. Check your startup is msconfig and make sure you dont have loads of programs running you dont need.

 

[m3trj]

Let me let you guys in on a little secret.. As many of you know, a firewall is there to protect incoming/outgoing packets of information. I will tell you, I have read an interview of two hackers, and, being a hacker myself (no I don't do bad things, I do things to experiment and get better at computers, I won't EVER do anything malicious), I can tell you a firewall won't do anything, except against some _newb_ hacker, or cracker. It is not possible to ever block all daemons on your computer.

Do you have any evidence to prove this? To be honest I don't believe it. Of course a firewall will protect you.

 

[New Age Outlaw]

Since when do "hackers" annouce who/what they are ..

As far a firewalls go, if it is a choice between SP2 and ZA, stick with ZA just because you can do more withit that you can with SP2 in terms of configuring. As far as it loading slow, follow the advice given and check whats running on boot, perform a little system maintenance(defrag, scandisk, general cleanup) and see what happens from that point.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

He may be a hacker, we really dont know

But he is true, XP's firewall cant even block script kiddy's, it doesnt block stuff until YOU TELL IT TO.

Zonealarm is OK, but still easy to get thru.

But I would love for him to get past my fully configured cisco router No chance