Neowin.net - Firewall fire sale: Free ZoneAlarm makes it to Vista

Firewall fire sale: Free ZoneAlarm makes it to Vista

Posted by Daniel Fleshbourne on 14 June 2007 - 10:23 · 39 comments & 11281 views

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. today launched a Windows Vista version of its flagship ZoneAlarm firewall and blamed the delay on a switch to the new operating system's application programming interfaces (API). The Vista version of ZoneAlarm, a two-way firewall that will continue to be given away, is the first from a major security vendor to apply Vista's Windows Filtering Platform (WFP) API, said Laura Yecies, the general manager of Check Point's consumer security line.

"This is a bit later than we would have liked," said Yecies, noting the four-month lag between Vista's retail release and ZoneAlarm's appearance. "We underestimated the schedule impact of WFP. But long term, WFP will give us more support and more stability on Vista. It was a lot of extra work, but we'll have to do fewer hacks in the future." WFP, a new Vista architecture that lets developers tap into the TCP/IP processing path, was a hard row to hoe. "At times, it seemed like we were an extension of Microsoft QA. They patched and made changes based on what we found while we were developing," Yecies said. Microsoft used WFP to create its own Windows Firewall, which is bundled with Vista.

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(1 reply) #1 Posted by Shof on 14 Jun 2007 - 10:24: Took them long enough

#2 Posted by multimediatechy on 14 Jun 2007 - 10:29: great stuff

(2 replies) #3 Posted by alsheron on 14 Jun 2007 - 10:31: What about Security Suite?

(4 replies) #4 Posted by +BeLGaRaTh on 14 Jun 2007 - 11:54: Does anyone still use ZoneAlarm? Worst Firewall IMO the few times I tried it, it hosed my system when removing it.

(1 reply) #5 Posted by dangel on 14 Jun 2007 - 12:31: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo I thought we were safe from this cruddy software on Vista

#6 Posted by DKAngel on 14 Jun 2007 - 13:00: hell i still think the windows firewall does an ok job, even xp's one when u dig around can do some pretty cool things i had never thought of, like forewarding a port fromt he router to 1 machien on the network which was routing for another on a diff ip range and reforewarding that port and poking a hole thru for the other lonesome pc

#7 Posted by ahhell on 14 Jun 2007 - 13:21: Awesome. I was looking for some software to **** up Vista!!

My prayers have been answered!

#8 Posted by jwjw1 on 14 Jun 2007 - 13:24: I've tried 'Look n Stop' and its decent for Vista...but right now I'm using Kaspersky Internet Security Suite 7.0.0.120

(3 replies) #9 Posted by Croquant on 14 Jun 2007 - 13:53: For petes sake, get a hardware firewall!

(2 replies) #10 Posted by Twisted Vista on 14 Jun 2007 - 14:04: I gave up on ZoneAlarm a long time ago. Since they released V5, the product has been abysmal in my experience.
I now just use a hardware firewall combined with Vista's firewall, and it's plenty good enough.

#11 Posted by jstillion on 14 Jun 2007 - 14:17: I've found that Zone Alarm (free) works great... unless you have any trouble. I've also heard / seen where Zone Alarm is a nightmare to uninstall or cause a lot of problems.

(4 replies) #12 Posted by eilegz on 14 Jun 2007 - 14:37: well zone alarm was good but then become bloated and people just have to switch and agnitum its going to the same path =/ after version 4.

We really need a firewall that works and ca be like a nod32 category very lightweight.

Windows firewall needs a lot of improvement, in sp2 its only one side firewall and vista its two side but one of them disable by default and if you allow them it block every outbound and theres no prompt to allow application go out its just annoying, not a big improvement

(1 reply) #13 Posted by Mikee4fun on 14 Jun 2007 - 15:32: WFP, a new Vista architecture that lets developers tap into the TCP/IP processing path, was a hard row to hoe

Umm shouldn't it be row and not hoe?

LOL

#14 Posted by Burned on 14 Jun 2007 - 15:38: I never touched anything passed version 2.6. The program became a bloated POS.

#15 Posted by Xtreme2damax on 14 Jun 2007 - 19:44: Use this in Windows XP, never had a problem with this and am waiting to download the free firewall for Vista. Don't know what problem you all had with this, possibly a hardware/software conflict on your end but it's hardly the fault of ZoneAlarm as there are many more that use this without a problem

#16 Posted by C_Guy on 14 Jun 2007 - 20:09: It's too bad so many people seem to be confusing ZA (which is awesome) with Symantec products (which actually are bloat-crapware)

It's also sad to see the ZA team stoop to a new low and blame their slow product launch on Microsoft as if they had no time to develop it for Vista.

(1 reply) #17 Posted by fragmore on 14 Jun 2007 - 21:11: Where can I get this????

(1 reply) #18 Posted by 7Dash8 on 15 Jun 2007 - 03:57: I think he means where is the free Vista version - it hasn't been released yet it looks like. The download page just has Win2K/XP still showing as the supported OS.

#19 Posted by stgeorge on 16 Jun 2007 - 21:18: Exactly what I want to hear from a security vendor: "we'll have to do fewer hacks in the future" - as if hacking things in was standard operating procedure before and they are bummed they can't keep doing that...

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