Zone Alarm Pro 4.5 - part I

by Andrew Cooper

We'll continue our review of the Personal Firewalls now with an in depth look at ZoneAlarm Pro, which is well respected by experts and certainly one of the most popular.

Before we begin, I want to thank Te Smith, Communications Director at Zone Labs, for the reference materials and license keys he provided me.

First Steps

Downloading the setup package from Zone Labs and installing it on my machine was uneventful. The installation was straightforward, but my first gripe was having to fill out a form with my email address and do a survey just to install the software. No big deal, just irksome.



The installation works well for both first time users and those who are familiar with the software and have already tweaked an earlier version.

After installing the program, the License Wizard presented itself where I entered the registration key for my copy of ZoneAlarm Pro. I was less than impressed when it hung twice in a row after I clicked Buy Now. I immediately wondered how this software could possibly sell.



Then I witnessed ZoneAlarm's automatic configuration. Very cool. You just sit back and let the wizards do their magic. Each step is explained so you know what is happening and the specific settings that can be made. Users, from newbie to expert, will find the right choice among those offered. The program was provided a wide variety of default settings that are appropriate to most computer systems for a decent protection.



For those new to ZoneAlarm there is a quick tutorial-a short presentation introducing the program. I decided to skip the tour and just go directly to the program and found that if you are at all familiar with Windows you won't have much trouble finding your way around ZoneAlarm's well laid out interface.

Continue to Part II