Zone Alarm Pro 4.5 - part II

by Andrew Cooper

Front Door

After starting the program I noticed two things. The first was my system slowed down so much that everything became choppy, my screen froze for a while, and I couldn't even move the mouse. The second was ZoneAlarm's main window appeared. After studying it a bit, I have to admit, that's an impressive display. The entire screen is like a webpage. It displays a wealth of information in an organized layout and lets you operate every program feature from a single point. Very nice.



After using that interface a while, I managed to find something to complain about. The icons in the middle of the window look like clickable objects to me and I kept getting tricked into clicking them. Why the designer did not include these images into the hyperlink they are associated with is a mystery to me.

I like the big red STOP button that lets you completely block all network activity; definitely the best anti-hacker button I've seen in firewalls. You can also minimize this main window to show only those buttons that block network activity or adjust ZoneAlarm's settings, however it does not automatically return to the minimized state after using it, which is silly.

Buttons, Sliders and Custom Levels

ZoneAlarm's interface is impressive, despite the ugly color scheme that doesn't read clearly on my LCD monitor. Some of the controls don't look appropriate to their function, but overall the interface is designed for those of us who don't want to spend a lot of time fiddling with the software's predefined settings, yet is handy for the power user who prefers to fine tune everything.



The settings are logically grouped under Firewall, Network Zones and Application. In each group you have a slider that lets you set the general security level from Low to High. Each slider position gives a useful description of that security level. Basically, that one control does most of the work of setting ZoneAlarm's configuration options.

I'm surprised at some of the defaults, though. Stealth mode, for example, is active only when the network security level is set to High, along with blocking of NetBIOS sharing and other strict security precautions. For me, stealth mode is a must and I prefer it on even if I don't want to apply other restrictions, because stealth mode alone provides sufficient protection; after all, if they can't detect you, there's not much they can do. A Custom button is provided for people to modify these settings manually. That button displays a settings page rich in check boxes, edit fields and lists that are all yours to modify any way you want.

ZoneAlarm differentiates every network you are connected with into two classes: Trusted and Internet.



This really simplifies your life, because once you configure these two zone settings, you no longer have to worry about individual networks or host configurations. All you have to do is put a host into this or that zone and it inherits the security settings of that zone. The only difficult part is creating the default pattern to fit different sites and networks. You can also create a Blocked zone for sites you consider dangerous, abusive or inappropriate for you, your children, your office, etc.

ZoneAlarm lets you restrict application network usage by creating application rules. This is a common practice for modern firewalls and it's no surprise that it's here. What's remarkable is how the rules are organized. Zone Labs's care for novice users is really admirable. They have sacrificed system resource usage and some usability, to achieve that however.



In other firewalls you have to specify ports, protocols and other details to govern network usage; in ZoneAlarm you just make a few mouse clicks to specify whether the application is to be allowed to make inbound or outbound connections, or to access e-mail. That's it. Several mouse clicks and you're ready to go. If you want more specific restrictions, ZoneAlarm provides Expert Rules to help you define ports, protocols, directions and other settings, but I can't say its design is very intuitive.

Continue to Part III
Back to Part I