ZoneAlarm

ZoneAlarm is a software firewall produced by Check Point. It includes an inbound intrusion detection system, as well as the ability to control which programs can create outbound connection — the latter is not included in the Windows XP Service Pack 2 firewall. Their newest release is ZoneAlarm 7.0.

In ZoneAlarm, program access is controlled by way of "zones" which the computer's network connections are divided up into. The "trusted zone" generally includes the user's local area network and can share resources such as files and printers, while the "Internet zone" includes everything not in the trusted zone. The user can specify which "permissions" (trusted zone client, trusted zone server, Internet zone client, Internet zone server) to give to a program before it attempts to access the Internet (e.g. before running it for the first time) or, alternatively, ZoneAlarm will ask the user to give the program permission on its first access attempt.

In 2006 Q3, Zone Labs announced that ZoneAlarm will no longer be supported on the Windows 98 and Me operating systems, starting with version 6.5. The company stated that Microsoft's announced end of the Extended Support phase (provision of essential security fixes) for Windows 98 and Me was the reason for this decision.

Versions

• ZoneAlarm - the freeware version includes a web and local network firewall with outbound program control and port stealthing. Freeware version 6.5 does not work with Windows Hibernate and also cannot be completely un-installed, unless the user follows additional instructions which must be carried out manually.
• ZoneAlarm Pro - pop-up blocker, adware detection, identity protection, cookie blocker and process monitor
• ZoneAlarm Antivirus - ZoneAlarm with antivirus protection in addition to the firewall features
• ZoneAlarm Antispyware - A stripped down version of ZoneAlarm Pro: it has all the features of ZoneAlarm Pro except for the privacy and identity theft features.
• ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite - Includes all the features of the above versions, and includes IMSecure Pro (see below) and an antispam filter engine provided by MailFrontier.
• IMSecure - Protects supported IM clients (AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ, Trillian) from viruses and accidental transmission of personal information keeps your personal ID safe, and stops virus threats. IMSecure comes in two editions, Basic and Pro, the latter coming with more security options.

Discontinued versions

• ZoneAlarm Plus - This product was discontinued from late 2004. This was due to its having fewer features than ZoneAlarm Pro but selling for almost the same price.
• ZoneAlarm Wireless Security - This product was discontinued on October 19, 2005, because its functions were included in all paid versions of ZoneAlarm from version 6 onwards.

Criticisms

Version 6.0 Spyware Controversy

In 2006, InfoWorld Senior Contributing Editor James Borck discovered that ZoneAlarm Security Suite 6.0 continued to send encrypted data to four servers even after the user had disabled all of ZoneAlarm's communications options. Zone Labs have since posted a press release on their website, giving instructions for users to disable the covert communications while asserting that no personal information is shared and that disabling the communications will weaken security since the software will not be able to update itself using Zonelab's servers.

Unclean Installations

ZoneAlarm has been criticised for not uninstalling cleanly using its own uninstaller, the only way to remove zonealarm properly after uninstalling is to manually remove certain files, folders and registry entries, having first enabled the viewing of hidden files and folders (in Windows XP and Windows 2000, it is also necessary to enable the viewing of protected operating system files).