Firewalls
At the moment I’m trialling ZoneLab’s ZoneAlarm Pro version 6.0 Firewall. It has all the features of previous ZoneAlarm Pro versions (i.e. port level firewall, program access firewall, e-mail security, identity theft protection) plus some new features such as:
- Operating System Level Firewall
- Spyware Scanner
- Wireless PC Protection
Initially I had some frustrations with the new Operating System Level Firewall, since it stopped some legitimate programs (e.g. Adobe Distiller and Microsoft Word) from working properly. However, after a bit of fiddling around with the settings, I eventually learned how to make use of the Operating System Level Firewall and am now quite happy of the new feature introduced by ZoneLabs. The OS Firewall is a new feature in ZoneAlarm Pro and is designed prevent malicious programs such as viruses, worms, trojan horses and spyware from harming your computer. The OS Firewall triggers an alarm everytime a program wants to do an operating system level action and allows the user to choose whether to allow the program to go ahead with its task or block it. ZoneAlarm Pro learns from what programs you allow/block to access for and automatically blocks or allows access for programs you have previously specified.
ZoneAlarm Pro has a whole heap of other features I could review, but that would be too much for me to write. If you’re interested in ZoneAlarm Pro, head to the ZoneLabs website to try out a trial version of the software before deciding on whether to purchase it. Its definitely a good idea to try out software before you buy!!
While on the topic of firewalls, you might want to check out the book: “Building Internet Firewalls“, authored by Elizabeth Zwicky, et al., published by O’Reilly, 2000. It’s a pretty good book covering the basics about how firewalls operate and provides quite some good advice on how to set-up your computer network to defend against hackers and worms from the Internet.
