Zone Alarm free or Windows 7 Firewall?

Topic

New Reply

I am using Zone Alarm free firewall in Windows 7, in fact we have 3 computers with Windows 7 all using Zone Alarm for the firewall.

I was noticing the hard drive light on one computer with a lot of activity when not even being used. When I checked processes I noticed it was the Zone Alarm firewall CPU usage would go between 14% to as high as 49%. I think this is a bit too much. Then I checked the other 2 computers, same thing going on.

Which firewall is better to use, Windows firewall or Zone Alarm firewall? I have read that Microsoft finally got the firewall right with Windows 7 and I am wondering what most people are using. I just want to be safe!

Reply | Quote

Replies

With a good antimalware program, and good computing habits I feel that the Windows firewall is just fine. In its default configuration it does not block outbound processes. You can configure it to do so but that process is nowhere near as easy as ZA or other third party firewalls.

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

Could be the TvDebug log file for Zone Alarm. I had a similar problem and this seemed to help. Click here for the information. The article refers to ZA Pro but it works for the free version as well. Use the fix in the second paragraph posted by tork.

If you want to look at the log file before and after enter C:WINDOWSInternet Logs in the search bar. Click on Internet Logs and look for tvDebug. After you turn off the debug file you will need to restart.

JB

Reply | Quote

This happened to me too and an alternative site for turning off the debug file is ZoneAlarm TvDebug.log file (how to disable)
I used the 2nd choice and didn’t go into Safe Mode and it has worked. On my Vista machine the file size had grown to gigantic proportions so when I put 7 on my Toshiba laptop I immediately disabled the TvDebug.log file as well. I haven’t seen any drastic increases in CPU usage since taking this step. Thanks JuneBug for reminding me of this fix.

Hey Jude

Reply | Quote

I bookmarked the link to TvDebug (how to disable) this is good to know, but I think I will uninstall Zone Alarm and use the Windows firewall and block outbound as Joe suggested. Good computing habits is the key to being safe, for antmalware I like Malwarebytes. I have not had a virus or spyware issue in years, but you never know.

I was just reading the section under Security and Backups (should have looked there first) and on a firewall comparative site Zone Alarm free was not recommended.
I do have a firewall on the router and it is on stealth mode. Originally I had Microsoft Security Essentials for anti-virus and the Windows Firewall. When Zone Alarm came out with their free firewall for Windows 7 I installed it only to find out it that MSE and Zone Alarm do not work together (works on XP but not 7). So I removed MSE and installed AVG free,

Thank you.

Reply | Quote

Hello,

I’m presently using Commodo firewall + antivirus, and both work fine with Win7.

Reply | Quote