ZoneAlarm (download: www.zonealarm.com, choose for basic ZoneAlarm protection) is one of the most free popular firewalls, although it doesn't work as pleasant as the better Sygate Personal Firewall and the Kerio Personal Firewall. ZoneAlarm makes it possible to block or allow any application which tries to communicate with the network or the internet. If an unknown application would like to have access to the internet, you are asked to allow the access. This firewall is suitable for both Windows XP and Windows Vista and disables the Windows firewall automatically (see the Security Center).
Choose for basic ZoneAlarm protection at the downloadpage and run this tool to be able to download the Windows XP or Windows Vista version of ZoneAlarm. By disabling the options for the registration and security news, the setup will procede without typing an e-mailaddress. The following questions can be skipped as well. At the end of the setup ZoneAlarm recommends to scan for known Windows programs which is safe to confirm.
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If you share files (or a printer) on your computer, use the second option. If you don't share files (or a printer) use the first option. You can also give a name to your network, here MSHOME is used. In the next step you will enter the ZoneAlarm Control Panel. If you missed it, you are also able to open ZoneAlarm with the icon in your system tray, as shown below: As you can see, you are able to Stop all Internet activity as well: your computer will be completely firewalled.
On the Firewall tab at the left side of the Control Center you are now probably having the following settings on the Main tab (Internet Zone Security is High and Trusted Zone Security is Medium. The security level for the Trusted Zone Security can be set to High when no files and printers are shared for other users on the network.
On the Program Control tab at the left side, you will probably now have the following screen:
Every unknown program is asked for permission to enter the internet, as shown below. You will see this for multiple programs which would like to enter the internet. An unknown program needs to be confirmed twice, as shown below for the Internet Explorer (don't forget to enable the option Remember this setting, else you are continuously asked!).
If you are not sure, don't allow the program to access the internet, you can always change it afterwards, if needed. All the allowed and denied programs are shown on the second subtab Programs of the Program Control tab at the left side.
If you allowed a program to access the trusted zone and/or the internet the green mark is placed. If you blocked a program, the red cross is shown. If you made an error, you can correct it here!
For more information about FREE security see the pages about:
Other free firewall software:
Sygate Personal
Firewall and
Kerio
antivirus software,
firewall software and
adware software
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