Customer Reviews
Troublesome software updates 
2007-04-02
I been using Zone Alarm Anti-virus for a couple years. It comes with firewall and antivirus software. Both firewall and antivirus works great... before any software updates. A software update happens when Zone Alarm publishes a new version of software that completely replaces this software. You will be notified when there is a new software ready to download and run. The update happens every three to four months.
The problem is, every time I update my Zone Alarm Antivirus, I ran into software problem that prevent AV from running, at all. Every time, I had to send email to customer service to get help. The turnaround time, from the minute i have problem, to the time the problem gets fixed ranges from several hours to several days. During that time, my computer was NOT protected from virus, at all.
Zone Alarm is good when it works. But beware of the software updates.. it might piss you off.
Do you get what you pay for? 
2007-03-30
I bought this product based on Consumer Reports review. I've had Norton and McAfee in the past which slowed down my system. My computer is slower to start up with ZoneAlarm, but faster than McAfee while on. However, most of the time, I need to shut off ZoneAlarm in order to access the internet - just like another reviewer. Defeats the purpose don't you think? It also recognized my offices's software as a virus and although I allowed access, it keeps showing it as a virus. I'm going to have to go to another product.
Buyer beware 2007-03-22
I installed this 2 days ago. It installed easily enough...within less than 5 minutes I was doing my first virus scan. It only found one infection, which I don't think is accurate (I think it missed some stuff). Every time...*every* time you connect to the internet or go to a site it will come up with a popup asking you to allow or deny access. Gets very annoying after a while. The last straw came today, when I could sign on to the internet but not access any sites. I ran my Spyware Doctor and my Adaware, they both came up clean. On a whim I uninstalled the ZoneAlarm, and voila my internet starts zooming along smoothly again. This was a total waste of money for me, I only wish I had kept the receipt so I could return it.
Too complicated 
2007-03-17
The idea of being notified of every possibly suspicious action sounds good, but in practice ZoneAlarm is too intrusive for most home computer users. It seems to have bugs too, starting with an installation that initially wouldn't work on one of the computers on my home LAN. ZoneAlarm also seems to forget some actions that are allowed and supposedly remembered. I haven't gotten exasperated enough to buy another antivirus product and uninstall ZoneAlarm yet, but I'm close!
Easy Install, Gets the Job Done 
2007-03-06
CD installs easily, it even comes with a nice short instructional video.
Once installed, ZoneAalarm is fairly unobtrusive, but seems to get the job done.
Well-designed product!
An O.C.D. anti virus program 2008-02-19
I have used this program for a couple of years and it is really annoying. First, I hate its updates, its locking my machine when it decides to do an update, stops Acrobat from running, stops the whole the machine if I step away and here is the worst.. it checks itself and stops its own scanning program from launching. Norton finally looking good again!
Not Again 2007-08-13
I've had Zone Alarm for about 6 months and will not renew. Is it effective in preventing viruses? Maybe. I avoid as much as I can exposure to potential sources but can say I seem not to have had any inhabit my computer. In this regard it may be doing its job.
What I dislike is a feature that drove me away from Norton, the popup message that it was scanning my email, I felt Norton was simply using that opportunity to promote themselves and now Zone Alarm does the same - slowly. It should run in the background but instead takes center stage and prevents me from accessing any other programs until it is done. If I have a large number of messages in my in-box it will scan them each time I open Outlook, even if they have been scanned before.
The thing that troubles me most, however, is that I may not do a complete system reboot for 2 or 3 days. When I do, Zone Alarm claims it's anti-virus is out of date and needs to be updated. Why isn't this happening in the background real time? Am I 2-3 days out of date and at potential risk for infection because Zone Alram is not routinely checking for updates?
great product, and....but..... 2007-07-15
and Amazon's version was a great price, but out-of-date. Thankfully, the company upgraded me to the current version without additional cost. I am very happy with their antivirus product...easy updates, easy to scan. A small reminder: when installing the product, one must type in the license key to activate everything. In my case, a 'vertical bar' was cryptic...was it a number "1"? a small "L" or a capital "I"??? Took me several tries and some e-mail with the company to figure it out. That was my biggest/only complaint.
ZoneAlarm AntiVirus 2007-07-01
One can not separate the antivirus from the firewall. If you would like to continue to use the firewall, but not the antivirus you must delete the whole thing. The antivirus is not that good, it missed a virus that (free) Trend remote scanner caught.
Zone Alarm Anti Virus 
2007-05-13
So far, so good. The software installed easily, but I wish it would have wiped out traces of the Norton A-V software. Even with uninstall, there are traces that of Norton that ZoneAlarm flags as potentially dangerous. Slowly we are tracking them down or quarantining them.
There's a feature that allows the user to set security levels for each program used on the PC. Nice. But for us non-experts, it's daunting to try to determine what settings to use. I had a few glitches with ZOneAlarm's default settings (too conservative?)
