Is the free Zone Alarm personal firewall the right solution for you? Internet ScamBusters #112
Today we'll talk about ZoneAlarm, a free software firewall we recommend for PC users.
First, we'd like to thank everyone who participated in our poll last week and told us the biggest benefit they got from ScamBusters, and why they think others should subscribe. We really appreciate the overwhelming response.
We'll be incorporating this info on our site in the next few weeks -- it is taking quite awhile to read all the responses!
Time to get going...
Free ZoneAlarm: A Popular Software Firewall
We've had a lot of questions about free software firewalls for PCs, so we thought we'd devote this issue of ScamBusters to the free ZoneAlarm personal firewall.
Using A Firewall Is A Smart Idea
Before you read this article on ZoneAlarm, if you would like a review on the concept of firewalls and why it's important to have a firewall, click here.
Note: Mac users can skip to the bottom of this article.
The free ZoneAlarm personal firewall is a very popular download, and with good reason. It used to be that personal computer users didn't really need to worry too much about firewalls, but that's obviously changed and the free ZoneAlarm firewall is an excellent choice.
We like ZoneAlarm better than the free firewall bundled with Windows XP.
Where To Download The Free ZoneAlarm
To download the free ZoneAlarm personal firewall, just go to the Zone Labs website. Look under the heading for personal and home business use, and you'll find the link to download the installation file.
Installing and Configuring ZoneAlarm
Once you have downloaded the free ZoneAlarm application, you can install it just like you would any other application. Once the installation is finished, it will ask you to register the program so they can keep you up to date on product developments, but you can opt out of promotional email.
When you open the free ZoneAlarm application for the first time, it will walk you through the steps to configure the program. This is one of the things that make ZoneAlarm a popular choice among home users, because it's easy to do it correctly. Once you complete the simple setup questions, you can be almost certain that your firewall is configured properly.
Using The Free ZoneAlarm
After you have installed and configured the free ZoneAlarm application, you will have a lot of firewall messages pop up when you actually start using your computer with the firewall running. Each time a new application tries to access the Internet, it will ask you if you want to allow it.
Although this may seem bothersome at first, once all the programs you use have been recognized by ZoneAlarm and you tell it whether or not to allow them to access the Internet, the program will settle down and pretty much run in the background.
There are a lot of reasons the free ZoneAlarm application is very popular. The free ZoneAlarm application is a good option for firewall protection, and you can't beat the price!
If you'd like to learn more about the paid version of Zone Alarm, click here.
For Mac users: Turn on your OSX firewall:
1. Open System Preferences and click on Sharing.
2. Click the Firewall button
3. Click The Start button.
For more info, visit the Apple tech doc on firewalls.
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That's it for now -- and if you haven't already done so, please install either a hardware firewall or a software firewall such as the free ZoneAlarm personal firewall.