Avast! Compatiblity with ZoneAlarm Basic Firewall

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Dear avast! Members

I have been using avast! Free Anti-Virus for the past year or so, ever since of V 4.8, and I must say, this is the best anti-virus I had ever seen. It was able to detect and eliminate Trojan horses and malware my Norton Anti-Virus (which is deactivated right now) was never able to find. All of my friends also use avast! and they love it as well. ;D

However, I have a question about Avast!'s compatibility with other Internet Security applications.

As I stated before, my Norton Anti-Virus is currently deactivated because the Norton was a trial version for about 60 days. The only Symantec/Norton product I currently have running along with avast! is Norton Personal Firewall 2004. It seems like the two applications don’t seem to be conflicting with one another, so it’s all good.

The problem is, however, is that the firewall came with the trial version of the Anti-Virus, so I keep getting annoying pop-ups from Norton Anti-Virus to re-activate the program. Of course, I don’t want to do that, because Avast! beats Norton by far (well, that’s just my opinion :slight_smile: ). I also think my firewall is a bit outdated too. It doesn’t have any automatic updates like Avast!, and it’s build year was 2004. So, I’m planning to get rid of all Norton products on my computer, and replace Norton Personal Firewall with something else.

After checking some firewall products on C|NET’s download.com site, I am planning to download and install ZoneAlarm Basic Firewall, as it seems like the best free firewall product available on the Internet. I know I can also upgrade avast! into avast! Internet Security, but I currently am trying to save money.

So, what I am generally trying to ask is: Is avast! Free Anti-Virus compatible with ZoneAlarm? Or will they conflict with each other?

I got some recommendations to use ZoneAlarm but I don’t want it to be conflicting with Avast!, so I hope you guys can answer to me honestly and as soon as possible :slight_smile:

Thank you for your time into reading this question and I am looking forwards into getting some responses.

Best Regards,
-Roley :slight_smile:

P.S.: If compatibility varies according to System Specifications, here is my general System Specs according to Speccy. http://i43.tinypic.com/2m3k978.png

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hi Roley,

you shouldnt have any problems with Avast5 free and zone alarm. There’s users here that use both with no conflicts. Look at peoples signatures and you’ll be able to see what setups they have.

I dont use it myself as I use a different 3rd party free firewall so I cant give you any experienced information. Hopefully some one that uses it will stop in and reply.

i suggest uninstalling and running the removal tool for norton as soon you can. I think you said you have it disabled. Im not sure but I think there are still low level drivers running when disabled and they can cause conflict with Avast. Im sure if im mistaken others will correct me.

Sat

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For what it’s worth, I tried Avast free with Zonealarm’s free firewall a while back, and the combination slowed down my web-browsing considerably. They didn’t seem to get along with one another very well, at least on my system.

You might want to try it for a while, though, and see how it works for you. I’m finding out that’s really the only way to know for sure, because everybody’s system is different. Hope it works for you!

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[b]Is avast! Free Anti-Virus compatible with ZoneAlarm? Or will they conflict with each other?[/b]

I’ve used ZoneAlarm (Basic) along with several versions of avast for the past 3 years without any issues. Good luck.

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I tried it as well and it slowed my boot time tremendously as well as slowing down my browsing considerably. I didn’t like it at all. I am using the 3.14 version of Comodo’s free firewall. It comes in a bundle for Comodo Internet Security but you can choose at installation to only install the Firewall with or without the HIPS package known as D+. I chose not to use the HIPS so what I have is a very good 2 way firewall that is extremely lightweight and does not slow anything down. You can get the package at:

http://download.comodo.com/cis/download/setups/CIS_Setup_3.14.130099.587_XP_Vista_x32.exe

or if you have 64 bit Windows:

http://download.comodo.com/cis/download/setups/CIS_Setup_3.14.130099.587_XP_Vista_x64.exe

It is not the latest version of the product but if you just want a basic 2 way firewall, I would suggest using it instead of the newer one.

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I checked some C|NET reviews -- as you said, ZoneAlarm does slow ones computer down significantly. Of course, I do not want that.

So thank you for your suggestion into getting Comodo! :slight_smile: When I’ll have the chance, I shall install it to my system and remove Norton.

Take Care,

–Roley–

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I advise that you install the free Comodo Firewall instead. Installing ZoneAlarm leave plenty of traces in your computer that will not be removed when you uninstall it. Also, I tried ZoneAlarm for Vista some time back and it didn’t pass the ShieldsUp test. Comodo did.

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Ok, just my humble 2 cents for ya :slight_smile:
1: In my opinion, Norton, (ALL of Norton), should be removed from your system. Google the Norton removal tool, download it, and get rid of Norton. That program became such a bloated cow on my system it eventually caused the blue screen of death. Yes, lose the Norton firewall as well.
If you have not experienced any conflicts with !avast, then you should be good to go.
2: Zone Alarm use to be a great firewall that was efficient and lite on system resources.
It has since become a bloated cow. Even if you just install the “simple firewall”, it is still going to load your system with all of its’ other garbage. I don’t know about you, but I do not like things loaded into my system that I do not want.
Someone suggested Comodo earlier, that too became a bit heavy on the resources, but it is a much better option than Zonealarm
Good luck :slight_smile:

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Some users of this forum reported problems running ZoneAlarm…
E.g. here: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=58163.0
asyn

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Yeah, that kinda relates to the “bloated cow” issue I eluded too. It seems that if you download ZA “simple”, you still get their “suite”, it just does not activate. So it populates your system, and in some
cases the suite “leaks”, causing conflicts with other AV products.
For my, it is simple, although I know others feel different. I want my firewall to be a firewall.
I want my antivirus to be an antinvirus. I know it sounds silly, but I prefer a “component” system rather than a “rack” system…(insert old school hippie stereo knowledge here). 8) 8) 8)

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New to the forum & Avast!. I just installed the free Avast 5.0.545 yesterday on both mine & my wife’s computers, replacing Symantec AV Corp Ed., which we’ve had for almost 10 years (updating daily), but recently it had stopped running scans. We both have the free ZA 7.0.337 on XP Home SP2 & neither of us notice a slowdown (& if my wife noticed a slowdown, believe me, I would’ve heard about it!). However (& this is not an Avast! issue), I can’t get the free ZA 9.007.002 configured 100% securely on my daughter & SIL’s new W7 laptop w/o it either slowing the internet access to a crawl or blocking it altogether, & I’ve been using the free ZA since version 1. FWIW

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I checked the C|Net (Download.com) review/download page for ZoneAlarm, and many complain that Zone Alarm has a lot of problems and issues with Windows 7 (if that’s what W7 means in your comment).

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I quit using free Zone Alarm a long time ago. It turned into bloated up crapware as far as I’m concerned. It was annoying to network and conflicted with other security software. I use Comodo free firewall.
Joe

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I’m using the latest version of ZoneAlarm Free. It’s not bloated,

doesn’t slowdown my computer and doesn’t conflict with anything.

I don’t understand why anyone wants to spread FUD ???

ZA Free works great on XP & 7.

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If the built-in uninstaller is used there wont be any traces left.

I’ve never seen a version of ZA that wouldn’t pass Shields Up.

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That’s what it means, Roley. Thanks.

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This is ZA’s response to the following forum post at
http://forums.zonealarm.com/showthread.php?t=70642

Re: Constant alerts on 3 forcefield programs
Samething is happening to me, began today (9/16), constant ZoneAlarm red/high alerts for forcefield and iswsvc.exe. Does anyone know the fix?

Following is Item 23 in the looong response on September 17, 2009, in post 5 of the thread. (It appears to be from ZA Support.) Note the instruction to remove, not just disable, the listed programs. I did it the easy way, I immediately removed ZA and forcefield using Revo Uninstaller. No more alerts.

23.) ZA does not play nice with many other security tools. They may block its correct functioning including updates. For example, spyware doctor, spysweeper, trojan hunter, win patrol, PCtools Threat Fire, Mcafee, Norton, Symantec, Adaware, SpybotS&D, WinPatrol, AVG, Avast free, NOD, Kaspersky, Comodo, Rising, PC Doctor, MS OneCare and many others. If you want to troubleshoot issues with ZA please remove these tools (not enough to disable) and install back (if you really need) only after you see your ZA is working as it should.

The underlined ones are those I had installed at the time, all but Avast were on demand only. You might find the whole response interesting!

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Thanks for your feedback…!! :slight_smile:
But it would have been better placed in a new topic… :wink:
asyn

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You are right! I should have. Is it okay to use the same title, but post the same info as a new post? I think the info is important, but haven’t posted much in forums before.

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You can post it with any topic/title you like, best place would be in General Topics…!
asyn