ZoneAlarm Pro 5 not ready for prime time?

[kv]

Hey all,

I recently installed the latest version of ZoneAlarm Pro (5.0), and am disappointed to admit I am having problems with it, so I'm wondering about everyone else's experience?

The problems I'm running into mostly involve it interfering with applications and services communicating with each other on my own system, not through the network. I do some web development and run IIS and mySql on my notebook, since installing I'm having severe problems that are rendering my web dev pretty much unusable. I've tried tweaking the settings and rules, but the only thing that seems to work is shutting down the service altogether.

I haven't seen any problems using internet applications, web surfing etc., so these issues probably wouldn't affect the majority of users, but I'm going to have to revert back to the previous version due to the above problems.

I do like the advisor feature they've added (with recommendations on permissions to set), although they're irrelevant (and sometimes incorrect) for my requirements I think they'll go a long way to helping reduce confusion for novice users, so that's a plus.

But my advice to people would be to wait until at least the next rev. Judging from the ZL forums there are many people experiencing issues. To their credit, ZL is monitoring the forums and asking people to provide tech support with specific info on their issues to help them troubleshoot.

I have used ZA since the original free version and have been quite happy with it, and don't mind paying the annual fee for Pro, so I'm going to cut them some slack and hope they get the bugs out. I'm basically throwing this out there in case anyone's sitting on the fence as to upgrading, and to see what everyone else's experience is.

Just curious...

Cheers,
KV

[SuperSparks]

It looks as if quite a few people are experiencing problems with it:

http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-06-07.htm#2

[swpaint]

Hi my Norton system works 2003 no longer scans my E-mail after upgrading to the New ZA recently.
Does anyone know the link to the one we had before this one?
Thanks

[SuperSparks]

I found this, the site is in Spanish but it seems to be for the English version of ZA 4.5.538 and the download works:

Edit: I have to link to the Google cache, it's one of those sites that refuses to allow direct linking.

http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:K...larm+4.5&hl=en

[kv]

FWIW, ZL does make the previous versions available online, you can access them here.

I used the last version prior to 5.0 (4.5.594) and will be reverting back to that one. ZL does advise an uninstall of 5.0 before re-installing a prior, so you will lose your settings (and likely your license key if you have the paid version). From what I've seen, backing up your settings in 5.0 and re-loading into 4.5 may or may not work, I haven't tried so I can't comment either way.

Ironically enough, I was joking with some people I deal with at Check Point Software that they would manage to somehow mangle one of my favorite apps now that they owned ZoneLabs. Didn't realize how prophetic I'd be...!

Cheers,
KV