Customer Rating: 
Summary: Performance and Upgrade Headache
Comment: Based on reviews and recommendations, I tried ZoneAlarm for the last two years. Upgrades have almost always had problems. These are well documented in the ZoneAlarm forums. They seem to push out updates, sometimes automatically, before they are well tested. Specifically, I've had to continually workaround a known conflict with the Cisco VPN software that I use. The performance for the ZoneAlarm software has gotten increasingly worse. I have since switched to the latest Norton Internet Security 2009, which appears to be a HUGE performance improvement. The system now boots in under a minute instead of 3-4 minutes.
Customer Rating: Summary: Nightmare on Vista Street
Comment: This product works reasonably well on XP, but on Vista it's a WHOLE different story. I have never used a product that has caused me so much grief and frustration. What's wrong?
1. Frequently shuts down all HTTP traffic for no reason. Happens every so often, randomly.
2. Every once in a while it denies access to all programs, so clicking on any icon results in a message saying you're not authorized. Only cure is to reboot.
3. When updating itself from the internet (often), everything else on your computer grinds to a halt - for a long time.
4. Restarting the computer with Zone Alarm turned off results in being unable to access the internet at all. I'm not even sure I can get rid of this thing, which has been much worse than any real virus.
It was bad enough that I installed this on my own computer and have had to deal with hours of grief, but putting it on my wife's computer has almost caused a divorce.
I strongly recommend against using this product on Vista in its current form.
Customer Rating: Summary: zone alarm - DO NOT BUY
Comment: I would give this a ZERO RATING if possible. NOT COMPATIBLE with Spyware Doctor (A totally excellent program!). ZONE ALARM customer service is below terrible. Never had these problems with NORTON INTERNET SECURITY. Also - Zone Alarm Customer Service said there were OTHER SERIOUS problems with Zone Alarm 8.
Customer Rating: Summary: Best of the Suites
Comment: I started with PCTools many years ago, then moved to Norton (who bought out PCTools) but when I realized it was bringing my system to a crawl about 6 years ago, took the Editor's Choice of ZoneAlarm and haven't looked back. Regarding the one star ratings here, all I can say is that whenever there is either a new operating system or service pack or conflicts with new programs, yes, there's going to be a bump in the road, but ZoneLabs has ALWAYS made things right and done so quickly. I am running Vista SP1 right now and I was having problems from some source, so I ran RegCure and then downloaded a Beta version of ZoneAlarm's newest version and everything is fast and smooth. I can honestly say that with ZoneAlarm Internet Suite have NEVER suffered a single virus, trojan horse or spyware problems - ever. This is a great program and a great company.
Customer Rating: Summary: Good Product Now Gone Bad
Comment: ZoneAlarm used to be an outstanding product now it's just horrible. Boot/shutdown times can hit the 7-10 minute range if you have certain other software installed on your computer. What other software - every day software like Nero Burning ROM and a variety of others.
Spend some time searching the ZoneAlarm user forums reading about the boot/shutdown issues and will find that many other applications you may already have on your computer don't sit well with ZoneAlarm causing ZA to be extremely slow.
Normal every day software causes ZoneAlarm to be slow? Doesn't sound right but it's not a joke. This formerly great product is now completely down the tubes. The ZoneAlarm forum moderators post their canned responses to this issue and Tech Support recommends you uninstall the offending normal every day software or make registry tweaks to improve performance.
Bottom line: ZoneAlarm is no longer a good product. Choose something else like Kaspersky, Norton, or McAfee.
