With my 12Mbps Internet connection I was only being able to download with speeds of 550 - 600 KBps (that’s about 4.8Mpbs), I called my ISP and they said that everything was fine and that my signal was about 12.6Mbps, they also said that the low download speed should be caused by some spyware or malware I had on my computer…
Read on to find the solution (if this also works for you please go on and comment).
My anti-virus (AVG Anti-Virus Free) was up-to-date and so was my anti-spyware (SpyBot - S&D), I also checked netstat to see if some strange process was eating up my bandwidth (and sending my typing data over the Internet to some cracker sitting at his desk on his dark room) but, again, nothing unusual. Then it finally came to me - either it’s Microsoft Windows OR it’s my firewall: ZoneAlarm.
So I did a little experiment, I changed from ZoneAlarm to Comodo Firewall Pro and guess what? I’m currently downloading at constant speeds over than 1200KBps - a 100% speed gain just by changing my firewall software, not bad at all. Besides, Comodo is much more stable and has a much more eye-appealing GUI design than ZoneAlarm, at least in my opinion.
I use AVG PRO and like it, already tried zone alarm but didn’t like it.
If you say its true then I’ll be changing to Comodo ASAP!
I think you should try Kapersky latest
My whole family has ZoneAlarm Firewall on their PCs. The best thing I did when I bought my Vaio a year ago was not to install Zone Alarm. Damn you annoying pop-up balloons!! x)
@ Yash: Thanks for the tip, for now I’ll continue using Comodo since Kaspersky is not free but I’ll try it out the next time I format my computers hard drive..
@ Catarina: Regarding that, Comodo is as annoying as ZoneAlarm (the Get a Mac Firewall ad describes it perfectly lol) but at least it doesn’t crashes when it’s being flooded. What firewall do you use? Or are you a very brave woman who doesn’t need that kind of stuff?
Its rare to get good things for free..lol leave w3schools
ok as u wish
Well, you know what Linus says.. Software is like sex, it’s better when it’s free!
Well, after that problems happened with your ZoneAlarm, you HAVE TO try Agnitum firewall. I use Agnitum Outpost Firewall Pro for 2 years already. Easy to use. Winner of multiple leak tests. Have more informative GUI (logs, threats, ports, processes, etc) than both posted above. Really recommended!
I already used Kapersky and didn’t like that much…
Dael, thanks for the recommendation. I’ll be trying both Firewalls on different computers and see which one survives! Bwuahahahhahaaha!
Me? Brave? I used Windows Firewall for over a year. o.O I’m brave! xD I use AVG now and it’s not annoying at all.
Well, I used ZA a while ago and it seemed to work pretty well, so I got the Pro package and is it ever a resource hog. Every hour or so it polls the server for updates - even when set on manual (cheesy) and simply kills anything running. Dumps me out of any f\graphically intensive game (Oblivion) and more often than not, freezes it. Grrrrr. Thunbderbird also seems to access the pop sever erratically, but maybe that’s just a recent TB issue(?)
Otto
When Zonealarm first came on the scene, it was a decent firewall. However, since they went down the “Security Suite” path, their product has become….well…junk.
I recently purchased it after they switched to the Kaspersky AV engine. Worst money I ever spent. After, the first AV update, I can’t send or receive mail without disabling the AV email protection. And that’s only 1 out of 5 MAJOR problems I’m currently having with it. I’m going BACK to Comodo because I can verify that it is an awesome firewall. Don’t let ZoneAlarm anywhere near your machine.
Mike
Hi, just to say that I spent a few days installing and unistalling drivers of my computer. Even had the motherboard replaced, because of this stupid firewall, I always use it and never had any problems. The latest version caused my computer to randomly halt downloads. So a 10 MB file would stop randomly anywhere. After discarting hardware and drivers I had to install and test the computer on every software. Luckily firewall is on top of my list.
I will give a try to this Comodo thing. Cheers…
You guys are right. Zone Alarm sucks.I had gotten this security suite around 2005 & my system has become unstable. Even once I formatted my system 6 times in a month despite updating ZoneAlarm many times. Please suggest some good Security suite.
Hi guys. I disabled my Windows XP Pro Firewall in my Pentium III computer, and installed ZA. The system began to behave sluggish as a turtle !!! You could prepare some coffee before a simple text page could be loaded and edited !!!
Well, I said “hasta la vista baby” forever to ZA, unistalled it, and installed Comodo Firewall Pro. It slows a little the system (remember my system bus is only 133 MHz), but it behaves a LOT better than the awful ZA. I also agree that the GUI is more appealing.
Cheers !
Through trial and error in the last five years with both XP & Vista, the best freeware security combo I.M.H.O. is Comodo Firewall Pro, Free AVG, Spybot Search & Destroy, & Javacool’s SpywareBlaster. Set your AVG to scan daily, check for updates on your spyware every three days, watch your downloads and e-mail attachments! Too bad Microsoft doesn’t want your computer experience to be more care free. Maybe Windows 7 will be more proactive, but I doubt it.;)
Zone Alarm used to be the freeware firewall of choice. It was how I was introduced to Open Source. I used to use it exclusively, until I got M$ Vista. Now the combination of Comodo Firewall Pro, Free AVG Anti-virus, Spywareblaster, & Spybot S&D is my choice for freeware internet security. If you are willing to pay for it (and I refuse to), then NOD32 is top dog of the Anti-Virus pack. Zone Alarm’s free firewall. Its best days seems to be behind it. It’s too bad. I used to swear by it.