I have been using Norton Internet Security on my T150. The subscription is running out soon. I was looking around, and was impressed by Zone Alarm. I loaded the free firewall to play around with it. Norton has always impressed me as trying to make things so easy that they become hard, if you know what I mean. But I was concerned by the continuous upgrade ads that Zone Alarm offered, plus all that 40-point red text gives it an amature-ish look & feel. I have three questions.

If you use Zone Alarm internet security suite, what do you think of it? I am especially interested in hearing from folks who have used both Zone Alarm and Norton.

Does the Zone Alarm product uninstall cleanly should I change my mind later on?

I am concerned about removing all vestages of Norton. It would be a real pain to rebuild my system from scratch, but maybe it’s time. I probably have plenty of junk in my registery. Does anybody have an opinion? I burned the recovery DVD and I left the recovery partition. My data is safely backed up (I think!!!) The problem is re-installing all the patches, updates, & software.

I use Zone Alarm Security Suite (and am a previous Norton Internet Security user).

I like Zone Labs product MUCH better.  Takes far less system resources.

Zone Alarm, unlike NIS, is a thorough uninstall, leaving little more than reference to your license key in the registry.

If you don’t like the pop-up stuff with Zone Alarm, go carefully through all the setting tabs for the program.  It’s infinitely configurable.  The only time I get the pop-up in the lower right on the screen is when something new is attempting to communicate with the web (and I want their annoying banner telling me something new is going on .. you can check the box to never have ZA ask about a particular program again right there on the banner when you permit access).

Zone Alarm Security Suite integrates Computer Associates eTrust Anti-Virus program.  Both work well together .. either as separate products or as an integrated program.  On one of my computers I have the basic (free) Zone Alarm program installed and eTrust .. which provides US$9.95 annual subscription with free program upgrades.  I forget the annual subscription amount for Zone Alarm Security Suite .. but it’s a lot cheaper than NIS and they don’t force you to buy a whole new program every two or three years.

I’ve found almost universally that it’s a good idea to perform a clean install when dumping NIS.  There is just too much debris left in the registry for my comfort level.

Jef

Thanks Jef. Your advice is pretty much where I was going.