ZoneAlarm with Antivirus review

Jeff Bertolucci CNET

Published: 27 May 2004

Zone Labs' popular ZoneAlarm firewall, available in both free and paid-for versions, has always been a lone wolf in the realm of PC security. While Trend Micro and other anti-virus software vendors have already taken the logical step of combining anti-virus and firewall protection into one program, ZoneAlarm resisted the urge to merge -- until now. Not only does the new ZoneAlarm with Antivirus shield against viruses and hacker attacks, it does so for the rock-bottom price of $19.95 (~£11). Limitations? ZoneAlarm with Antivirus doesn't block ads, manage cookies or have all the perks of pricier security suites, including Zone Labs' own $55.95 (~£31) ZoneAlarm Security Suite, of course. But for users who simply want solid yet very basic security for their PCs, ZoneAlarm with Antivirus is a winner.

Setup & interface

Installing ZoneAlarm with Antivirus is child's play. A configuration wizard leads you through setup, making it easy for everyday users to secure their systems fast. For instance, the program automatically scans your system for viruses after setup, but you can cancel this scan if you wish. Unlike Norton AntiVirus 2004, however, ZoneAlarm with Antivirus doesn't perform a pre-installation scan, which would be an added measure of protection.

The ZoneAlarm with Antivirus interface is excellent. A left-hand column provides one-click access to the program's main modules -- Firewall, Program Control and Antivirus -- and the configuration options are clearly explained and easy to change. Longtime ZoneAlarm users will feel at home immediately with the program, since it looks nearly identical to Zone Labs' firewall-only offerings.

Novices will like the 10-part tutorial that explains in detail ZoneAlarm's default settings. For example, it describes the significance of pop-up alerts (such as when an unrecognised program tries to access the Internet), and shows you how to use the Stop and Internet Lock buttons to block all Net traffic (if you fear you're under attack).

Expert users will like the granular controls for both the firewall and anti-virus modules, including the ability to block incoming and outgoing pings, thereby making your system more invisible to Internet intruders. The E-mail Protection module allows you to add or delete file extensions from the list of email attachments scanned.

Features

You might expect ZoneAlarm with Antivirus to get clobbered in a feature-to-feature bout with such anti-virus heavyweights as Norton AntiVirus 2004 and McAfee VirusScan 8.0, both of which cost much more. Surprisingly, however, ZoneAlarm holds its own. The main reason, of course, is the firewall/anti-virus combo. Neither McAfee VirusScan 8.0 nor Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2004 currently includes a firewall (although their pricier security suites do).

Still, ZoneAlarm with Antivirus isn't exactly packed with features. For instance, unlike most anti-virus programs, ZoneAlarm with Antivirus doesn't defend against instant-messenger (IM) spam, IM-executable URLs and other IM attacks. For that, you'll need Zone Labs' free IMsecure or paid-for IMsecure Pro. While Norton AntiVirus 2004 detects spyware running on your system, ZoneAlarm with Antivirus doesn't. On the plus side, like most anti-virus programs, ZoneAlarm with Antivirus will scan email attachments and quarantine suspicious files.

Rather than build its own anti-virus software, Zone Labs licensed Computer Associates' Vet Antivirus engine -- also used in eTrust EZ Antivirus, a program we previously found to offer speedy scanning but a mediocre interface. Zone Labs wisely pasted its very user-friendly ZoneAlarm interface over the Vet engine, and the results are positive. Unlike other anti-virus programs, however, ZoneAlarm won't allow you to pause virus scans to run a computational- or disk-intensive task; your only option is to cancel them and start again. We prefer the pause option, but that's our only major anti-virus nitpick.

Performance

Firewall results
We tested ZoneAlarm with Antivirus's firewall against Steve Gibson's ShieldsUp security checker, which reported that our test PC was very secure and wasn't exposing its NetBIOS networking protocol over the Internet. In addition, our computer didn't respond to ShieldsUp's port-connection attempts, an indication of strong firewall protection.

To test ZoneAlarm with Antivirus's firewall using ShieldsUp, we began with IP Agent, a free utility provided by ShieldsUp that determines the test machine's current IP address, then contacts the ShieldsUp Web site to begin testing. Next, the Port Probe utility from ShieldsUp tested our system's defence against Internet port scanners. The test originates from the ShieldsUp server and attempts to establish standard TCP/IP (Internet) connections on a handful of commonly exploited Internet service ports on the test computer. More information on these tests and what the results mean can be found at ShieldsUp.

Anti-virus results
In our tests, ZoneAlarm with Antivirus caused less of a drag on system performance than Norton AntiVirus 2004 but more than McAfee VirusScan 8.0. However, ZoneAlarm with Antivirus scanned our 1GB drive much slower than Norton and McAfee. Here are our test results:

ZoneAlarm with Antivirus: anti-virus test results
	Test system	ZoneAlarm with Antivirus	McAfee VirusScan 8.0	Norton AntiVirus 2004
SysMark2002 Internet-content-creation (ICC) score	233	221	234	223
Normalised score	100	100	95	96
Percentage degradation	n/a	7	0	4
Average boot time (s)	40.8	55.6	48.38	52.72
Scan 1GB directory; average scan time (m)	n/a	2.44	4.75	3.59

ZoneAlarm with Antivirus uses the Vet anti-virus engine from Computer Associates. To determine whether Vet effectively blocks viruses, we gauged its performance in tests conducted by independent anti-virus laboratories. In Virus Bulletin tests with live viruses, previous versions of Vet earned the coveted VB 100 percent rating in six of its six most recent Windows tests -- on a par with Norton AntiVirus, which also earned the title six out of its last six tests.

Setup & interface

With phone support available only in North America, you'll have to rely on Zone Labs' online offering. There's a Web-based knowledge base, where you can type a question in the Instant Support box, whereupon the automated system will suggest a solution. Although we found Instant Support easy to use, we'd prefer to interact with a human. On the plus side, the virtual chat tool did resolve a technical glitch we experienced with a pre-release version of ZoneAlarm with Antivirus. You'll also find a user forum and FAQs on Zone Labs' Web site.

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