There are, it seems, a lot of companies producing spyware protection that engage in games and subterfuge to make you spend money. I don't think Zone Alarm is like that. There's never been a pop-up or suggestion that I buy more software, or upgrade to the Pro version, other than a small note on the information screen that says the option to do so is available. Also, it doesn't announce the number of intrusions or attempted intrusion caught. I have to go looking for the information.
Of course, it's not clear what they consider to be an intrusion - even some harmless stuff might be. However, it was noted that only about 175 or so of the recorded intrusions were to be "high risk." Shel > [Original Message] > From: graywolf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Date: 5/15/2006 12:42:58 PM > Subject: Re: Zone Alarm > > Interesting, my firewalls report no outside activity at all. > > I wonder if Zone Alarm is like Xsoftspy. I have been running it for > awhile and it consistantly finds a few spyware programs missed by > AdAware and SpyBot. Only when I installed it on my new laptop I noticed > that it found exactly the same spyware on the laptop that it had on the > desktop. Humm...? I thought about that for awhile and came to the > obvious conclusion, that the spyware it finds are installed by Xsoftspy > to make it look good. About every three database upgrade downloads it > finds another spyware program that none of the antispyware programs > noticed. I think the main difference is Xsoftspy is a program you have > to pay for while the others are freeware. Freeware has no reason to make > you shell out for an upgrade while Xsoftspy is always telling me that > there is a new version that I should download and, of course, pay for. > > Of course I do not live in the big city... But even when I did, I think > I have only been invaded by a total of maybe 20 viruses in my 40+ years > of computing --not counting stuff downloaded from the net, virus checked > positive, and deleted. And only three of them have gotten past my > anti-virus measures, if they really were undetectable viruses rather > than just windows famous instability. Those three did cause a lot of > hassles however, requiring a complete systems wipe to get rid of.
