Same story here. I first heard about it here on FR, maybe ZL should think about writing a check to JimRob. This story is nearly a advertisement.
I did upgrade to the 'Pro' version, seems like I paid $35. For me it was worth the money, I bounce my laptop through a bunch of domains, including work, home, hotel internet, etc. The Pro package totally eliminates all of the setup hassles. Plus, I had to disable the free version in the office, now the ZA Pro package just ignores the office.
Some on another thread enjoyed this link, Gibson Research. There's a lot of insight on why you need a firewall, online test to probe your firewall, and some interesting stories of online detective work from an oldtime internet pro.
BTW, if you have a cable modem or DSL and don't have a hardware or software firewall, you may as well let your computer have sex with Haitian males in a San Francisco bathhouse, while eating imported UK cow brains.
I have a broadband connection. I have Norton Antivirus and McAffee VirusScan running simultaneously on my PC. Both programs are set to automatically update once a week through a scheduler application.
I suspected I had a problem; the cable modem communication indicator was flashing constantly, even when I supposedly had no application accessing the internet. I was unsure if this was a problem because it had done this from the very first day my connection was activated. I also noticed an overall slowdown of my PC (easy enough to do on my old timey Pentium I). On the advice of fellow FReepers, I decided to try installing ZoneAlarm.
The minute I activated ZoneAlarm it sniffed out four trojans that neither AV application had been able to detect.
ZoneAlarm keeps a log file of unauthorized access attempts made on your system. The first day I used ZoneAlarm, the log file grew to half a Meg in size. My PC was being attacked big time, and I never knew it.
Since installing ZoneAlarm, the unauthorized access attempts gradually subsided after a month or so.
Many thanks to the original FReeper who gave me a clue; I am grateful. To those of you who don't have ZoneAlarm, my advice is:
c r a w l . . .
I cannot use the two together. It also seems to interfere with on-line banking sites that I connect to using Quicken. So I often zap Zone Alarm when I'm on the internet, because of the way it slows things down.