Zonealarm Pro with Norton Antivirus

There's no need at all to give server's permissions to Norton antivirus ,if you deny it I think nothing will be affected ,and I personally recommend running a security suite that contains Firewall and Antivirus software instead of running two softwares especially when from a different vendor.

I disagree with this recommendation. While it would be convenient for the user (and malware) to have everything included in one security suite, and from one vendor, I think it poses more of a security risk than normal. If something happens to, exploits, or disables the security suite, then you've lost ALL protection (that it provided). With different applications for each specific security task you only lose the one protection it provides if something happens to it, not all your protection(s). There're usually very few problems running different applications from different vendors, as long as the same type of programs aren't being run concurrently. And many are designed to work together with other vendor's programs (or at least to cause no problems). Of course, there are always exceptions depending upon the specific applications, vendors, Operating Systems and software/hardware combinations installed. Or user error.... :o)

Most of the "suites" are a steaming pile of dung compared to running specialized individual programs for fw and av. So I too would disagree with this advice..

I have tried NIS, the ZA Suite and the new AVG + Firewall Suite. In general, Norton was extremely invasive making hundreds of registry entries and putting files everywhere. They all tend to use extraordinary amounts of ram. And the new AVG Suite didn't even block incoming traffic.

The new ZA 6 Suite uses upwards of 50 mb ram. ZA Pro used to use 13-

17mb in 5.5 and prior versions. 50 is insane. Some people have plenty of ram and don't care, but why use a product that is so wasteful of resources? Not good sense. I can name several good software firewalls that do as good or better job and only use 3-5mb ram.

The suites are just trying to do too much and be jack of all trades, and as a result they are masters of nothing. I much prefer separate firewall and av products, each specializing in what it does best and not trying to do too much of everything in a mediocre fashion.

Just my opinion also, of course..

Well I was giving my personal advice ,and why you don't give specific examples about those suites you used and the problems you faced?

Kerodo wrote: > The new ZA 6 Suite uses upwards of 50 mb ram. ZA Pro used to use 13-

What firewall would you recommend other thn ZA Pro? I use version 5.5 at the moment and it's fine.

I think ZA Pro is fine. It's the suite that uses tons of ram. If you are looking for a firewall that uses little ram, there is Kerio 2.1.5 which uses about 5mb, LookNStop 2.05p2 which uses under 5mb, and also CHX-I packet filter which uses about 3 or 4mb.

I don't mind using 20mb or less myself, but when you run a suite and it uses 50-60mb then I think that's getting a little crazy.

Right now I am using a beta of LookNStop 2.05p3 which uses about 3mb ram, and Avast AV (free) which is using a total of about 16mb. Together they do a good job, and the total ram use is under 20mb for both combined. Not bad.

But if you're happy with ZAP then stick with it.

Not only that ZA6 will use gigabytes of swap. It's crap.