# Did Zone Alarm go the way of Norton/McAfee? Good substitute for controlling outbound traffic?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-zone-alarm-go-the-way-of-norton-mcafee-good-substitute-for-controlling-outbound-traffic/743143>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 14, 2016, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-zone-alarm-go-the-way-of-norton-mcafee-good-substitute-for-controlling-outbound-traffic/743143 "2016-01-14T16:32:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-zone-alarm-go-the-way-of-norton-mcafee-good-substitute-for-controlling-outbound-traffic/743143/1 "2016-01-14T16:32:04Z")

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One feature of Zone Alarm I miss is its control over outbound traffic. A PITA as it learned my machine, it gave me a secure feeling knowing I had program-level control over what called home. Not only for potential mal- and spyware, but I don’t want programs I do trust calling home or checking for updates on their own.

Was that feeling of security an illusion? I uninstalled ZA years ago when I ran into some bloat and compatibility issues. Is it still that way?

If ZA isn’t the way to go, is there a good alternative? I can configure Windows firewall on a case-by-case basis, but I really miss ZA’s immediate notification whenever something new (intentionally installed or not) tried to call out.

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-zone-alarm-go-the-way-of-norton-mcafee-good-substitute-for-controlling-outbound-traffic/743143/2 "2016-01-14T16:52:42Z")

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Since the OP is looking for advice, let’s move this to IMHO.

Colibri  
General Questions Moderator

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**Author:** ![misling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ab097/32.png) [@misling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misling)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-zone-alarm-go-the-way-of-norton-mcafee-good-substitute-for-controlling-outbound-traffic/743143/3 "2016-01-14T21:09:59Z")

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I have heard some good things about this one:

> **[BiniSoft.org](https://www.binisoft.org/)**
>
> Windows Firewall Control is a powerful tool which extends the functionality of Windows Firewall by adding outbound notifications and many other features.

Windows firewall front end that lets you set outgoing rules up and notifies you about attempted connections.  
I do not know if it is the best one.