I currently use Sygate as my personal firewall. It is an older version that I downloaded earlier this year. I want to update the software and I have downloaded both the new Sygate and Zonealarm Firewalls.
Which would Doper’s recommend as being the better option? I have heard that Zonealarm has caused minor problems in the past. The software will be installed on a Dell with Windows 2000 Professional.
Thanks in advance
I’ve been using ZA for nearly 4 years now and have never had a single problem. I’m very pleased with the free version’s performance on Win98 and XP.
Unfortunately, I know nothing about Sygate so I can not give you a comparison.
Interesting matter. Personally I have used the free Zone Alarm for quite a long time now, and indeed I suspect it to be reason of certain crashes and other mishaps. However there have been no major problems and overall it seems to work very well. On the other hand, certain knowledgeable people I know always advocate for Tiny Personal Firewall, which appears to be a solid program, but I haven’t tried it nor Sygate, being too lazy to change probably.
I tried Sygate and while I imagine it protected adequately, it somehow slowed other things down at times. It got annoying quickly. I now use Zonealarm and while I suspect it occasionally does a little of the same, I don’t have nearly the frustation I did with Sygate.
I’ve been a loyal ZoneAlarm user for a few years, but based on this thread, I downloaded Sygate. I’ll let you know in a few days, but preliminary results of testing put ZoneAlarm slightly ahead. Could be my bias, of course, but I’ll try to analyze each equally.
I suggest Kerio Personal Firewall ( www.kerio.com) or Outpost Firewall (www.agnitum.com). Both are completely free for personal use and far more robust and powerful than ZoneAlarm. Outpost is more user friendly and has more features while Kerio is more configurable and powerful (and also takes up a miniscule amount of resources). Kerio is in fact the best firewall I have ever used, and that includes commercial pay software. Comparing it to ZoneAlarm is like comparing WindowsME to Windows 2000 in terms of effeciency, stability and pleasantness.
Sygate is better than ZoneAlarm, but nowhere near as good as Kerio or Outpost.
Look forward to your analysis Q.E.D
Headcoat: May be I’ll have a play with Kerio as well.
I need one of these firewalls for home. Although I’m not on the net that much at home, the wife is and I just want something that will catch the odd nasty. I already have pop-up stoppers and spybot and regseeker to catch those that get through.
Thanks again
Oh swell. More firewalls for me to test. 
Allow me a slight hijack:
I just got a cable modem. After I lock ZoneAlarm on the way out the door, I’m often unable to reconnect to the internet (check email, webpages, etc) if it’s been more than a few hours before unlocking.
Is this a normal feature of WinXP (none of the ISP software is installed), and is there any way to reconnect without rebooting?
I’ve used and currently use both the free ZoneAlarm and the free Sygate. I use ZoneAlarm on my personal computer at home because it is simple and gets the job done. I have Sygate installed on my work/home laptop and on the multiple always-on semi-public computers I administer at work. I prefer Sygate in that scenario because 1) it has much more detailed configuration options, giving me more control over the ports/protocols etc. and 2) it is password-protectable, important when people who don’t know what they’re doing think that they do and want to change things to suit themselves. Both of these may be available for pay versions of ZoneAlarm, but I’m not interested in paying. 
If you already use Sygate, I’d say stick with it. I’ve never had any problems with either. Advice for those just starting off on their road towards firewall protection: try ZoneAlarm first. #1 above re: Sygate was a bit off-putting at first - it took me a couple days before I got everything locked down the way I wanted. Now it just runs in the background all day without any internet connection problems, slowdowns, crashes, etc.