Warning about Zone Alarm

**begoodbebad** · March 17th, 2004, 01:57 AM

I found this thread on emule forums.

Basically Zone Alarm (vsmon.exe) leaks memory horribly when used on a machine running p2p application, in this case eMule ( I've experienced this myself when I've tried it). The user got in touch with Zone Labs tech support who offered this amazing reply:

Its NOT designed to run days on end. Sounds like your using your computer as a server of some sort and we do not support our software on servers or server pplications, like a web server.

Our software is designed for workstation use only and a workstation is shutdown and rebooted on a daily basis.
It was not designed for 15 days straight use at all.

Yeah that's right, they think we're all going to reboot every day! Like we're all running Win98 and have to reboot twice a day so it doesn't go into suspended animation followed by a long drawn out death....and to think that Zone Alarm used to be the one effective personal firewall out there....they are a long way behind the field now.

**PhR34x0r** · March 17th, 2004, 02:18 AM

hey, this is what people get if they think they "need" a firewall...

**The Hunter** · March 17th, 2004, 02:19 AM

Hence one of the reasons I use sygate instead.

**begoodbebad** · March 17th, 2004, 02:40 AM

Originally Posted by The Hunter

Hence one of the reasons I use sygate instead.

Me too.

It's bad enough that Zone Labs software has a bug but for them to blame the way the customer uses their PC amazes me. They claim in effect that they don't know that millions of people are running servers, many without even realising it, when they install and use p2p. And these are exactly the people it targets with its free firewall. Anyway one thing is cleared up.... it's the memory leak that's been making the terrible sucking noise you hear whenever you go near a Zone Alarm firewall.

**rainbowdemon** · March 17th, 2004, 04:06 AM

I'm on dail-up. And I only have one phone line. I reboot more than every day. I turn my comp completly off when I'm not using it. But still, McAfee is my chosen firewall.

**ducttapeBigSexy** · March 17th, 2004, 04:23 AM

Mneah - if you want an OS that runs all the time, use Linux. Plus the fact that it has a built in firewall only makes it sweeter :)

**shawners** · March 17th, 2004, 04:43 AM

Its crazy. as many good people their are on the net putting great things on here to download, cracks, hacks, seriels.. zip programs, exe.. and folders of music.. Their are bad ones that want to come in and destroy it =(

**hawkburn** · March 17th, 2004, 06:05 AM

I think they should have to tell people that it's not designed to do that. Hell, with all the newbs using Kazaa all the time, leaving it on in the background when theyre gone, and never restarting, you'd think they'd try to support stuff..

Anyway.. I switched from ZoneAlarm along time ago.. use Outpost 2.1 now :D

**Sk8er Boi** · March 17th, 2004, 06:05 AM

I used to use Sygate, until I ran SheildsUp! and found that I wasn' totally being protected so thats when I switched to ZoneAlarm. However, I do find it annoying that I have to unload the service just to run Overnet though. But, what can I do.

**matrix2003** · March 17th, 2004, 07:33 AM

If you are not happy with ZoneAlarm... buy a firewall ffs i use Norton, and also its good for your computer to be rebooted atleast every 3 days.

**nasrules** · March 17th, 2004, 09:28 AM

I haven't had this problem and I've been using ZoneLabs software for years.

I don't leave my PC on all the time - I turn it off when I'm at school or overnight if I've not got anything big downloading.

EDIT: I just remembered about this 'leak'. I recently left my PC on for nine days straight to see if I did have any such problems, and none occured.

SanDiegoKid · March 17th, 2004, 10:08 AM

I've been a Zone Alarm pro user for a while now, and used to use Norton Internet Security. I guess I'm happy with the performance of both, but Zone Alarm seems to use fewer system resources on my XP Pro box (checking using the task manager). My machine runs for days on end usually with no noticeable slowdown. I'm going to start monitoring closer to see if there is anything to the leak though. I've been meaning to try Sygate just to get experience with it... maybe now's the time.

**begoodbebad** · March 21st, 2004, 03:00 AM

mmm humble pie, another portion for me please.....

it's still true that sucky ZA leaks memory but I just started having exactly this problem with my favoured Sygate Personal Firewall Pro 5.0 (5.5 crashes ...only itself,not the OS... check these user reviews )I used Sygate for a long time but on fairly powerful PCs where you wouldn't even notice a little extra load. Now I aquired a PII 350 Mhz with 192MB RAM (this PC is for p2p only) and installed Sygate....it leaks and sucks just the same as ZA. Initially it uses 7 - 15 % of CPU, after 2 days it is over 25 and after 3 days it is between 35 and 45. On a low end system this is a real killer and requires a reboot...not what you want to be doing with eMule as your p2p client. BTW this is on a cleanly installed fully updated XP Pro OS with all the crap stripped out of it(XPLite).

So now I am trying the dreaded Norton...I heard so much bad about their products (particularly systemworks 2002) but I've been using Sytemworks Pro 2003 and pcAnywhere and they are excellent and trouble free. I installed Norton Internet Security Pro 2004 on my underpowered PII, worrying quite a lot about the vast amount of resources this "corporate bloatware" might want to steal from the mule.....and after running it overnight it barely registers any load on the CPU or Memory....Apart from pcAnywhere which is greedy when active, the Symantec/Norton applications use less system resources than Explorer! Total CPU usage is averaging about 30%, maybe less, this while eMule is busy with an average of 164 connections via my NIC connected cable modem.
So right now the Norton package seems far better than Sygate and ZA. Also it is much much better at handling Internet Connection Sharing. If it leaks and turns out to be a resource hog after 3 days I'll post again but it looks very promising.

**begoodbebad** · March 23rd, 2004, 01:31 PM

After 3 days and half an hour of constant filesharing on eMule all my Norton utilities are still using minimal resources..about the same as Task Manager and my XP Uptime utility combined. At this point ZA or Sygate would have been hogging 40% of CPU and forced a reboot. I'm not going to reboot until I have to or the power fails. Whats the record uptime for XP?

**MP3Pr0** · March 23rd, 2004, 01:51 PM

I've tried just about every firewall app out there and definetely recommend Agnatum Outpost. Stay away from "Armor2Net" as it rendered my network configuration useless even after uninstalling it!