[Ham-Computers] Zone-Alarm Security Suite, a REAL CPU hog (a long read)

Wed Aug 9 15:57:10 EDT 2006

Thank you for the 'heads up' alert Phil. User observations are always 
helpful. Sometimes to the manufacturer, provided they listen and act upon 
correct reports or use correct improvement suggestions. Always to users who 
generally appreciate others using the same software that they are reporting 
unusual experiences.

I wonder on Zone Alarm, might it be doing some operations by default that 
replicate the same function being done by other software programs; such as 
the firewall, anti-virus software etc.? If so, turning those operations off 
should cause the computer to run faster since it has less to do.

Frankly, from what the guys who know tell me, with the external router and 
anti-virus software, you really do not need an internal software firewall, 
Zone Alarm etc. You cause yourself issues by doing the same thing twice and 
at the same time. That is, the router eliminates the need for a software 
firewall. You do not need two programs, or devices, checking mail for 
viruses, one is adequate. No offense, but I think you were in an overkill 
condition.

The router and the anti-virus software should be adequate. Seems like you 
could, perhaps should, shutdown the internal firewall too. Maybe those with 
real wisdom on such things can advise if they are necessary when an external 
router is operating?

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Philip, KO6BB" <Beaconeer at SBCGlobal.net>
To: "Computers Ham" <ham-computers at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2006 12:05 PM
Subject: [Ham-Computers] Zone-Alarm Security Suite,a REAL CPU hog (a long 
read)

> Hi All,
>
> To refresh, LATE last fall I got this new whiz bang machine (3.4GHz P4) 
> with "oodles" of RAM etc.  Shortly after buying it I also bought the 
> Zone-Alarm Security Suite (full blown with Anti-Virus, Anti-Pop-Ups, 
> Firewall, Anti-Everything) and used it in place of the "eTrust 71" Virus 
> Scanner that came with the machine.  After installing Zone Alarm I noticed 
> that things like Email, opening web pages etc. slowed down a "little", but 
> since I expected that I didn't think much about it.  While it's the 
> fastest thing I've ever used, the machine just didn't seem to be anywhere 
> as fast as I'd have expected, like it REALLY had a heavier workload than I 
> was giving it.
>
> THEN, last month I tried to set the machine up for RAID operation, during 
> the process I LOST my restoration Partition and had to do a complete 
> Windows XP-Pro and software  load directly from the OEM XP disks, Creative 
> Sound drivers disk etc., losing whatever exact configuration "SystemMax" 
> (the computers manufacturer) had on the machine.  Surprisingly enough, the 
> machine ran significantly faster and smoother after this reload.  This 
> indicated to me that "something" in the SystemMax software load was 
> slowing things down.  Of course, at that time I also reloaded my 
> Zone-Alarm Security Suite.
>
> Well, last week I totally removed the Zone Alarm Suite and reverted to the 
> eTrust AntiVirus and the "regular" Windows firewall (I also have a router 
> with a "real Firewall" installed).  In my case at least the Windows 
> Firewall along with eTrust seems to be sufficient as Zone Alarm never saw 
> any attacks that got through the router anyway!
>
> I do a LOT of audio work with this machine, Downloading "OTR" (Old Time 
> Radio Broadcasts) from the Internet, cleaning them up or editing the 
> "serials" into complete shows etc. Most of these actions would be 
> "Blasphemous" to a hard-core OTR collector, but I prefer listening to 
> merely "collecting".  I use "Audacity", a VERY GOOD Open Source Audio 
> program for the actual audio work, then save ALL the files in the MP3 
> format at a 64K rate so that there is minimal degradation of what is often 
> already a poor sounding program.  IT ALWAYS TOOK 12-15 MINUTES FOR 
> "AUDACITY" TO CONVERT AND SAVE a 1 Hour long Audacity project into the MP3 
> Format, WITH ALL THE COMPUTER FANS RUNNING AT FULL SPEED. This indicates 
> to me that the machine had a very heavy workload.  The processes window 
> showed that the Dual Threading Processor was running about 50% load during 
> these conversions!
>
> NATURALLY,  everything else runs faster on the machine too (Email, Web 
> Browsing, Open Office etc.), but on those programs the difference is MUCH 
> less graphic!
>
> NOW, Audacity consistently takes 1 minute and 15 seconds to do the SAME 
> MP3 conversion of a one hour long program (about a 28.8MB MP3 file), with 
> NO fans grinding way!  THAT IS A 9.6 TO 12 TIMES INCREASE IN THROUGH-PUT, 
> SIMPLY BY REMOVING ZONE-ALARM!   Just to be absolutely certain that Zone 
> Alarm was the culprit, I reloaded it for a "trial run", and sure enough 
> the machine was back to it's old slow self in doing the Audio Conversion. 
> I quickly removed it again and cleaned the registry!
>
> Now this machine is everything I expected it to be, AND MORE!  Call me a 
> "Happy Camper" 8^)
>
> 73 de Phil,  KO6BB
> DX begins at the noise floor!
>
> THE BEACONEER'S LAIR:   http://www.geocities.com/ko6bb/
> MY RADIO-LOGS:       http://www.geocities.com/ko6bb/Logs/
> QSL GALLERY: http://photobucket.com/albums/f306/KO6BB/
> Merced, Central California,    37.3N  120.48W  CM97sh
>
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