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

[Loren Moline WA7SKT]

Phil and Duane,

I run Zone Alarm here but the fre version and have for some time. It may be 
slowing some things down but any firewall program integrated with anti-virus 
programs will slow you down to the degree you configure it to run certain 
parts.

The version I have will warn of intrusion and warn when something tries to 
change home page or if favorites are changed but I don't have it looking at 
any e-mails or running the antivirus program in the background loking at 
every move I make to slow me down.

I just do a virus scan of boot sector on startup but only scan files for 
viruses once a day.

I have never been one to want any unnecessary programs running in background 
so make most programs start manually if I need them.

Thanks to both of you for the info,.

Loren


>From: "Duane Fischer, W8DBF" <dfischer at usol.com>
>Reply-To: "Computers (or other) used for amateur radio, communications,  or 
>experimenting" <ham-computers at mailman.qth.net>
>To: "Computers (or other) used for amateur radio, communications,  or 
>experimenting" <ham-computers at mailman.qth.net>
>Subject: Re: [Ham-Computers] Zone-Alarm Security Suite,a REAL CPU hog (a 
>long read)
>Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2006 15:57:10 -0400
>
>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!
>>