Topics Covered:

• Prevents ThiefWare From Connecting to Home Servers: (introduction below).
• More About ZoneAlarm Pro: Protects against hackers and obnoxious viruses. Read....
• My Experience: A personal experience on a dial-up connection. Read....
• BroadBand Connections: Broadband makes your computer an even higher priority target with malicious hackers. Read....

Prevents ThiefWare From
Connecting to Home Servers:
ZoneAlarm Pro™ from ZoneLabs^® stops ThiefWare from accessing the net each time you are connected. In fact it will stop any program that you have from accessing the net unless you give it permission to do so. Turning the connection permissions off stops TopText, Gator, 180Solutions, or any other ThiefWare adware program from talking with home servers. Works for any other Spyware tool that might somehow get installed onto your computer system too!

When a program can't connect to the Internet, the ad company can't track your surfing habits like Big Brother or deliver the latest ad information to you. ZoneAlarm is the enemy to the ThiefWare Ad companies and a useful ally to the rest of us. ThiefWare like TopText may still underline certain words within a Web page (provided it had a chance to talk with the home server), but the ad links will become outdated because the ad information logged previously before ZoneAlarm was installed could have expired. This is one of the many good reasons to encourage all users to install ZoneAlarm.

When I want TopText to connect (for purposes of tracking contextual ads), I set ZoneAlarm to ask for permission first so that I know when TopText tries to talk to the server. Access can be granted or denied the moment such software attempts to talk with outside servers. That's the part I like — control over my computer.

More About ZoneAlarm Pro:
ZoneAlarm Pro receives many accolades. PC World magazine gives ZoneAlarm Pro the highest test review as the best firewall anywhere.

ZoneAlarm Pro is one of those programs that is a must have for anyone who wants protection from outside menaces (hackers & crackers [very dangerous hackers]) and protection from your own applications that reside on YOUR computer - yes, you heard right, your own applications. Applications, new and new version releases, even from highly respected companies like Adobe are resorting to limited spying (not the dangerous kind of spying but for hunting down illegal software copies) on your computers.

It stops computer activities that happen without your knowledge. There is no better application that gives you more control, an easy-to-use interface, and top-notch complete protection than ZoneAlarm Pro.

What ZoneAlarm Pro does for you:

1. Stops hackers and lets you know about it.
2. Provides reports, logs, and other data about unauthorized attempts.
3. You decide when your applications talk to the net - not the other way around.
4. Set up special privileges to servers for FTP, and other server operations - with ZoneAlarm Pro.
5. MailSafe protects you from e-mail viruses (ZoneAlarm Pro).
6. ...And more control features that are unique to
   ZoneAlarm Pro.

I would not trust the protection of my computers to any other software based Firewalls which includes the WindowsXP Firewall. Even if you have another firewall program, you still would not have the degree of protection that ZoneAlarm Pro offers.

Am I vouching for ZoneAlarm Pro? That's a definite yes.

ZoneAlarm Pro — Tested as the most effective — Passed all tests when other firewalls failed — extremely reliable — uses very little computer resources.

My Experience:
When ZoneAlarm first came out, I thought I'd download it to see what it did. There was a small crowd of people raving about it. I had to see what the noise was about. I never before worried about having a firewall on my own personal computer being that it was hooked up to a dial-up account. I reasoned that my computer didn't have a dedicated connection so I was protected.

Before installing ZoneAlarm, I ran my computer through a computer ports tester. It reported that my computer had some protection - my ISP had some security measures in place.

I installed ZoneAlarm, ran it, and tested it once more with the ports tester. This time the ports tester reported that my security was top-notch and that my computer was invisible to hackers (stealth mode). The ports tester was from another 3rd party program not created by ZoneLabs (ZoneLabs is the company that provides ZoneAlarm Pro).

ZoneAlarm in the Real World:
It was time to take it to the real world. Over the next few weeks I surfed the net with ZoneAlarm running at all times. Some days I would not notice much of anything, but then there were those other days. I remember several times while surfing the net that ZoneAlarm would display 15 or more warning messages in a short time period alarming me of possible attempts by outside parties trying to get at my computer. BTW, in ZoneAlarm Pro, the messages feature can be turned off and ZoneAlarm will quietly go about protecting your computer.

I was on a dial-up account and this was happening! This should only be the problem of dedicated servers on dedicated connections right? You might think that, but that's not true.

I was able to report a hacker to my ISP by sending them a report on the monitoring through ZA Pro. The person was hitting my computer every 30 seconds or so for about an hour. I logged over 120 attempts at probing my computer. By using the reports I was able to determine the IP address, time and port scan number, call my ISP (it was another dialup user with my ISP that was doing the probing) and my ISP took care of the hacker customer.

Stealth Mode:
Since my computer had ZoneAlarm installed, my computer was in stealth-mode and the hackers would not be able to determine if there was another computer on the end of the dial-up or not. This in itself is a protection besides having the ZoneAlarm firewall in place.

Hackers Probe ISP Dial-ups:
I quickly learned that hackers often times probe all the IP numbers of ISP's and their dial-up accounts looking for an open computer. Once found, they worm their way in and are then able to do whatever they want to do like look for credit card numbers, passwords, or even use your computer for conducting Denial of Service (DoS) attacks on other net servers.

No Firewall?
If you surf the net without a firewall, either you have been one fortunate individual or you don't know who's been visiting YOU through your computer.

DSL or Cable?
Do you have DSL or a cable modem connection? You are at a much higher risk because your computer is always connected to the net. Hackers especially like to target people with high speed connections because they are more useful in DoS attacks. Those broadband connections can shoot more bogus packets at target servers more easily creating a DoS situation for the owners of those servers. If you want peace of mind, do yourself a favor and get ZoneAlarm Pro.

People with high-speed connections should have a second layer of defense in place. Use a router that has a built-in firewall and ensure that remote access to your router has been disabled. Having remote access enabled makes it easier for a hacker to gain access to your computer. If you do not know how to access the settings, consult your router's manual or call the company that builds your router and ask them for assistance in this area. If your router does not provide a hardware firewall, you will need to locate a router that does include the firewall or find a separate hardware firewall to ensure better protection for yourself when using high-speed DSL, Cable, Wireless, or Satellite connections.

Another practice you should get into the habit of doing (if you are using a broadband connection) is to turn off your LAN connection on your computer when you do not need access to the Internet for Surfing the Web or sending e-mail. Sometimes you simply use your computer to run your local applications which for the most part do not require access to the rest of the net. When you want to access the net, you then activate your LAN connection. The less time your computer is connected, the less of a chance your computer has to endure possible hacking attempts.