24June2010
Greetings.
This month I switched from ZoneAlarm (ZA) Free (after 10 years with ZA) to CFP (Firewall only).
I use Avira Free antivirus after dumping the slow, resource hog AVG Free last year.
I have three XP laptops: a P4 & a Celeron (both with 1gb RAM) and
my dinosaur laptop from 1998 (with neither A/V nor Firewall [except XP’s] - but almost never online either).
ZA protects the ZA GUI and the Firewall (FW) process.
ZA has two processes zlclient.exe (gui) and vsmon.exe (FW).
I could not terminate nor change the priority of vsmon.exe (neither manually nor with a script).
I could not interact with the ZA gui through a script.
I could only close vsmon manually through the ZA gui.
ZA managed to protect the GUI 99.99% from interacting with scripts.
I found a way to manage the ZA popups with a script
but could only superficially interact with the main gui through a script.
The first time I booted laptop “G” (with the Celeron) after installing CFP - CFP did not load a tray icon.
Launching the CFP StartMenu icon loaded the GUI but still not the tray icon.
I did/do not see a way to close the CFP process through the GUI.
I went to the XP task manager and killed the CFP process - much to my surprise.
CIS seems to have no CFP process protection.
The CFP FW popups are completely unprotected from script interaction.
It was VERY easy to write scripts to manage the CFP popups.
CFP seems like a good firewall and has good reviews but seems to lack crucial process and gui protection.
I have other minor issues to post later.
Thank you.
Regards,
AEN
Æ