Zone Alarm hogging CPU resources (1 Viewer)

[neileg]

I've been using Zone Alarm free version on my home PC with XP Home for a few years now. Over the last 6 months or so, the PC has become slower to boot up to the point where I would power up, go and make a coffee, read the newspaper, check the weather on the TV.... and then the PC would be ready to use.

This weekend hit the 'no joke' point. I had to wait about 30 minutes for a boot and then it took about 20 minutes per page to print a simple Word document. AVG, Spybot and Adaware reported no problems. Eventually (not sure why) I decided that Zone Alarm might be the problem and uninstalled it. Everthing is now back to how I would expect it, boot time and performance are no longer an issue.

Of course I'm now relying on the XP firewall which is what I wanted to avoid with Zone Alarm.

Anyone got any ideas or suggestions on how to proceed?

 

[Minkey]

Updates can cause problems like these here is a thread on ZoneAlarm''s forum, you might want to try the suggestions there. Full instructions on how to do a full and complete uninstall then you can try to reinstall it.

Or you could try Outpost been using it for years and never had any problems with it. I used to use ZoneAlarm until a new version was released and it bugged the hell out of me - can't remember what it was but switched to Outpost and never looked back

To be honest Windows firewall (if you have SP2 of course) providing you know what your doing can be sufficient but as you've alluded to I also would recommend a 3rd party one instead.

 

[Steve R.]

I don't know how your set-up with zone alarm, but we had an issue with Zone Alarm and uTorrent back in December 2008. The Zone Alarm program capfasem.exe went nuts. We took off uTorrent, which fixed the problem. See the discussion here.

 

[neileg]

Thanks for the comments. Relying on XP firewall currently. Outpost doesn't appear to be free like Zone Alarm, other than the 30 day trial. Currently working with crossed fingers!

 

[Minkey]

Outpost doesn't appear to be free like Zone Alarm, other than the 30 day trial. Currently working with crossed fingers!

Yes it is 100% free, it's the pro version that costs and has a 30day trail, they do try to get you to download the pro version but that link is direct to the free version If you don't want to sign up or to be sure it's the free version use these alternative links clicky, clicky.

 

[blanchard]

If you have bitttorrent apps like the previoyuss poster said that slows things down look for something called "DNA" in "Program Control" and then click "Programs"tab and set DNA to Kill on Trust Level, Access, Server and Email.

Then check the update options under "Anti-virus" "Advanced Options" Click on "Updates" & tick automatically update option anbd then select every 3 hours.
Then go down to Scan Options and tick the two options and select High. See how you get on.