Installing and configuring a free firewall software

I’ll tell you about installing and configuring the leading independent free firewall product, ZoneAlarm, which is available from www.zonelabs.com. Zone Labs has had a free firewall version of their product — which is very good — available for several years. Follow these steps to install and configure this product:

Download the free firewall (Free ZonAlarm Firewall) setup file from www.zonelabs.com. and save it on your hard drive.
Run the download file, which will have the extention name .exe.
Answer some installation questions. You’re asked a few questions typical of small program installation (location of program files, whether you accept the licensing terms, and so on). Defaults are usually fine.
Answer some marketing questions. ZoneAlarm asks you a few questions about how many computers you have and the speed of your Internet connection. None of these questions has any bearing on ZoneAlarm’s configuration.
Take the tour. ZoneAlarm takes you on a little tour. If you haven’t used ZoneAlarm, I suggest you take the time to watch the tour, as it will give you useful information about how to set up and use ZoneAlarm.



Now that ZoneAlarm is installed, there are a few configuration settings to make. Follow these steps:

Double-click the ZoneAlarm icon in the system tray. The ZoneAlarm Control Center opens, in which you can make configuration changes.

Click the Overview link; then click the Preferences tab.

In the Check for Updates panel, make sure that the Automatically option is selected.

Click the Check for Update button. Doing so ensures that your ZoneAlarm program can communicate to the Zone Labs update server. If this fails, something is probably wrong with your Internet connection. Time to troubleshoot. First thing: Remove ZoneAlarm. Install it again and see if things are okay. Check its configuration.

In the General panel, ensure that the Load ZoneAlarm at Startup check box and the Protect the ZoneAlarm Client check box are both selected. The Protect the ZoneAlarm Client setting protects the ZoneAlarm program from Trojan horse programs that may try to disable ZoneAlarm.

In the Contact with Zone Labs panel, select the check boxes that read Alert me with a pop-up before I make contact and Hide the last octet of my IP address when applicable.

Click the Firewall link; then click the Main tab.

Ensure that the Internet Zone Security level is set to High and that the Trusted Zone Security level is set to Medium.

Setting the Internet Zone Security level to High provides maximum protection against hostile threats on the Internet. The Trusted Zone Security level can usually be lower, because this means your computer is protected from other computers in the local network.

Click the Program Control link; then click the Main tab.

Set the Program Control Security level to Medium. At the Medium level, the first time a program needs to access your local network or the Internet, ZoneAlarm asks you if that program should be allowed to connect. For each program that you use, you will only have to answer this question once, provided you check the Remember This Answer check box. The Automatic Lock option can be set to Off or On.

Automatic Lock protects your computer if you stop using it for an extended period of time. You can configure Automatic Lock to activate after a certain period of inactivity, or even when your screen saver is activated.

The Programs tab of the Program Control window displays a list of all the programs that ZoneAlarm is keeping track of, along with information about which programs are permitted to communicate over the Internet and which are not. The configuration settings for each program are changed in this window.

Click the Alerts & Logs link; then click the Main tab.

In the Alarm Events Shown panel, select the On option to show all alerts.

The Log Viewer tab displays a list of blocked and permitted events. This log can be used to help troubleshoot a communications issue, and it’s also gratifying to see all of the attacks that the firewall is blocking.

Click the E-mail Protection link and ensure that the On option is selected in the Basic MailSafe Settings panel.


Basic MailSafe blocks VBS (Visual Basic Script) attachments in incoming e-mail messages. Frequently, VBS attachments are included in Trojan horse messages that attempt to harm your computer. Basic MailSafe is not configurable in the free version of ZoneAlarm; there are several settings available in Zone Alarm Pro.