[ACA529]

I installed ZoneAlarm Pro but it said that I couldn't install it without first uninstalling F-Secure anti virus. I uninstalled F-Secure thinking ZoneAlarm Pro would come with an anti virus but it does not.

Would it be safe to use F-Secure anti virus and ZoneAlarm Pro at the same time?

Thanks.

[NeonFx]

I found this through google:

http://www.computergripes.com/fsecureav2007.html

Incompatible With ZoneAlarm And More

December 30, 2006. F-Secure anti-virus is not compatible with the free ZoneAlarm firewall.
It is to be expected that any anti-virus program not be compatible with another anti-virus product. Likewise, any Internet protection suite should balk at install time if another such suite is present. But in this case, there is an incompatibility between an anti-virus program and a firewall. ZoneAlarm sells many versions of their "suite", but this gripe has to do just with their free firewall.
To be clear, the gripe is against F-Secure, not against ZoneAlarm.
Even worse than this seemingly useless incompatibility is that you are not told this until it's too late to do anything about it. Many people use the free ZoneAlarm firewall. You'd think that somewhere along the line F-Secure would note that their anti-virus is incompatible, especially because this is not to be expected. But they don't.
And this was not true of the 2006 version of F-Secure anti-virus.
I contacted tech support at F-Secure twice and they replied:

With regards to your enquiry, we would like to inform you F-Secure is not compatible with Zone Alarm. We would suggest you to use the Windows Firewall as the firewall protection.
TK With regards to your enquiry, you cannot install Zone Alarm because if you do it will conflict with FSecure and might crash your system. However you can activate the Windows firewall, its most compatible with FSecure.
Adrian

I also had a surprise with the 2006 edition of their anti-virus program: it did not play well in the sandbox next to Spy Sweeper from Webroot. Again, there was no up-front warning about any of this.
When you first install F-Secure antivirus 2007, it has to check for the latest virus definitions. Fine. All anti-virus programs do this. However, the product does not tell you this is happening. Even if you try to manually run an Update, it is not smart enough to say that an update is already underway.
All told, the out-of-box experience for F-Secure 2007 could not be more confusing. And this with someone (me) who has used many AV programs and from a mature product.
F-Secure seems to treat the anti-virus programs as a minor sideline. There is online documentation for the suite, but not for the anti-virus program.
Since F-Secure has shown themselves to be incapable of documenting their product requirements, I will never use their software. Fool me twice . . .

[Blackmirror]

Za and AVG 8 free work like a dream

[NeonFx]

Did you pay for both F-Secure and ZoneAlarm Pro? if you did, think about asking for a refund from ZA and using a different firewall since F-Secure is expensive.

[Blackmirror]

I am thinking they took up the1 year year free license offer

[NeonFx]

Oh? where'd you hear about that?

[Blackmirror]

You missed it was yesterday

[NeonFx]

Bah, you're no fun BM. It's me neon from TST

[ACA529]

Originally Posted by neonfx

Did you pay for both F-Secure and ZoneAlarm Pro? if you did, think about asking for a refund from ZA and using a different firewall since F-Secure is expensive.

I used the "15th Anniversary Free Product Download" to download ZoneAlarm Pro: http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/sum/index.html

I do not have to pay for F-Secure because it comes for free with my ISP but it's called "Shaw Secure". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-Secure#Shaw_Secure

[ACA529]

Originally Posted by neonfx

I found this through google:

http://www.computergripes.com/fsecureav2007.html

Thanks for the link. I guess I will use AVG Free for anti virus protection now.

[NeonFx]

Cool