IMO, Zone Alarm is not a bad beginning firewall. It is very easy to set up, and is very user friendly. As far as it being a joke, a little fact would be nice before that general statement is made. Just saying it is a joke is not very informative.
BlackIce on the other hand is
NOT a firewall. BlackIce is an intrusion detection software. Meaning it will monitor any and all traffic coming into your computer, but it will not monitor any outbound traffic. Therefore it is not a good solution to a firewall.
ZoneAlarm monitors both inbound and outbound traffic. The reason you want outbound traffic monitored is for the protection against trojan horses and such.
Hope some of that info is helpful.
Also, a good site to help you with Kerio, which is a good firewall.
http://www.dslextreme.com/users/surferslim/tpf.html
Last edited by Beta Spanky at Oct 7 2002, 09:50 AM