by Bobby Etheridge

Created on: September 19, 2009

Zonealarm Antivirus is a great piece of software that is easy to use (making it great for newbies) and super effective. Zonealarm has many features, one of which is being an effective firewall. A firewall limits what is allow into and out of the computer. While some beginning computer users are not familiar with the use of a firewall, its usefulness should be obvious: by limiting what files are allowed into and out of a computer, users protect themselves from malicious applications being installed without their knowledge (such as some websites that secretly install harmful programs on your computer through holes in internet browsers). It also protects files from being taken off of a computer, which can help protect you from hackers trying to steal your data.

Consider this: A new user visits a website and clicks a link. That link takes him to another site that has some malicious code that runs behind the scenes without his knowledge and puts a virus on his computer. The virus could be there for hours, days, or weeks before he even notices, at which point it may be too late to recover.

Compare that with another user who is running a firewall and antivirus program who clicks on that same link. But this user gets an alert that says "this website is trying to install a virus on your computer. Attempt blocked." He is safe and his computer is still protected.

Zonealarm Antivirus is also an antivirus program, as the name suggests. Even the most cautious computer users may get viruses from time to time, and a good antivirus program will be able to search for, identify, and remove all known viruses. A great antivirus program will often be able to intercept viruses before they are even installed on your computer. By constantly monitoring what is going on within the computer, it will notice if a virus is being installed and stop it (and display a message box informing the user that a virus tried to install itself but the attempt was blocked).

It also works as an anti-spyware program. Regardless of how safe you are, every computer user who uses the internet will get spyware on their computer, and it requires and anti-spyware program to remove it. Spyware can collect personal data, monitor your web-surfing habits, display targeted ads, or otherwise just be a pain. But Zonealarm will allow the user to remove any spyware that has been picked up while using the internet.

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