Depends what it is set to. If ou have everything set to high, then yeah, its gonna scream when anything internet-related occurs. I have it personalized and its as good as it gets... :ok:

It never blocked me on MSN or like. Just the first time a program is installed ZoneAlarm asks if that programm should be allowed to enter the net. After that ZoneAlarm remembers the answer and behaves accordingly to it every new time.

I've used ZA pro and free versions and neither of them have ever given me any problems. I did turn off the email scanning though - I found it a little bit aggressive!

It can definitly be an agressive program. I find that youve gotta set it up comletely right away. Set all the setting first off, or it will annoy you so much later on.

Installed KPF, and it seems to run smoothly. Does everything on the background and if you check the logs, it'll show you what it removed and what it blocked. MSN Homepage got quite some crap, it seems :D

I also run Kerio...it's a beuty!

Sygate must be a good firewall. I use zonealarm myself (works perfect), but some people like sygate more... Worth trying it. :ok:

Zonealarm gave me all sorts of problem when I used it.

Again, I'd like to know which kind of problems you might have run into when running ZA if you don't mind. Just out of curiosity.

I've seen a lot of machines where "disabling" Zone Alarm left rules in place, and uninstalling it left a machine with no network connectivity whatsoever. I've had to walk people through the manual uninstall instructions far too many times.