rdmaloyjr,
Thanks for the suggestion.
I have read other places that ZoneAlarm was easy to use, but on the tests of firewalls it didn't come out as good as others.
The free version has weak anti-leak abilities, but the paid versions are respectable.
I am dubious about the accuracy of the tests because so many people on the forum use ZoneAlarm. You obviously must find it effective.
Not saying that ZA is bad, but Most people have no clue if something is effective or not. How could they? It's not like they would hire a hacker to try to crack their system... or they have the expertise to actually evaluate (and no, reading tests doesn't mean you have a clue either).
At best most people use security software that
1) Some guy they trust as a guru told them is not bad/ or they follow the crowd
2) When they install it, it doesn't crash their computer
The following the crowd tendency means that current "popular" security software is typically not too bad, but not nearly close to what you could do for protection if you actually did some research and testing...
Usually by the time some software becomes popular enough to filter into mainstream use, most of the "wired" people have moved away to something better...