Zonealarm

[empip]

Expected, due to the known M$ end of support. - But expected some warning !
Platoons of e-mails from ZoneLabs trying to flog stuff over the years .. But no warnings.

Had a pop-up for latest update to ZAP v. 6.5nnn ... At the download site found the following message :-

Support Discontinued
On July 11, 2006, Microsoft will end support for Windows 98, 98SE and Me, which will have the resulting effect of making these operating systems less secure (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/support/endofsupport.mspx). Windows 98/Me are older operating systems, and are therefore inherently more vulnerable to attacks than newer operating systems. Now that Microsoft will no longer provide security updates to these operating systems any PC running them will become increasingly prone to security vulnerabilities.

Accordingly, Zone Labs will cease to support Windows 98/98SE/Me with the introduction of our version 6.5 ZoneAlarm family of products including ZoneAlarm® Internet Security Suite, ZoneAlarm® Pro, ZoneAlarm® Antivirus, ZoneAlarm® Anti-Spyware, and ZoneAlarm®.
Note about pre-6.5 products:
Pre-6.5 products will continue to run on the Windows 98/98SE/Me operating system. However, there are a few new and advanced protection features in ZoneAlarm products that will not run due to technical limitations of this operating system. Zone Labs strongly recommends upgrading to a supported and current version of the Windows operating system.
Zone Labs may end services to pre-6.5 products at any time.
There are no plans to discontinue support for any other Microsoft operating systems. This announcement applies to consumer products only and does not affect enterprise products.

I guess most firewall suppliers will go the same route...
Oh well, fast forward the XP upgrade.

 

[oilman]

.............
Oh well, fast forward the XP upgrade.

The replacement has been available for some time, Mac OS X (currently about 10.4.6) Why would ANYONE want Windoze?

 

[solo]

Sorry to dredge up an old post, but I've just spotted this one. I'm still running Windows ME and I use ZoneAlarm. It's a perfectly good PC that is only used for internet access and word processing. Am I going to have to get rid and buy a shiny new PC. Even if I wanted a new PC, I'd hope to pass this one onto the kids, but it looks as if that isn't a option. Just my luck....I'll upgrade and they'll bring another new OS in. Could I put XP onto my existing machine or is that not possible?

 

[JohnD]

Provided your old PC is not too old and frail you can put XP on it. I went from ME to XP and now agree with the people who say ME is a pile of pants.

Or you could carry on running your old m/c on ME with the existing version of Zonealarm, taking regular backups, and quite likely nothing will go wrong.

Or you could buy or assemble a new PC. You can get quite a fair barebones for £150 and transfer the disks, monitor and mouse from your old one. I did that and got the OEM version of XP to go with it at modest extra cost.

 

[solo]

Thanks for the reply. Existing PC is about 5 years old. I only need it for the net and MS Works, but the kids are getting a bit older now and are wanting to do stuff that is beyond the machines capabilities. I think I'll explore the bare bones option. Cheers

 

[eggplant]

Depends really on the spec of the pc and compatibilty. XP will probably go on, but its how it will run. If going for a new one, I'd also recocmend putting it together yourself, might not be as cheap but you will know whats in it and can choose parts that meet your requirements - chances are it will be a lot better than a bog standard off the shelf model. The all look good - showing you lists of megabytes and gigabytes, they dont tell you tho that for example there are different memory speeds, sothey give you a gig of slow cheapo stuff, a cheapo slow board and you end up with a pc thats actually slower in use than a "lower spec one"
As for support for 98/ME, it has been on the cards for a while, likewise with XP, non SP2 supoprt runs out in October http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifean19
Its not just older products that will "force" peple to upgrade: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4698072.stm

 

[JohnD]

these people are local to me, and I've had several off them. Case, power supply, m/b, processor and memory all assembled. Just add your disks and s/w. There are other suppliers too.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/products/a789x1y0z1p0s0n0m1

Some have integrated graphics but if you have kids they will doubtless want the latest whizzbang graphics card on top which can be quite costly. I just use an AGP 8x.

 

[eggplant]

I just looked at a couple, they dont say what boards they use, and also use slow memory - which was my point about it being an advantage to build your own. Now I'm sure I'm looking on the bad side, but the way I see it, is if they used a quality or high spec board then they would surely advetise that.