Anyone tried ZoneAlarm Internet Security v7?

[pipspeak]

I'm itching to try out some new internet security software and wondered if anyone has tried the new version (7) of Zonealarm Internet Security?

Zonealarm now uses the Kaspersky (sp?) virus scanning engine after ditching CA, which is a good thing because I currently use ZA 6.5 and the antivirus part of it (CA) has a few annoying holes, the worst being its ability to detect some worms but not be able to treat or even quarentine them. What good is a warning if all you then get is an error when trying to fix it?! It doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. In addition, ZA's "privacy" guards (pop ups, ads, cookies etc) seem to have some weird conflicts with IE that will occasionally kill my internet connection, which means I end up letting ZA block only the bare minimum.

However, I've heard ZA7 is full of bugs. That figures, since ZA took several updates to get v6 running right. Anyone have any experience?

And what are the alternatives? I've read a lot of good things on these boards about Symantiec Client Security, but also read elsewhere that it tends to be a bit crash-prone and I wonder if software designed for corporate workstations can really protect an independent computer directly connected to the internet?

Norton and McAfee retail products I swore off long ago for the usual reasons... resource hogs, limited configurability, and annoying "give us more money" reminders. And Trend Micro I also swore off after using its flakey Internet Security software in 2005.

What else does that leave for a highly-configurable, integrated firewall/spyware/antivirus suite that is light on system resources?

[BlueDevilTide]

I'm curious myself...consider this a tag. I'm on v6.5 myself of Zone Alarm Pro, and I get update reminders but I, too, have heard bad things about v7.

Though, from what I've heard, I would not rely on ZA virus or spyware capabilities for full preparedness. I use NOD32 as my full time virusscanner, and those two at all times. I used to use Comodo Firewall and AVG Free, and loved both pieces of software...if you want something free and good to serve alongside your ZA, I would recommend AVG Free.

But if ZA7 is using Kaspersky, that is definitely intriguing. I've heard good things about it. Though, I value light-on-resources over full on security. I'm careful about what I do and I don't use anything but Gmail for email so attachments shouldn't be too bad...I scan everything I actually open anyway =) Though, once PDFs become virus-infectable, I'm screwed.

I'd love to hear any other opinions about ZA7 as well, though...