I know Zone Alarm maintains a fairly decent reputation (their free-version firewall can be found on a good chunk of the worlds PCs) but I'm not exactly sure why anymore*.

I spend a lot of time with computers; building, tweaking, cleaning and repairing - and am tirelessly on the lookout for the "best" software for my (& my clients) machines.
So I know a little bit (not being immodest here, I consider myself unapprised compared to most "techies") about which applications are capable, which are easy to use, which play well with other programs, and which to avoid completely.

Guess where ZA ES fits...