Zone Labs release last month of its ZoneAlarm Security Suite provides a welcome competitor to Symantec (Norton) and McAfee.

I've been a big fan of Zone Labs and have used its free Internet firewall for the past two years.

Now I've been using the 15-day trial version of its new security suite for the past two weeks and let me say it's a beauty of a program.

I have immediately gotten rid of my Norton program, which has given me no end of problems. I also have a beef with the company. Last year, Norton decided it didn't want me as a customer and informed me that the current version of my virus checker was no longer being supported.

The result was that my virus checker stopped working. I informed Norton of the problem, noting that I had subscribed for the year of updates before being informed the version I had would be discontinued.

Norton's response was to tell me to upgrade my software, for another $30! To hell with that gouging. If I buy a piece of software I expect it to continue to work.

ZoneAlarm's yearly subscription for its security suite includes one year of product updates, including any new features. This includes updates to the firewall and antivirus components.

The complete ZoneAlarm suite includes the firewall, an anti-virus program, protection against identify theft and online profiling and a system to track hack attempts on your computer. An e-mail protection program automatically quarantines suspicious email attachments, preventing them from auto-launching or being opened by accident.

It also automatically monitors outgoing email and halts messages with potential viruses before they're transmitted from your computer.

The full package costs about $70 with discounts for multiple licences. If you already use Norton and McAffee there's a $30 discount to get you to make the switch.

If you're a home user I suggest you just get the scaled down version of the ZoneAlarm, which includes a full anti-virus and firewall package, for only $19. And yes, your e-mail is protected with the basic package.

But before you download and use the trial version at www.zonelabs.com make sure you fully disable your current anti-virus program.

As I found out, running two anti-virus programs at the same time can cause you to lose a lot of hassle. I should have read the instructions.

ZdNet has made a comparison of the three security suites and concludes: "ZoneAlarm Security Suite is like a beacon of light on a darkling plain, proving there is life in the consumer Internet security market. This year, my nod goes to ZoneAlarm Security Suite as the best all-around Internet protection software." I agree.

I've also been testing out Illustrate's free dBpowerAmp Music Converter, a godsend to music fans who want to convert tracks on a CD to another format that can be played from their computers or on their digital MP3 Player.

The process is called "ripping" in computer-speak. Rip (verb): digitally extract audio from an audio CD to computer.

While there are lots of "ripper" programs out there, dBpowerAmp can successfully take tracks off those dastardly copy protected audio CDs.

The program can support nearly every audio type, including MP3, MP4, Windows Media Audio (wma), OGG Vorbis, AAC, Monkey's Audio, and FLAC. Don't be afraid.

All of this technospeak refers to the manner an audio file is compressed so it won't take up a huge chunk of your computer or audio player 's memory (as an aside this means quality is lost).

Here comes the good part. Many music companies are now putting protection on audio CDs, which not only prevents copies being made, but also prevents ripping songs to your computer. dBpowerAmp claims it can bypass the protection in many cases and convert the files.

I tested the program on a protected CD (Benjamin Biolay's Negatif), and voila! I put a track from the album on my computer in a couple of minutes.

Many copy-protected audio CDs exploit a weakness of a computer system as being different to a normal audio CD player. Such a disc can be ripped, but it depends mostly on your CD drive ability to rip outside a false disc contents table that such a CD presents when you click on it. Not all of CD drives can do this. Some CD's also use a new breed of audio protection that installs a program on your computer.

The program takes control of your CD drive to block it.

To get around this always hold the left "shift" key before, during and ten seconds after inserting.

This stops the nasty program from running, Illustrate advises.

If all else fails go to http://club.cdfreaks.com to learn about how to use a black marker pen (non permanent) and tape to circumvent copy protection.

I consider that I should be able to make legal copies of a CD that I buy for my own personal use on my computer or MP3 player.

Go to www.download.com http://www.download.com to download dBpowerAmp.

Contact Ahmed at editor@offshoreon.com. Visit www.SecureBermuda.com for security updates.