Zone Alarm

[Charles]

Is there a way to keep zone alarm from popping it's windows asking access? I always check the box so it reminds itself next time but it keeps asking.

[morriswindgate]

Yeah, uninstall it and get Sygate PE (Free also) at www.sygate.com
It has back tracing ability also, and gets just as high of rating as zone alarm.

[ZANEY123]

hi Charles,
As far as i know that is all you have to do so it should not ask you. If you go to program control,programs, and left click on the program and hit allow if you dont want it to ask. If you have done this already don't know what else to say.

I personlly dont mind it i want it to prompt me every time i go on the net or check my mail. so i can know when someone/something is acsessing th net since i have cable modem

[Pif]

Can you check the Program access tab and see what programs are set to always ask? I have Zone Alarm Pro at home, so I can't check right now.

I'm thinking you may be able to tweak it that way (although clicking the checkbox should work).

You could always reinstall.

Hope that helps.

-Pif

[Charles]

Thanks. I wasn't allowing the server to access. Is it a bad idea to allow all servers to access?

[Pif]

Well, I guess that depends on your paranoia level. If you run any peer-topeer stuff, you'll have to, of course. I usually say no, because I have Real installed and it likes to connect to it's servers without my asking it to. (good video streaming, horrible company, IMO).

The only always-connect programs I allow are ieexplorer, outlook, msn, and seti@home. Even at that, I'm not totally safe. But my paranoia only goes so far... :)

And I only allow server access for msn and outlook. You shouldn't need it for ie. Next time you get a window, track down what program exactly is calling for access. My rule is if I don't know what it does exactly, I deny it. Until something breaks, that is.

If you're on an always-on internet connection and keep your system running all the time, you can always set-up the Internet Lock for 10-minutes idle - that'll protect you regardless of all other allows (unless you give something pass-lock, of course).

Have I confused you? Because I'm a little confused now......

-Pif

[DilLy]

You shouldn't need server access for any browser, mail proggy, P2P or any of the things Pif mentioned.

I have server access for one program and that is AdSubtractPro. It sets my connection as a proxy and filters through it and somehow needs server access to work. There are a lot of programs that are set to "ask" to simply connect to, there for a trojan cannot use a program to connect wihtout permission (unless the trojan disables my firewall, but I have never had a trojan or a virus in my life, I guess I am lucky).

You can go through your list of Programs in ZA and set your rules, and also manually add programs you think you will use to connect with in the future to avoid problems, such as a game (you wouldn't want ZA to try to steal focus from the game in certain OS's this can cause a minor freeze since the game is in fullscreen and not all can automatically go to window mode)

Also, but I do not recommend this, there is an option in ZA to always allow a connect when a new program asks, to ask permission when a new program attempts, or to block it.

A,so make sure to set your alerts to silent so you are not always alerted when an action has taken place (only programs will come up if they dont have a "block" or "allow" rule). With the amount of attempts to connect to your machine from unknown peoples out in the world, you don't want to know about it being blocked all the time.

READ THE MANUAL and get ZAPRO, it is worth the extra money.

[Charles]

I noticed when I reboot all my settings go off. For example
I log on the internet and ZA begins asking me to allow Opera or IE access, I do then when I boot-up all these settings go away because when I log on it asks me for access again. I have tried the lock pass but it does the same thing. I used to allow access to server as well but you guys are saying it's not necessary.

[DilLy]

A quick question:

is ZoneAlarm set to start up with Windows? (open ZA, go to Overview, and hit the Preferences tab, there should be an option to have it start with windows, you want it to.)

I am not really sure why your settings are being reset, did you create a password for ZA?

[Charles]

ZA is set to start with Windows. No password created for ZA. Updated it not too long ago.

[DilLy]

You might want to try doing a full fresh install of it, and avoid the option it gives you to keep your settings. Read the ZAPro help files to see how to do a correct fresh install, you may also want to try deleting your 'internet logs' in the C:\Windows folder (don't delete the whole 'internet logs' folder, just the contents inside, and do it after you uninstall ZAPro and before the fresh install)

[Charles]

Thanks.