Zone Alarm causing internet problems...

[Gotrice4]

I have the latest Zone Alarm Free firewall installed on my computer. The problem is after 2 days of my computer being on, it will refuse to connect to the internet. If I shut down Zone Alarm I can freely get onto the internet, but once I restart Zone Alarm I no longer have access to the internet. The only way I can run Zone Alarm and get onto the internet is if I restart my computer.

I have Windows XP Pro SP2 installed but the Windows firewall disabled. I have all the critical updates installed, I have updated my AV and have run an AV scan within the last 12 hours. Ad-aware and Spybot search and destroy have also been run recently.

I have checked my network card and set it so that it does not shut down to conserve power.

My internet connection is steady.

This is not a recent problem with me. This has happened with all of the free versions of Zone Alarm I have had with this computer and a laptop I had with Win2000 Pro.

Any insight would be great, Thanks.

[Panama Red]

Why not uninstall the ZA and just run the XP SP2 firewall? I know you don't get outgoing protection like with ZA, but too many people report problems with ZA, especially the latest version. Often times people switch to an earlier version to eliminate the problems. These were mostly reported prior to SP2 being available. We may be dealing with a whole new set of conflicts.

[TwoRails]

Originally Posted by Gotrice4 ....This is not a recent problem with me. This has happened with all of the free versions of Zone Alarm I have had with this computer and a laptop I had with Win2000 Pro....

I install ZA on every build, but I've never installed over version 4.5, nor have I installed in on SP2 or W2K. As Panama Red mentions, have you tried 4.5 on this machine?

I'm curious as to what other version have given you trouble. If "every" version has given you problems, that suggests a settings problem(s). Do you use the defaults or custom settings?

Also, I'm not aware of any conflicts with ZA and any AV programs: have you looked at their KB to check for conflicts?

[Gotrice4]

Originally Posted by TwoRails I install ZA on every build, but I've never installed over version 4.5, nor have I installed in on SP2 or W2K. As Panama Red mentions, have you tried 4.5 on this machine? I'm curious as to what other version have given you trouble. If "every" version has given you problems, that suggests a settings problem(s). Do you use the defaults or custom settings? Also, I'm not aware of any conflicts with ZA and any AV programs: have you looked at their KB to check for conflicts?

I have been using Zone Alarm for over 4 years now. Previously on a laptop with Win200 Pro and now with a desktop with WinXP Pro. The problem came up with my laptop and I am not experiencing the same thing with my desktop.

I currently have the latest Zone Alarm installed (5.1.033).

I will try a 4.5 version to see what happens.

**Problem with that, I don't have access to a 4.5 version.

[RoyKelly]

Check out the forums at www.zonelabs.com to see if other users have the same problem. Registration is free and viewing does not require registration.

We had problems when Zone Alarm first upgraded to version 5 and went to Norton because of the hassle of fixing our own computers and five of our twelve customers who had XP Pro and had upgraded to ver 5. We found many others with the same problem and we all helped each other fix it.

[glc]

I have a link in the Zonealarm sticky thread in the Security forum to download 4.5.

[mystvearn]

or you could always try sygate firewall

[Gotrice4]

Originally Posted by mystvearn or you could always try sygate firewall

Installed Sygate firewall and my system crashed.

Had to do a system restore to last week before my computer would boot.


What am I losing if I use ZA 4.5 compared to the latest ZA? Will I have the same amount of protection? Thanks.

[TwoRails]

As I mentioned, I'm still running 4.5 and I've never done an indepth comparision, but judging on just the ads, V5 seems to have more glitter than substance over prior versions. Can't swear to it, though. I'm confident with 4.5, however if anybody has a deffinitive comparison list, it'd be nice if they posted it.

[Gotrice4]

Originally Posted by TwoRails As I mentioned, I'm still running 4.5 and I've never done an indepth comparision, but judging on just the ads, V5 seems to have more glitter than substance over prior versions. Can't swear to it, though. I'm confident with 4.5, however if anybody has a deffinitive comparison list, it'd be nice if they posted it.

I'm definitely a fan of function over flash. As long as 4.5 is as good as the latest release (function wise) I would not mind using it. But, if it lacks something that the latest version has, I am willing to suffer with the problems of the newer version (or find a different firewall).

[mystvearn]

Originally Posted by Gotrice4 Installed Sygate firewall and my system crashed. Had to do a system restore to last week before my computer would boot. What am I losing if I use ZA 4.5 compared to the latest ZA? Will I have the same amount of protection? Thanks.

I had problems with ZA

[glc]

Originally Posted by mystvearn I had problems with ZA

If you are going to make a post such as this, please be more specific and elaborate. Just saying that you had problems is not helpful. Thank you.

[mystvearn]

ZA keep blocking some of my JAVA apps, and frequent crashes. For some reason sygate is fine.

[TwoRails]

Have you tried setting the options to allow / disallow: javascript, objects (java, activeX), vbscripts and the like, and mime objects?

[mystvearn]

I don't remember, but using sygate for a very long time now.