Zone Alarm

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Ok, who is the firewall guru....

I have a problem with my network after installing ZA free personal. I have a desktop running XP Pro SP2 which is connected to the internet through a router. In this is installed a wireless network card and I have a laptop running XP Pro SP2 connected via a secure wireless connection to the desktop. Before installing ZA, I had file sharing capabilities and internet access from the laptop, since the install, I can't access the internet. ZA did pop up alerts saying it blocked access from the network IP address but I can't find where to allow the connection. The wireless network is listed in the zones tab and I have added it to the trusted zone so the desktops documents are shared but I can't get the laptop to see he internet.

[Low_VX_Taxi]

Im not a guru so ive got one suggestion UNINSTALL ZONE ALARM!!!!!!!! The program that is much more user friendly (and i think better protection) is Kerio Personal Firewall only IMO tho ive only ever had trouble with ZA and with kerio YOU tell it wat to block (its got an auto "Learning" mode, its free and legit

Its pretty good even put it on the missus' laptop

[minux]

Why waste your money with any windows firewall? Run an open bsd gateway, this way you are safe from everything

[Low_VX_Taxi]

post deleted......

[holdensupporter2005]

Open zone alarm.
click on the Firewall down the left hand side.
you then can change the settings for your network. You will need to place your network under the Trusted Zone settings, and then configure zone alarm to allow trusted zones to access your computer.

I have zone alarm pro so it may be a bit different.

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Yeah it is, there is no custom configuration in the free version. The network is already in the trusted zone, so I can see the network but just not the internet.

[alexp36]

Here's what my copy of ZA looks like, in the "Firewall" tab:
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u73/alexp36/ZA1.jpg

- My adsl gateway (192.168.1.0) is in the "internet" zone.

Dunno if that helps, but it works for me.

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Why waste your money with any windows firewall? Run an open bsd gateway, this way you are safe from everything

I only have the one desktop and it's the main PC, apparently it's not a good idea to have the main PC as a gateway.

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Here's what my copy of ZA looks like, in the "Firewall" tab:
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u73/alexp36/ZA1.jpg

- My adsl gateway (192.168.1.0) is in the "internet" zone.

Dunno if that helps, but it works for me.

The free ZA doesn't detect networks and let you configure them. It does that on it's own, and doesn't do a very good job at that.

[jacko]

Zone Alarm is sh1t, download Nod32, it runs in the background and scans everything that goes in and out and has a built in firewall.

[Low_VX_Taxi]

~~edited~~

[Patrio7]

well i know a little about firewalls but in my humble opinion, behind a ADSL router, there is no need for a firewall application as the moden will only listen to outbound requests, though the firewall may stop the app sharing properly

Check the zone alarm main window for something by the name of program control, from there you can allow your sharing apps full permissions to the internet.

Also, dont forget port forwarding ( www.portforward.com ) which will help you open up your modem to permit the app to fly free

[VZTHUNDER]

ill say this right now
i been using ZA secruity suite for over a year now and ive NEVER had a problem with it. only in the latest version it lags a bit on start up i dont really notice it
its great and you can change practically every setting in the firewall if you know what you doing which you can easily find out be watching the tutorial video that it comes with. i personally recommend this to anyone and will happily help anyone with a issue they have using it

to fix your network all you need to do is connect it and ZA should say a new network has poped up and to let it into the trusted zone (this is the one you want for a local home network) or internet zone (dont want this one its for when your at a internet cafe or something)

i used to use NOD32 it was good till it wasnt picking up virii that i found nearly 20 infections that NOD32 missed with my copy of ZA.
heres how id list em
1 ZA
2 NOD32
3 norton (i dont reccomend this to anyone)

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Right, I buggered off ZA and downloaded Kerio. While it looks pretty good, I can't get my wireless network working at all now.

This will only be a temporary thing for now as my hard drive crapped itself and wouldn't load Windows. I installed Windows on my other drive and I haven't activated it yet because I have a 320gb drive coming. I am getting a lot of crap through and I think my connection is being used as a router for spam as I am getting a lot of .de and .fr sites tying to connect. Hence the reason for the firewall. It wasn't happening before the crash because I think Windows was fully up to date. Everytime I disable the firewall, the data light goes mad on the modem so there is traffic that I want to stop.

Now my issue is getting my wireless network going.

[VZTHUNDER]

have you tried getting your wireless network going with no antivirus/firewall (with your adsl router off ofcourse) or with all that still on can you use the wireless to share files

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

I just tried that. Before I had any firewall, everything worked. Installed ZA and lost internet. Uninstalled ZA and installed Kerio, lost wireless. Turned off Kerio and the modem and still cant find my wireless network. It's starting to piss me off....I'm going to bed and thinking about it in the morning.

[Spaced]

Rebuild windows start from scratch. confirm your wireless is working and if not check wired because you said this is your only computer. Partiot is right that you may not need a personal firewall. What model router do you have? Do a search on whirlpool it will tell you what features it has.

For fantastic security look at smooth wall. The best firewall on the net hands down. Even microsoft use it. Just get a crappy computer from the markets.

BTW twin turbos 192 addresses are private, when they hit the net the are dropped. His real IP address would be something like 220.x.x.x

This is because certain ip ranges are reserved. do a google search if your bored pretty interesting. It's why most home routers are 192.x.x.x

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Having had a look at my modem, it's not actually a router, just a cable modem. This morning I put my wireless card into another slot on the PC and reconfigured the network. I didn't do anything different than I was doing last night, but for some reason it's working now. A wireless router is on my shopping list though, this peer to peer network crap is too unreliable.

[alexp36]

unless u have dialup or wireless id suggest u dont post up ur ip (193.198.2.0) as with adsl companies generally use static ips (never change) and a hacker or enemy can use this, (I.E ip hijacking etc)

Heh, you talking about the 192.168.1.xxx subnet?
I appreciate your concern, but that's not my internet IP, assigned by my ISP. It's the IP my adsl gateway uses to communicate to my home network. There is no implicit threat to my network in anyone knowing that address.

On the other hand, my host IP "127.0.0.1", now that's another matter

[Low_VX_Taxi]

LOL sory post edited and sorry not an abba fan, I had good luck wit kerio but i only use wireless every now and again.....

[CHEFAI]

Always had problems with Zone Alarm, not a pc friendly program. PC Cillin is the best!

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

It's just not my day. The hard drive I had everything on just crapped itself. Well I think it's the hard drive. When I rebooted it came up 'Windows could not load because the file "WINDOWS\CONFIG" something.... is corrupt or missing. Did a disk check and it said 'one or more sectors unrepairable'. So I chucked the XP disc back in and tried a repair, couldn't rebuild the boot sector so I just reloaded XP over the top again to keep me going until the new HD gets here. Then.....couldn't get my wireless going again. After numerous removing and adding and reconfiguring the wireless card still wouldn't go. It wasn't until I unplugged the power adaptor from the laptop to move it and then it recognised the network and connected. ****en thing.

So ATM I have only the Windows firewall going because I don't have the traffic issues I had before. I think I know why it was happening, I installed Nero so I could burn a DVD and because it lost the licence key I had to 'aquire' a new one. Although my AVG picked up a few viruses, I think there was some spyware downloaded that was somehow using my connection as a router. Anyway, all is good for now.

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Just an update for those that are interested. My 320 gb HD arrived yesterday and I chucked everything on last night. My wireless worked first go. No Zone Alarm, I don't think the free version can be configured much.