Zonealarm headache

[kq501]

Hi, today i connected two home PCs via wired cat5e cable in order to share my 2mb broadband.

I followed various online tutorials and finally got them linked together. File sharing capabilities worked instantly, but internet capability on the 2nd PC was a no go. Using various sites, I still got nowhere. What finally worked was shuting down Zonealarm... thus allowing both PCs internet access. Perfect.

Unfortunatley, I have grown accustomed to Zonealarm, and would obviously like to still use it.

Can anyone give me any pointers? I've had a go at changing ip address/subnets in the Zonealarm Zones function, but to no avail.

Various sites have claimed that Zonealarm is too good, and will not allow the other PC internet access as long as it is running, is this correct?

The host PC is using WinXP the client PC is using WinMe if this helps.

[classicsoftware]

Do you have a router? How did you link them together? We need a whole lot more information on your setup?

[kq501]

Bear with me please. This is an area I'm not so sure about. The client PC (winMe)I had to insert a Belkin Desktop Network PCI Card. The Host PC (winXP) already had a Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC slot. Connected them together with ethernet Cat5e cable.

Don't use a router. Was told by PC World that I wouldnt need one if it was just to connect 2 PCs together.

I connected using ICS as explained in most websites I visited for help. Again, everything works fine without Zonealarm, but I'd rather use this as my firewall.

Thanks for replying.

[kq501]

Thank You Classicsoftware for replying, but I've just managed to fix the problem. Took me 6 hours yesterday to no avail, 10 minutes today and voila!

For anyone else with same problem...

I went back to Zonealarm Pro and investigated how to get it working with ICS and I had to do this for those interested:

On the gateway machine, do the following.
Click start -> run, type command and click ok.
Type ipconfig /all and press enter.
Find the connection you are using, and make note of all the DNS servers.
Type exit and press enter.
Double-click the ZA icon down by the clock. Click firewall -> main, and click
the advanced button.
Put the check in “this computer is an ICS/NAT gateway”, and click ok. Click
firewall -> zones.
Add each DNS server to the trusted zone. To do this, do the following.
Click the add button, and then click IP address. Click trusted, put in the IP
address, enter a description, and click ok. When finished adding all
addresses, click the apply button.
Next, click program control -> programs. Locate Generic Host Processing.
Under the server column, for trusted, change that to a check. Don’t change
server internet to a check, just server trusted.
If you have ZoneAlarm on the other computers, do the following.
Click the ZA icon down by the clock. Click firewall -> main, and click the
advanced button. Put the check in “this computer is a client of an ICS/NAT
gateway”, and click ok.

thanks to ttreaders from www.techsupportforum.com for this info

[classicsoftware]

For the extra $40.00 i prefer a router becuase:

1) It is easier to setup
2) The server machine does not have to be on for the client machine to access the net.
3) provides a good hardware firewall to complement the software firewall.

Glad you got it working. The obvious answer would have been supllied if you had mentioned ICS and the second NIC when you originally posted.