Zone Alarm Not Letting Me Access The Internet!

[Vanchatron]

For around 3 years now I've been using Zone Alarm with no problems, but the past 2 weeks I've been experiencing constant connection drops (every 20 mins or so). I didn't know what it was, so I brushed it off. This morning upon waking up I wasn't able to connect to the Internet whatsoever, so I rang my ISP. They suggested turning off my firewall & trying the Internet again, so I did and it worked.

I then uninstalled Zone Alarm & reinstalled it, so I could start afresh, but as soon as it was installed and turned on again, the internet access was stopped once more.

Now I can only access the Internet if Zone Alarm is turned off. I tried going into Program Control in ZA and giving access rights to all the programs I want to use the Internet, but that didn't help either.

What can I do in order to access the Internet whilst ZA is running, because I like ZA and want to carry on using it as my firewall.

Thanks.

[awaj]

Under Firewall, there are a bunch of tabs [main, zones, expert] go to the zones tab, and make sure that the network you are currently using is set to "trusted" not "internet" and that should fix the problem. the internet setting will greatly limit your network.

[Vanchatron]

Problem is fixed now.

Windows Update ZoneAlarm Issues
9 July 2008

It appears that a recent Windows Update (KB951748) causes major Internet connectivity issues on systems using ZoneAlarm security software. Users should either avoid installing this update, or uninstall it if already present, or set their Internet Zone Security permission slider from High to Medium to regain Internet access.

From www.tweakguides.com


Thanks.

[Sylvander]

A few hours back I installed a couple of Windows updates and found that Mailwasher and Firefox couldn't get out past Zonealarm onto the internet.

After fiddling with the Zonealarm settings and uninstalling & re-installing it without success I restored recent a image of C: [Windows & Programs] and also D: [data files for Windows & Programs].

That eliminated whatever the problem was.
Nice to know for sure that it was caused by one of the updates. :)

I'll avoid re-installing that until a fix is issued.

[awaj]

I have a similar problem (which just started), though my computer for no reason just shut down and did a couple other strange things. have you guys seen the same thing or should I be worried and start a new thread?

[mjc]

Check this thread...

http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=64730

It seems that Frank may have hit the nail on the head suggesting some recent MS updates and ZA are not playing well together...this wouldn't be the first time a Windows update borked things with third-party software

[classicsoftware]

It's time to look at Sygate, (http://www.filehippo.com/download_sygate_personal_firewall/) Kerio. (http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Home-Home-Office/Sunbelt-Personal-Firewall/) or CA Personal Firewall. (http://www.webmasterfree.com/CA_Personal_Firewall_d7637.html)

[Budfred]

It has been confirmed that there is a problem with the latest MS update which is causing this -- Not SP3 -- put an incremental update... I don't know if it has been fixed or will be fixed by MS...

[awaj]

does the new update for Zone Alarm update fix this problem?

[Sylvander]

Yes.

Get the new ZA version 7.0.483.00 here. (http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/pressReleases/2008/LossOfInternetAccessIssue.html)

[pangea33]

Thanks a lot for this thread. I was trying to collect all the information I could come up with regarding my loss of browser connectivity when I saw it. This struck me as really weird because I was able to traceroute, ping, connect to my router by IP and connect to my work machine through Remote Desktop over VPN, but I couldn't connect to any ftp servers or browse the Internet with my Windows machine.

I am really not a conspiranoiac, but it strikes me as odd when the distributor of an operating system notorious for crushing all competition pushes an update that automatically gets installed for it's dominant user base, and also just happens to break the functionality of a free alternative to a product that said distributor now offers commercially (http://www.microsoft.com/Forefront/default.mspx).

Who am I to complain though? It is with much thanks to the business practices of entities like Microsoft and Sony that I chose to take the Linux plunge. Come on in, the water is fine (http://www.ubuntu.com/).

[Fred_Flintstone]

Hi peeps...

This link (http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/pressReleases/2008/LossOfInternetAccessIssue.html) seems to hold the "workaround" for this problem...
Ahh, good old Z/A.. why did I ever bin it???...:confused:

Fred..;)

[awaj]

there is no longer a need to work around it. the ZA update fixes everything (once you get it installed...)