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Subject: "XP/Zone Alarm fiasco" Previous topic | Next topic
jadedFri Dec-14-01 10:04 PM
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"XP/Zone Alarm fiasco"


          

In a recent thread (tried to resurrect it; couldn't find it in "Search"), I asked for help with a problem I was having with Zone Alarm in Windows XP Pro, relating to "Pesky Generic Host Process alerts." Zone Alarm was the latest free version. XP Pro is dual-booted with Win98SE, IE5.01SP2. Anyway, the problem was constant and excessive alerts relating to XP's Generic Host Process program, etc. Listening to your advice, I tried most of your suggestions (different settings, re-installing ZA, etc.). Sometimes, the changes made would allow the system to function okay -- for a day or so. But sooner or later, it would begin malfunctioning again -- culminating in not being able to access the Internet or e-mail client, until a restart. Finally, I decided to just get rid of Zone Alarm, which I did -- most effectively -- by simply re-installing the OS (XP Pro).

Now, I'm wondering: is it possible that all my problems were caused by the fact that I am dual-booted with Win98SE, in a FAT32 configuration? Thing is, both operating systems were using the exact, same version of Zone Alarm. (XP's built-in firewall disabled.)

Because I was looking for a free one, Grogan (and several others) suggested I try Tiny Personal Firewall, which reportedly works well with XP. I did download the program, but have not yet installed it. Glad I haven't: after downloading a PDF file of that program's 35-page manual (whew!), I seriously doubt if I'm knowledgeable enough to ever get that program properly -- for my system -- configured. Too many decisions to make about things I simply don't understand.

The gist of all this, do you think the original problems could be the result of conflict between Win98 and XP, because of each program using the same version of ZA? Thanks in advance.

jaded

jaded

  

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Replies to this topic
Subject Author Message Date ID
RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco
Dec 15th 2001
1
RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco
Dec 15th 2001
2
RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco
Dec 15th 2001
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      RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco
Dec 15th 2001
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      RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco
Dec 15th 2001
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           RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco
Dec 16th 2001
14
      RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco
Dec 15th 2001
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RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco
Dec 15th 2001
4
RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco
Dec 15th 2001
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RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco
Dec 15th 2001
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RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco
Dec 15th 2001
10
      RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco
Dec 15th 2001
11
      RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco
Dec 15th 2001
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           RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco
Dec 16th 2001
13
RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco
Dec 16th 2001
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RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco
Dec 16th 2001
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RoperaSat Dec-15-01 12:03 AM
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#1. "RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco"
In response to jaded (Reply # 0)


          

mine works fine on XP until I install nortin Antivirus. I went to the NAV site and they are aware of the problem, they suggest to uninstall AV from safe mode then uninstall ZA then install ZA and then install NAV, did all that, same sh%t. I gave up.

  

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Grace86Sat Dec-15-01 12:08 AM
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#2. "RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco"
In response to jaded (Reply # 0)


          

I don't have XP upgrade yet but am giving it to family for Christmas but wanted to tell you that I purchased ZA pro back in September and my internet (cable) connection slowed down so much I called my provider and eventually they suggested to try to uninstall ZA Pro to see if that was the problem. Big mistake. Apparently (they said) you cannot simply uninstall ZA Pro. You have to go to their web page and print out 4 pages of instructions and delete multiple files from your registry. Very nerve racking for me. My provider said that ZA wraps itself around so many files that it is always there - all over the place. I had to do a complete wipe and reinstall to get rid of it. Oh, yeah, I had absolutely no internet connection after trying to uninstall ZA pro and even after doing the 4 pages of instructions. So, I didn't know if you meant that you did a hard drive wipe and reinstall or just a reinstall of XP. If it was just a reinstall of XP, ZA is probably still there in the background. Also, I tried to call ZA long distance for some help but they do not do phone support! I emailed and tried to get my money back but it is only a 30 day return policy. So, I lost my money trying to protect myself from hackers. My service provider said that most of the calls they get regarding connectivity are related to ZA. Don't know if that is true of course.

Grace.

  

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Grace86Sat Dec-15-01 12:14 AM
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#3. "RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco"
In response to Grace86 (Reply # 2)


          

I wasn't clear on the part of "big mistake" when I said that "they said that you can't simply uninstall ZA" This was my service provider saying this on my second call after I did the simple uninstall of ZA. I called back saying that my internet connection still didn't work and then (a different guy at my tech support) said you have to go to ZA's web page and do the complete 4 page uninstall.

It didn't work either.

Grace.

  

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ShellySat Dec-15-01 12:33 AM
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#5. "RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco"
In response to Grace86 (Reply # 3)


  

          

Many people here (probably most) use ZA without any problems. I have never seen ZA slow down net access on any speed computer. I have heard of a lot of ISP support people improperly blame ZA for problems that they were not sufficiently knowledgeable to diagnose or fix.

Shelly

  

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SidSat Dec-15-01 12:42 AM
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#7. "RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco"
In response to Shelly (Reply # 5)


          

Shel, I just went through hell with my DSL connection. My ISP said not to use any freebie firewalls "...because they are very hard to uninstall...". I have been using ZA w/o trouble for quite awhile, but, uninstalled it (and, disabled XP's firewall) and, still, my DSL connection was gone. I did a 'repair' operation on XP, and, that didn't help. Two days ago, I finally bit the bullet and did a clean install of XP to a different partition. Presto, DSL up again! Then, went to ZA site and downloaded and installed ZA 2.6x. Fingers are crossed, but, everything is working since the clean install of XP.

BTW, I didn't know about the 'four-page' uninstall instructions until I read this thread. That could be why my uninstalling ZA didn't do anything. What do you think?

.
Onward & Upward !
Sid

WINDOWS 10
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro MB
Intel i5 3750K CPU
8g Corsair Vengeance DDR3 RAM
Corsair Neutron 250g SSD

  

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ScotterpopsSun Dec-16-01 10:15 AM
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#14. "RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco"
In response to Sid (Reply # 7)


          

If you didn't uninstall ZA per their instructions, parts of it will remain.   It seems very unlikely that ZA was your problem, but if it was, that would explain it.

Having said that, I agree with Shelly; I think that many less that knowledgeable tech support folks with start blaming anything else they can when they don't know what the real problem is.   I've used ZA on numerous installations of Win98, Win2K and in WinXP on several computers, and I've never had a single connectivity related problem with it.   With that much use on such a broad variety of both hardware and software, you would think that I would have encountered at least one problem ... but I never have.   Not even once.


;~* ... Scotterpops





;~* ... Scott Gilmore

  

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jadedSat Dec-15-01 01:03 AM
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#8. "RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco"
In response to Grace86 (Reply # 3)


          

Yes, Grace86, I knew about those "four pages of instructions," and how extremely difficult it is to get rid of ZA. I went through that, too. But the process was so involved that I was afraid that I might have missed some little detail. So after going to all that trouble, I still went ahead and reinstalled XP Pro, just to be on the safe side. I vowed, right then and there, that there was no way I'd ever put ZA back in!!

Ironically, I have the exact same ZA version on W98SE, and it works beautifully, never gives any problems whatsoever. Probably, it was being caused by some little thing -- like, enabling or disabling anything having to do with e-mail security, etc. I say that, because the inability of being able to access e-mail or get on the Internet seems to be the result of whatever was causing the problem. Anyway, thanks for your input. And same for everyone else who responded.

jaded

jaded

  

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LagfishSat Dec-15-01 12:27 AM
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#4. "RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco"
In response to jaded (Reply # 0)


          

I dual boot win2k pro and XP pro using NTFS across the board and have had the exact same problems with zone alarm. I don't run it in XP anymore.

  

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jadedSat Dec-15-01 01:06 AM
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#9. "RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco"
In response to Lagfish (Reply # 4)


          

Lagfish, good to know that, because I'd been thinking about switching to NTFS, just for that reason. Thanks.

jaded

jaded

  

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HowardLSat Dec-15-01 12:39 AM
Member since Dec 12th 2001
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#6. "RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco"
In response to jaded (Reply # 0)


          

I used to dual boot XP and 98 and ran ZA 2.6.357 on both with only one problem: ZA would refuse to load sometimes on XP. I have heard that it was a conflict with Norton AV. I've since upgraded to ZA 2.6.362 and no longer have the problem, however I no longer dual boot using the boot loader. I have a cable modem and it has never caused a problem. This isn't the first time I've heard of problems with ZA, but for me it works very well.

  

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phgreerSat Dec-15-01 02:22 AM
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#10. "RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco"
In response to HowardL (Reply # 6)


          

Here is what I did and it worked.

1.) Uninstall from Administator

2.) Do a COMPLETE uninstall DO NOT chose automatic. By chosing manual you are able to remove the previous settings and registery settings. Automatic keeps them there.

3.) Reinstall with the lastest version

4.) Give the permissions one more time

5.) It should now work fine.

  

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DaveASat Dec-15-01 02:38 AM
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#11. "RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco"
In response to phgreer (Reply # 10)


          

I have also done the above and every things works just fine. I am tri booting Win 98, Win 2k and Win XP Pro on the same machine and have not had any problems.
David C Abernathy

David C Abernathy

  

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jadedSat Dec-15-01 03:19 AM
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#12. "RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco"
In response to phgreer (Reply # 10)


          

phgreer, what do you mean by "uninstall from administrator"? Thanks in advance.

jaded

jaded

  

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phgreerSun Dec-16-01 09:34 AM
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#13. "RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco"
In response to jaded (Reply # 12)


          

Well I don't know if it's totally nessisary but I figured it sure couldn't hurt. Know how to get into admin? If not you need to go to user accounts in the control panel and change the way users log on or off. This will allow you to log on Windows 2000 style. If you didn't chose an admin account then type in admin and make up a password. This will be the admin password until you change it. Like I said I don't know if this is totally required but the main thing is to do the manual uninstall so the registry entries and setting can be removed also.

  

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ScotterpopsSun Dec-16-01 10:23 AM
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#15. "RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco"
In response to jaded (Reply # 0)


          

There is a Compatibility Critical Update available at the WinXP Microsoft Update site which directly addresses some issues with WinXP and ZoneAlarm (ZoneAlarm is specifically listed in MS's Readme literature for the update).   If you haven't installed that update, I suggest you look into it.   This is the second Compatibility Update that Microsoft has released as a Critical Update since XP was released.


;~* ... Scotterpops





;~* ... Scott Gilmore

  

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jadedSun Dec-16-01 07:38 PM
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#16. "RE: XP/Zone Alarm fiasco"
In response to Scotterpops (Reply # 15)


          

Scotter, I don't know about a "Second Compatibility Update." Getting all the important Updates was the very first thing I did after installing XP. And when I check now, my system is up to date. So I most likely have that "Second Compatibility Update," unless they're parking it somewhere that I don't know about.

This may be pertinent: I do run NAV 2002; and I also have APC's updated (for XP) software for my Back-UPS Pro 500 installed. I followed ZA's instructions about uninstalling very carefully, and that didn't cure the problem. At the time, I did not have a Ghost image of XP that didn't have ZA in the system; so, later, when nothing else fixed the problem, I reinstalled XP, got everything back up to speed, working fine (without ZA), then made a Ghost image of XP that had no trace of ZA anywhere in its system. Having that, you can feel brave. So, once again, I installed ZA to this cleansed system.

This time, it functioned beautifully, with this one exception: ZA wouldn't start at Startup, even though it was checked to do so (read my above posts). Now, strange thing is, this problem didn't occur with previous installs of ZA. I suspect this could be happening on some other user's systems, and they don't realize it, simply because they never shut their computers off as I do -- every night, and sometimes several times in a day. That problem is no big deal, and sure, I could live with it. But not knowing what really causes it haunts me. So, once again, to hell with ZA. This time, I just restored my Ghosted Image that didn't have ZA on it. And, for now, at least, I'll just use XP's built in firewall. But thanks, anyway, Scotter, your input is truly appreciated.

jaded

jaded

  

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