Can't access desktop--ZA Problem

[MZB]

Howdy. For years I've had my desktop and then a wireless laptop which was
able to access some files on my desktop.

All of a sudden, it can't find the network path.

When I disable Zone Alarm from the laptop, it works fine. I probably did do
a ZA upgrade recently but I'm not sure.

I still seem to have addresses listed in the Trusted Zone, but I'm not sure
if they are correct. It's been many years since I set it up.

Any suggestions/guidance would be appreciated.

Mel

 

[Lem]

Howdy. For years I've had my desktop and then a wireless laptop which was
able to access some files on my desktop.

All of a sudden, it can't find the network path.

When I disable Zone Alarm from the laptop, it works fine. I probably did do
a ZA upgrade recently but I'm not sure.

I still seem to have addresses listed in the Trusted Zone, but I'm not sure
if they are correct. It's been many years since I set it up.

Any suggestions/guidance would be appreciated.

Mel

Uninstall ZoneAlarm and use Windows Firewall ... or ...
http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/support/technical-support.htm

It's been years since I've configured ZA, but the addresses that should
be allowed are the IP addresses used by your local computers. You can
either do that in a range (e.g., 192.168.1.1-192.168.1.100) or by
specific IP address.

To determine what IP addresses you are using:

In a Command Prompt window, type
ipconfig /all {enter}

 

[Peter Foldes]

Get rid of ZA. It causes many different issue. It (ZA) is not what it used to be. ZA
is more of a nuisance then help

 

[MB_]

Well, this is strange, here is a further update. I actually have TWO
laptops. Both similarly configured. Incidentally I use XP HOME/SP3.

Both of them are not able to access the desktop shared files. But when I
exit ZA, they both can.

When I check IP addresses, am I correct that I would use IPCONFIG on my
desktop?

Also, I have not upgraded ZA in recent months and this just started a week
ago.

Just a thought: Could the latest Windows Update caused the problem? I know
it did one time almost a year ago and then they patched it (that time I
couldn't get online, period).

If I can't fix it, I may just scrap ZA as you suggest, but why would this
suddenly occur?

Mel

 

[MZB]

Well, this is strange. I typed ipconfig/all for my desktop and the IP
address was different than specified in ZA.
It was 192.168.1.103

Previously it had ended in 101 according to my ZA settings.

So I changed this in my laptop ZA settings but it still didn't work. But
then I checked the ZA settings on my desktop. It also ended in 100 or 101
and so I changed THAT to 103 and now all works. Two questions:

1) Why would the IP address suddenly change like that?

2) Why did it work when I disabled ZA in my laptop (without making any
changed to ZA on my dsesktop)

Mel

 

[Lem]

Well, this is strange. I typed ipconfig/all for my desktop and the IP
address was different than specified in ZA.
It was 192.168.1.103

Previously it had ended in 101 according to my ZA settings.

So I changed this in my laptop ZA settings but it still didn't work. But
then I checked the ZA settings on my desktop. It also ended in 100 or 101
and so I changed THAT to 103 and now all works. Two questions:

1) Why would the IP address suddenly change like that?

2) Why did it work when I disabled ZA in my laptop (without making any
changed to ZA on my dsesktop)

Mel

Do a little research on the term "DHCP."

Briefly, your router has software called a "DHCP server" whose function
it is to assign IP addresses to all of the computers on your LAN
(assuming that you have configured those computers t"obtain an IP
address automatically, which is the default).

As computers are connected and disconnected from the network (e.g.,
turned on and off), it may easily happen that a computer that had been
assigned a given IP address (e.g., 192.168.1.100) may, when it's turned
back on, be given a different IP address (e.g., 192.168.1.103) by the
router's DHCP server because the first one is now in use by some other
device.

This is the reason that firewalls are usually configured to allow a
*range* of IP addresses (e.g., 192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.110) rather
than exact IP addresses.

You're only safe doing the latter if you have configured your computers
to use "static" IP addresses so that each computer always retains its
configured IP address.

 

[Mel]

Lem:

Thanks for responding. That explains part of my query. But what I really
don't understand is why the following sequence occurred:

1) Delete ZA from laptop and it works.

2) Add the new ip adress to ZA on my laptop and it still doesn't work. I
WOULD EXPECT IT TO WORK SINCE IT WORKED WHEN I DELETED ZA FROM THE LAPTOP

3) Do #2 above and then add the new ip address to the ZA desktop and all is
good.

 

[smlunatick]

Well, this is strange. I typed ipconfig/all for my desktop and the IP
address was different than specified in ZA.
It was 192.168.1.103

Previously it had ended in 101 according to my ZA settings.

So I changed this in my laptop ZA settings but it still didn't work. But
then I checked the ZA settings on my desktop. It also ended in 100 or 101
and so I changed THAT to 103 and now all works. Two questions:

1) Why would the IP address suddenly change like that?

2) Why did it work when I disabled ZA in my laptop (without making any
changed to ZA on my dsesktop)

Mel

You have a service / device / server that is doing DHCP IP address
"servicing." DHCP service assigns IP address, from within a IP range,
to any network interface that request an IP. You need to assign you
local area network address range (192.168.1.1 -- 192.168.1.254) to
your trusted networks in ZA, instead of just one address.