Zone Alarm issue

[Allen]

In regard to Zone Alarm: a few months ago, my XP Home machine got
slower and slower over a period of a very few minutes. I brought up Task
Manager and found that Zone Alarm (free version) was taking more and
more memory (of my installed 1.5 Gb) until the machine could do nothing
else. I terminated it so that I could finish the job that I was working
on, then uninstalled it. Sorry, but this was about six months ago, so I
don't remember any more details. I do remember definitely, though, that
it was giving me no messages to explain its behavior. Now I have to
wonder--was it telling me something that I should have paid more
attention to--perhaps a firewall attack? Any opinions? Would it be wise
to re-install Zone Alarm?

An aside--I wish that I had known about this ng back then; I have picked
up many valuable items just by lurking here.

To Rock: in some ngs it is considered best good practice to broaden the
scope of existing threads; that's why I asked about in in my post to the
firewall thread.
Allen

 

[Guest]

past version 5, ZA is a resource hog, and getting larger with each version.
good program however, but it does slow things down considerably

 

[Cliff Wild]

In regard to Zone Alarm: a few months ago, my XP Home machine got
slower and slower over a period of a very few minutes. I brought up
Task Manager and found that Zone Alarm (free version) was taking more
and more memory (of my installed 1.5 Gb) until the machine could do
nothing else. I terminated it so that I could finish the job that I
was working on, then uninstalled it. Sorry, but this was about six
months ago, so I don't remember any more details. I do remember
definitely, though, that it was giving me no messages to explain its
behavior. Now I have to wonder--was it telling me something that I
should have paid more attention to--perhaps a firewall attack? Any
opinions? Would it be wise to re-install Zone Alarm?

An aside--I wish that I had known about this ng back then; I have
picked up many valuable items just by lurking here.

To Rock: in some ngs it is considered best good practice to broaden
the scope of existing threads; that's why I asked about in in my post
to the firewall thread.
Allen

Zone Alarm Pro works great for many that have their systems running right
to begin with. You might try a ZA forum.

http://forums.zonelabs.com/zonelabs

 

[Bob Seymour]

Can you recommend any other free firewalls that don't have this resource
hogging problem?

 

[Jonny]

Prior to 6.0 version, that was the default caching control setting creating
the problem. Its an optional setting in those versions of ZA.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

I am still using ZoneAlarm version 3.7.211.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Rock]

In regard to Zone Alarm: a few months ago, my XP Home machine got slower
and slower over a period of a very few minutes. I brought up Task Manager
and found that Zone Alarm (free version) was taking more and more memory
(of my installed 1.5 Gb) until the machine could do nothing else. I
terminated it so that I could finish the job that I was working on, then
uninstalled it. Sorry, but this was about six months ago, so I don't
remember any more details. I do remember definitely, though, that it was
giving me no messages to explain its behavior. Now I have to wonder--was
it telling me something that I should have paid more attention to--perhaps
a firewall attack? Any opinions? Would it be wise to re-install Zone
Alarm?

An aside--I wish that I had known about this ng back then; I have picked
up many valuable items just by lurking here.

To Rock: in some ngs it is considered best good practice to broaden the
scope of existing threads; that's why I asked about in in my post to the
firewall thread.

I can't speak for other newsgroups. Like I said sometimes it's appropriate,
but in general it's not. In your case, your issue is totally different from
the OPs in whose thread your replied. Posting a new question in someone
else's thread is referred to as hijacking. It interferes with both you and
the OP getting help.

It's impossible to troubleshoot your issue six month later. Did you install
another 3rd party firewall? Or started the XP firewall? You should use a
3rd party firewall because XP's doesn't monitor outbound traffic.

Earlier versions of ZA had some problems like this. I'm assuming you did a
thorough check for malware.

 

[Rock]

Can you recommend any other free firewalls that don't have this resource
hogging problem?

"sgopus" wrote

I never liked Zone Alarm, though it's been a long time since I have tried
it. From Zone Alarm I moved to Sygate personal firewall which had free and
paid versions. Unfortunately they were later gobbled up by Symantec. There
is Sunbelt Software's Kerio Personal firewall. They have a free version for
a 30 day trial, and the cost is low for the paid version. That's the one I
switched to when Sygate was no more. I like it and have never had any
issues or problems with it. Also there is the Comodo personal firewall
which has a free version. I am trying that on another installation, however
I don't boot into that one very often. So far is seems ok.

 

[Rock]

I am still using ZoneAlarm version 3.7.211.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

sgopus hunted and pecked:

Geez Wes, you are waayyy behind the times.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

I installed version 4 or whatever and I did NOT like it. So I uninstalled
it and reinstalled 3.7.211. I had saved zaSetup_37_211.exe. I still have
it.

I see that I have zlsSetup_55_062_011.exe also. I might as well delete that
one.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Paul Johnson]

In regard to Zone Alarm: a few months ago, my XP Home machine got
slower and slower over a period of a very few minutes. I brought up Task
Manager and found that Zone Alarm (free version) was taking more and
more memory (of my installed 1.5 Gb) until the machine could do nothing
else. I terminated it so that I could finish the job that I was working
on, then uninstalled it. Sorry, but this was about six months ago, so I
don't remember any more details. I do remember definitely, though, that
it was giving me no messages to explain its behavior. Now I have to
wonder--was it telling me something that I should have paid more
attention to--perhaps a firewall attack?

Possibly, though personal firewalls aren't firewalls at all, but rather
snake oil. If you want a firewall, do it right and buy yourself a router
and deny incoming connections (the default on most consumer level routers).

Beware geeks bearing gifts: ZoneAlarm is closed-source software claiming to
improve security, yet ZA is opposed to the idea of open, public review of
the source code. Does ZA actually do what it claims to do? Only the
authors know for sure, and they're not providing any evidence in support.

Any opinions? Would it be wise to re-install Zone Alarm?

Reinstalling ZoneAlarm or any other personal firewall software is
inadvisable.

http://samspade.org/d/firewalls.html

To Rock: in some ngs it is considered best good practice to broaden the
scope of existing threads; that's why I asked about in in my post to the
firewall thread.

I don't have context to go with here, but unless your issue is identical to
the one being discussed in the thread, it's best to start a new thread
instead of piggybacking.

 

[Paul Johnson]

Can you recommend any other free firewalls that don't have this resource
hogging problem?

dd-wrt version 23 service pack 2 on a LinkSys WRT54GL works great.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/

 

[Paul Johnson]

Zone Alarm Pro works great for many that have their systems running right
to begin with.

With what source code can you back that up with? )

 

[Rock]

I installed version 4 or whatever and I did NOT like it. So I uninstalled
it and reinstalled 3.7.211. I had saved zaSetup_37_211.exe. I still have
it.

I see that I have zlsSetup_55_062_011.exe also. I might as well delete
that
one.

I never liked Zone Alarm in any of the versions.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

What firewall do you use?

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Rock]

What firewall do you use?

On the main installation it's Sunbelt Software's Kerio Personal Firewall. I
had been using Sygate firewall, but when they were gobbled up by Symantec I
moved to Kerio. It works well, doesn't cause any problems and is light on
resources.

On another installation of XP, which I don't use very often, I'm trying out
Comodo Personal Firewall.

 

[Allen]

On the main installation it's Sunbelt Software's Kerio Personal
Firewall. I had been using Sygate firewall, but when they were gobbled
up by Symantec I moved to Kerio. It works well, doesn't cause any
problems and is light on resources.

On another installation of XP, which I don't use very often, I'm trying
out Comodo Personal Firewall.

I want to thank all of you who responded to my post. Several different
firewalls for me to consider.

Allen

 

[Wesley Vogel]

but when they were gobbled up by Symantec

LOL Symantec has screwed up all of their stuff, so they have to keep buying
more stuff to screw up.

I may look into Kerio. Nah, they want me to buy it.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Rock]

I want to thank all of you who responded to my post. Several different
firewalls for me to consider.

Allen

You're welcome, Allen.

 

[Rock]

LOL Symantec has screwed up all of their stuff, so they have to keep
buying
more stuff to screw up.

I may look into Kerio. Nah, they want me to buy it.

Come on, take a crow bar to that wallet, it's only $19.95, and they do
offer a 30 day free trial version. Comodo personal firewall is free.