Computer woes (big time)

[Molerj]

Well, this all started in the computer stalls thread. I decided after reading all the tips to go ahead & download the free zone alarm. About 70% into the download, the screen started flashing & things froze up. I shut down & restarted the computer. I then deleted the zone alarm from my files because I figured I might have problems since it didn't seem to finish the download. I then signed on to the internet & had an error message from Norton anti-virus & also couldn't acesss any pages on the internet. Several hours on & off the phone with AOL didn't solve anything. (I have only one line, so I had to hang up & try their suggestions). I then called Gateway & was on the phone from 5:00 to 7:00. Solved some of the problems but still having others. It is now 1:00 am & I about had enough. I really think the ZoneAlarm started the problems. It may work for some people but it isn't working for this person. I have a Gateway computer, use AOL with a dial up modem. I guess some things should be left alone. Frustration wouldn't come close to how I feel. I have work to do here at home tomorrow plus I'm on afternoon shift, so I'm not about to spend the whole morning messing with this again.
Aargh!!!

 

[Mike_Dumond]

Hi Ron, I guess someone should have told you that Zone alarm and Norton don't always work well together. I used to run them both and had no end of troubles with my XP. Took out the zone alarm and no more problems. Not to say that everyone will have problems, but I've seen more with problems than not.

You may have to manually delete all zone alarm files and references in your ini files. Might be worth getting the neighborhood pro over to have a look at it.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I use SPF firewall. Sygate Personal Firewall. Works great and is free. You can find a link to it on hotfiles.com

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I have a router that works as a firewall so I don't have to use ZA. I don't know if they have routers for dial up modems but I have a cable modem and it works great. It allows me to plug 4 computers into the modem to access the web at the same time (sadly I only have one computer so I can not take advantage of that feature). But it is set up so that if someone trys to find my computers IP addy it finds the routers IP addy first and they can get into the router but can't do nothing since it is a dead end. The router is designed to put out its own IP and it is impossible for anyone to access my computer while it is running. If ZA makes your computer act up, which it is known to do, look at possibly buying a router that will work for a firewall.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Robert, Does your router watch outgoing messages too ? Just curious. I had bought a firewall software package called Black Ice a couple of years ago and then found it does not block or monitor outgoing messages. This feature is useful to catch spyware or the results of a work if you happen to get one.

 

[Gatorboy]

If you were 70% done downloading a file, then Zone Alarm had nothing to do with it. Until the file is totally downloaded can that program start running.

Deleting files willy-nilly can lead to some interesting problems.

How are you coming along?

 

[Robert_in_NY]

It doesn't watch outgoing messages that I know of. But it does block out anyone trying to find my IP addy. I also run Stop Zilla which blocks pop ups which have started carrying some virus files. I had my computer messed up by one of them and I still have to finish fixing it but since I started running the popup blocker I no longer have any problems like that. The popup virus snuck by AVG as I don't know if AVG could even scan for it like that? Once everything is hooked up and installed correctly I should be isolated from the troble that comes with surfing. It is sad we have to worry about all of this though/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

 

[Molerj]

Gatorboy, yeah the Zone Alarm was definitely the cause of the problems. It messed up
NAV, got an error message about not being able to scan outgoing mail or something like
that. It took the gateway guy two hrs. to get me straightened out. Had to uninstall &
reinstall NAV, which proved to be a little of a challenge. It kept leaving a symantec file
on the computer which took a while to finally delete. I tried deleting it by going to
'uninstall NAV' but that didn't work completely. I think things are working ok now. At
least they seem to be.
Merry Christmas &
Go Bucks--beat the Canes!

 

[MikePA]

As an example of the weirdness of the PC world, I am running the NAV/ZA combo on one PC (Windows2000 Pro) and the NAV/Black Ice Defender on another (Windows2000 Pro). No problems.

 

[Hank]

Human nature tends to blame the most recent thing as the cause of the problem, and often it is not.

It is also possible some other combination of hardware/software installed (besides NAV and ZA), caused the aborted ZA install.

 

[B7500]

If your sure Zone Alarm was the culprit make sure you delete all instances of ZA in your Registry Editor. Just removing/deleting a program will not get it all out. The registry editor will.
-T

 

[Molerj]

Thanks Tawoo, I think they are all out, but how do you <font color=red> delete all instances in your Registry Editor.<font color=black>?

 

[Trev]

1) BlackIce is utterly useless. Read Steve Gibson's page on his Denial of service attacks..

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://grc.com/dos/grcdos.htm>http://grc.com/dos/grcdos.htm</A>

2) Anything by Symantec is highly questionable, and I don't run anything by them. I used to alpha and beta test for Peter Norton, and I saw the quality plummet when they were bought out by Symantec. I finally refused to test for them anymore.. the bugs I'd report would show up in the release versions.. as if I had never reported them.

If, and I repeat IF, there is a conflict between ZoneAlarm and something by Symantec, delete the Symantec crap. ZA works as advertised.

The combination that work well for me:

1) ZoneAlarm
2) AVG 6 anti-virus
3) The Cleaner
4) PestPatrol
5) Ad-Aware

If you are running all of these, you should be pretty safe.

Note: On five machines I installed Norton SystemWorks on, all but one had severe problems with it. The one that didn't had minor problems with it. Just avoid it.. that's my advice.

Bob

 

[B7500]

Start/run, type in "Regedit" then edit/find. Now type in that problem program name and F3 will take you through all instances of it. Delete each one.
Good luck I hope I made sence.

 

[RoyJackson]

Start/run, type in "Regedit" then edit/find. Now type in that problem program name and F3 will take you through all instances of it. Delete each one.
Good luck I hope I made sence.

Use caution when you're in Regedit. You can really (REALLY!!!!) screw up your computer messing around in there. Unlike most other programs, Regedit doesn't give you that last chance to "save". Once you close and reboot (you need to reboot for the changes to be affected), it's done.

I agree with Trev...never had much use for Norton stuff (I call the Systemworks "Norton Scrambler" (a pun for those of you who remember that old motorcycle).

Zone Alarm and AVG both work well for me.