ZoneAlarm 18 May 2004 at 1:27AM in Techie Stuff 17 replies 1.2K views

wirm

I have been using ZoneAlarm for over a year now on three computers and have had no problems with it.

i consider myself an adanced computer user and frequently perform spyware checks etc.

But debeast said in his thread that it contains spyware. I'm sorry but I totally disagree! Never in my time of using it have I had any problems.

It is free to use and I feel is the best Firewall out there!

Sir IP

MisterT2

This week, it has just been mandated as policy for all PCs (and we have a heck of a lot of them!!). I have also been using it for years along with some more advanced firewall protection and never had an issue.

scheming_gypsy

sure i've seen a post on here somewhere clearing Zonealarm of being spyware... could be wrong though

scheming_gypsy

Yep, there is. Reply 38 on page 2 from Corey Bridges at Zonelabs.

No offence to Debeast (got it right that time) but from his reply to Corey's post i think he just doesn't like Zone Alarm..

wirm

We will have to ask him that!

I have tried loads of different fire-walls but I just keep coming back to ZoneAlarm. Have to say its great! Free updates etc. too!

dmxdave

Have to agree on this one IP, I also have Zone Alarm on a number of PC,s and never any probs!!

isasmurf

I've heard lots of people rave about Zone Alarm over the last year, so I thought I'd give it a try. The first site I visit after installing it is MSE (of course! ) and as soon as this site loads it blocks three attempts to access my computer. Is this normal? Oooohh poo, I've just got another one. I'm under attack! ???

BTW can I find out who these IP addresses belong to?

MisterT2

It all depends on what your network is. If you are on a corporate network, you can expect to be hit by DNS servers which are quite legit. You can perform a trace route (which can be quite interesting) or you can use the ripe database http://www.ripe.net/ or whois to find out who the IP belongs to. I freaked when I found my ISP had posted my ex-directory phone number without my explicit authorisation ....suffice to say they changed it very quickly.

I have seen some other software where you can monitor the connections in real time, send them a message (to say "please go away") and then forcibly reject any connection from their IP. I think its freeware, but can't think of the name off the top of my head. PM me if you want to try it and I will go search.

Alternatively if you run Kazaa, Edonkey, Limewire or any other variant, you can expect to be hit many times by various members of the RIAA that look to see what you are sharing and what you have on your machine. As Martin says, not to be discussed further, but I like to make people aware of the risks that they inadvertently run when downloading/sharing.

Hope this helps

LincsLad_3

BTW can I find out who these IP addresses belong to?

ZoneAlarm tells you in the logfiles who the ip addresses belong to - the column entitled 'Source DNS'. Still a bit cryptic, but easier to understand than "82.86.112.195".

And yes, the firewall will record a lot of hits. I am averaging about 25 per hour at present, that shoots up to 30-50 per minute when a new virus or trojan that randomly targets ip addresses is on the go.

I would be wary about ANY kind of response to these pings - surely the best way is to pretend that your ip address does not exist. Sending a message saying 'please go away' is like responding to a junk email - all it does is confirm that they have found a live 'target'.

wirm

Most alerts that you get are Pings, these are nothing to worry about.

Pings are just from websites or your ISP checking that you are online.

I would advice you to turn the alerts off in ZoneAlarm, doesn't make any difference having them on!

MisterT2

Hmmm - I must live in a different world. I have a hardware VPN though to a corporate network and generally have sufficient protection to avoid viruses. My network traffic is automatically routed internally or external through my ISP depending on the destination. I have one PC on the internet and I agree that hiding the IP is a good idea. With regard to logging, I have switched it off as I get far too many files generated and like to keep a fairly clean windows and program disk.

Anyway, my question is what pings do you see? I might have to look at another ISP and I have never seen pings from them or websites to see if I am on line. I have even run sniffer traces on the external net to find out what was happening on my network connection to my ISP. Please would you describe what you have seen as I don't understand why an ISP or website should stribe to see when I am online and when I am not.