Zone Alarm doesn't like me!

sahun

Have just installed Zonealarm free firewall on my new Vista computer, as previously had Comodo but allllll the popups is gave for allowing things were 'annoying me', so thought id revert to Zonealarm as I had this on my previous XP computer.
Downloaded and installed it via 'PCworld', my computer started being VERY slow, so I suspect something got in between me getting rid of comodo and installing Zonealarm. Many popups came up telling me system32 didnt like Zonealarm but it proceeded to install, appeared to be fine, until after I rebooted for the first time. Zonealarm now wont work as it just says 'System error: Please reboot'. Now having rebooted 3 times, nothing has changed....

Please help.

PZH

sahun wrote: »

Have just installed Zonealarm free firewall on my new Vista computer, as previously had Comodo but allllll the popups is gave for allowing things were 'annoying me', so thought id revert to Zonealarm as I had this on my previous XP computer.
Downloaded and installed it via 'PCworld', my computer started being VERY slow, so I suspect something got in between me getting rid of comodo and installing Zonealarm. Many popups came up telling me system32 didnt like Zonealarm but it proceeded to install, appeared to be fine, until after I rebooted for the first time. Zonealarm now wont work as it just says 'System error: Please reboot'. Now having rebooted 3 times, nothing has changed....

Please help.

Why download through PCWorld ? - Have you got the latest version for Vista ( earlier version didn't run on Vista ? )

Download it direct from Zonealarm Website here

Remove all previous versions, reboot then and reinstall and reboot.

Works fine on my wifes laptop running Vista.

spud17

Another one being annoyed by Comodos latest offering!

sahun

phoodless wrote: »

Why download through PCWorld ? - Have you got the latest version for Vista ( earlier version didn't run on Vista ? )

Download it direct from Zonealarm Website here

Remove all previous versions, reboot then and reinstall and reboot.

Works fine on my wifes laptop running Vista.

Downloaded through PC world, because was the only place i could find it. (Couldn't find it on the Zonealarm webste, obviously didnt look hard enough!

I have the 32bit version of Vista, does this affect anything?

sahun

Ok have done what you said Phoodless, uninstalled what I had before and installed from the link you gave me, the download was nice and quick but then when the installation started thats where all the problems arose!
First of all it turned off my AVG resident sheild giving the error code '0x800703e6'
Then the computer went super slow!!

The errors I got during installation were:
1. Windows update Standalone Installer:
Installer encountered an error: 0x80004005
Unspecified error
This was at 12%
2. C:\Windows\system32\zonelabs\vsmon.exe
Validation failed for C:\windows\system32\VSINIT.dll
At 43%

No 2 happened again at 100% and while it was configuring.

3. C:\PROGRA~1\ZONELA~1\ZONEAL~1\zlclient.exe
Validation failed for C:\windows\system32\VSUTIL.dll
After configuring

Then No2 happened twice after I had told Zonealarm my experience fear of being infected, that i have antivirus and antispyware ....etc.

I then chose to start Zonealarm and No2 and No3 popped up.


As this had already taken me an Hour and Half I left the computer to do its own thing and went to bed seeing as Zonealarm had not opened up or anything.
Came back this morning with a message telling me the screensaver couldnt work because 'not enough system memory to run' and a little message saying 'AVGTEST: OLE initialization failed'.

So I did all i could as the computer was still running stupidly slow (as in I would click and it would take about 5mins to respond) and turned it off by killing the power. Turned computer back on, opened Zonealarm (myself), it did its system scan, said i should reboot, so i rebooted (clicking the restart button in the start menu) and now have the same problem: 'System error: Please reboot'.

So no change really, Im thinking that something has got into the computer, yet AVG and Windows Defender have not found anything.

PZH

sahun wrote: »

...I have the 32bit version of Vista, does this affect anything?

As long as you are installing ( or attempting to install - lol ) version 7.1 of ZoneAlarm ( via the link above ) then that should be fine.

Reading the Zonealarm forums - they do recomend that all virus/spyware scanners are shut down before installing Zonealarm.

Do a clean install by reading this link and then retry with AVG temporarily shutdown.

If that fails, I would download the installation packages for Zonealarm and AVG ( from their respective sights to ensure the latest and correct versions ), disconnect from the internet, uninstall all active virus scanners/firewalls/spyware blockers ( NB: You should only run one virus scanner and one firewall at a time ), run CCleaner to clean out any rubbish left on the system ( also run the Registry scan - but watch what you are deleting ), reboot, and then reload them both starting with zonealarm.

When I loaded Zonealarm onto my wifes laptop - it was already running Norton ( I know, I know :eek: ), but have since removed that ( eventually ) and loaded AVG instead - both AVG and Zonealarm run smoothly together, so it can be done.

sahun

im jsut thinking, could i potentially have some spy-ware/mal-ware/ad-ware/any other of those bad things in my computer that is causing this problem?

loudcox

Unfortunately, it's well known that zonealarm on Vista is a dog. As an IT professional it used to be my firewall of choice, but its affect on Vista was extraordinary bad, so much so that it crippled a machine with Core2 Duo and 4GB RAM.

Have a look at http://discuss.pcmag.com/forums/thread/1004379809.aspx for a fairly typical discussion....

sahun

thank you loudcox, i suppose i will just uninstall the zonealarm I have and go for something else....

Which firewalls would people recommend for Vista??

(btw if someone mentions comodo i will cry and then break something, as Ive had enough of all the stupid popups,which means i cant do anything!)

espresso

sahun wrote: »

(btw if someone mentions comodo i will cry and then break something, as Ive had enough of all the stupid popups,which means i cant do anything!)

Why bother if you aren't prepared to train it. Stick with the idiot proof one supplied with Vista.

:rolleyes:

sahun

espresso wrote: »

Why bother if you aren't prepared to train it. Stick with the idiot proof one supplied with Vista.

:rolleyes:

The problem is whenever i try to run a new program or well anything itll give me 10 popups asking for permission to run it, which i find soo frustrating, especially as i dont tend to have time for that, I had it set to learning mode, but it rarely seemed to learn, as if I ran the same program i would get the same popups again and again.