Zone Alarm freezes peer-to-peer programs

[BernardP]

I currently use Zone Alarm with WinMX, Gnotella and Xolox. All 3 of these progs are very sensitive to interference from Zone Alarm: They will freeze from time to time and, most of the time (but not always...!) unlock after 30 to 60 seconds. I have read somewhere on this forum that Zone Alarm is also unkind to Gnucleus. I have a cable connection

My understanding is that Zone Alarm can't keep up with the number of requests on a peer-to-peer network. When I turn off Zone Alarm, everything works fine.

I have Gnucleus, WinMX, Gnotella and Xolox on my office computer, behind a McAffee firewall, and they all work without freezing up

I am about to move to Gnucleus at home, but am thinking first about replacing Zone Alarm with another free firewall. My first choice would be Sygate, followed by Tiny (which seems too complicated). I would like to know if these other firewalls also interfere with file sharing progs in general and specifically how they work with Gnucleus and WinMX.

Thanks



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PIII 550E
ASUS P3B-F motherboard
128 MB RAM
13.6 GB HD
ATI Xpert 128 16 MB
Soundblaster 128
Windows 98SE

[BernardP]

...No reply? :confused

Does this mean I am the only one experiencing this?

If this is so, then the problem might not be Zone Alarm.

But turning off ZA does solve it. This might be an indication of some other underlying problem.

Maybe someone has another explanation to propose.

[capri]

don't know the answer to your question, but was wondering how you managed to turn zone alarm off. My daughter is having a problem with it not allowing her to use MS Messenger but we can't seem to get it turned off.

[BernardP]

To turn ZA off, you have to right-click the taskbar icon, then go in the Configure panel and uncheck the "Load Zone Alarm at Startup" box

Also, if you are using the Desk Band feature, it must be disabled.

To do this, right-click any unused portion of the taskbar at the bottom of the screen, select "Toolbars," and uncheck "ZoneAlarm Desk Band"

After you have done all that, you must restart the computer. Zone Alarm will then be de-activated. When you want to re-activate ZA, you have to start it manually, then recheck the "Load ZA at startup" box

For more details, see:
http://www.zonelabs.com/services/support_install.htm#1install

[K G G]

Sorry BernardP,
I use ZA and McAfee AV --> no problems. But your config is over my head. Stick around, sometimes it takes a couple of days for the "right" person to read and reply.
G http://discussions.virtualdr.com/smile.gif http://discussions.virtualdr.com/smile.gifD Luck !


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NEVER get beaten by a machine that can only add 1's and 0's...

[BernardP]

Thanks for the moral support...

As an additional piece of info, I also use InoculateIT. I will try to turn it off to see if it helps

[Welshjim]

BernardP--Have you played around with (lowered) the various settings on ZA's Control Center|Security tab?

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Jim
WIN98, IE6, cable,
Norton AV, ZoneAlarm

[Canada Cowgirl]

BernardP:

I also use ZA, Inoculate It, and Tauscan while running WinMx and Limewire. Have never had a lock up yet. Thought you might like to know.

Cowgirl

[BernardP]

Yes,I have had to lower security setings to Medium in ZA to be able to make WinMX work. On the highest setting, the Gnutella progs would work, but WinMX was not able to "see" anything.

I have tried turning off InoculateIT but it does not change anything. Only turning off ZA helps.

If I do not find a solution, I will have to try replacing ZA with Sygate. But I am reluctant to do this as the problem does not seem necessarily related to ZA and could still be there with Sygate

Well, it seems I am really the only one with this problem. http://discussions.virtualdr.com/frown.gif

Other ideas?

[jeff999]

You might want to post this in the windows 98 forum. That's the only forum with a high degree of traffic. Many people who may be able to help you never check these "lesser" forums. Splitting up the board into many forums sounds great until you want a quick response. Most people in the win 98 forum use zone alarm so it will probably be allowed by the administrators.

[statesman]

Not much help, will I be, but the fact that u turn off ZA and the problem goes away would indicate that ZA has a conflict of sorts with the abovementioned programs. On the other hand I run WinMx, Morpheus(New), Kazaa Lite and Direct connect on high security settings thru ZA without a whisper of trouble. I am thinking it as a triangle here in that there is a problem somewhere, dont know, perhaps a conflict of a .dll file, within windows/yr P2P app and ZA or a conflict with another program that you may have running at startup with ZA or your problem P2P application. Sorry its a bit vauge tho, but thats what I'd be looking for. Hope this helps

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Warmest regards, Chris

Dell Inspiron 8000 Notebook
P3/600 256mb ram
32 mb ATI Mobility M4 AGPx4 video card
Win 2K Pro + SP's Installed on NTFS

Think OUTSIDE the square

[This message has been edited by statesman (edited 03-23-2002).]

[BernardP]

OK, Thanks to all

I will be posting this to the Win 98 forum.

...And to Chris, yes we know how messy these triangles can be... http://discussions.virtualdr.com/wink.gif