Computer woes (big time)

Molerj · Dec 23, 2002

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 · Dec 23, 2002

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 · Dec 23, 2002

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 · Dec 23, 2002

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 · Dec 24, 2002

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 · Dec 24, 2002

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 · Dec 24, 2002

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 · Dec 24, 2002

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 · Dec 24, 2002

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 · Dec 25, 2002

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.