Bits from Bill

Technology thoughts leaking from the brain of "Bill Pytlovany"

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Windows Update and Zone Alarm

I’ve had a number of people share reports of problems between the most recent Windows Auto Update and Zone Alarm. Due to the sudden death of our nephew Adam I haven’t posted sooner and may not be posting again for a little while.

Here’s an example of one of the Emails I’ve received from Andrew.

I've spent the better part of today trying to help my 72-year-old mother with her total inability to access the Internet. Tried everything known to man (AV scans, system restore, etc.) to no avail. AT&T tech support is useless. AT&T's answer is to refer you to Microsith, whose VM directs you to their webpage (how the &%$# you get there if you have no *&%$ Internet access) to "sell" you their services.

Finally figured it is a conflict with ZA, went to their page & followed suggestions. Personally, I use Sunbelt Personal Firewall (formerly, Kerio) as I have had MS/ZA conflicts in the past. http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Home-Home-Office/Sunbelt-Personal-Firewall/

Could you pass on this info re: MS/ZA in your blog and elsewhere? Thanks!


Both Microsoft and Zone Alarm are aware of the problem. Unfortunately, the only solution at this time is to change the Zone Alarm settings to “Medium”. At least that way you can connect to the internet.

I haven’t had an opportunity to evaluate if it would be better to reduce the settings in ZA or just Uninstall the update. Perhaps Andrew’s got the right idea. Might be good time to check out other firewall programs so you know you’re protected.



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5 Comments:

Blogger TeMerc said...

Coulpe of links Bill, one from ZA advisory:
http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/pressReleases/2008/LossOfInternetAccessIssue.html

Another from ZA forums:
http://forum.zonelabs.org/zonelabs/board/message?board.id=cfg&message.id=52727

I post both so users can decide which option may work best for them.

8:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

ZoneAlarm has released an updated version which (reputedly) solves the problem:
http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/pressReleases/2008/LossOfInternetAccessIssue.html

I of course only found out about this after uninstalling ZoneAlarm and installing the (free) Comodo Firewall.


And Bill, please accept my sincere condolances and I wish you strength.

8:29 PM  
Blogger Gordon Bennet said...

Sorry to hear about your nephew, Bill.
System restore to last point before update (Software Distribution Service 3.0) restored access for me. I then uninstalled Zonealarm, and switched to the free version of Sunbelt.

8:37 PM  
Blogger George, Group Admin said...

Bill,

My condolences. Never good news. Be there for your family, never mind our rants and raves (for your software).

I turned off ZA Pro. Noticed the upgrade from ZA just after midnight last evening. Upgraded and was able to reestablish ZA to full functionality with internet connection returned.

George

9:35 PM  
Blogger Corrine said...

Microsoft updated Security Bulletin MS08-037 yesterday:

"V2.0 (July 10, 2008): Bulletin revised to inform users of ZoneAlarm and Check Point Endpoint Security of an Internet connectivity issue detailed in the section, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Related to this Security Update. The revision did not change the security update files in this bulletin, but users of ZoneAlarm and Check Point Endpoint Security should read the FAQ entries for guidance."

There's background and some interesting links in the thread where Winchester reported both the problem and the work-around at MS update KB951748 and ZoneAlarm --- PROBLEM.

7:30 AM  

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