In Peaceworks <Peaceworks@discussions.microsoft.com> had this to say:
My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
I really hate to sound like a donkey but I'm pretty anal when it comes to
security, security is a process and not an application. I can only hope that
every computer user will understand that at some point and I don't mean you
specifically. I have real problems with ZoneAlarm and those problems are
mine and mine alone. You are free to use ANY software firewall you're
willing/able to use but please, for your own sake take the time to insure
you've made the settings fit your usage. While ZA may not be specifically
any less capable (they just recently started checking components to insure
that the running process was indeed the original starting application where
you could make any application named a trusted application access the
internet before) than the other available options it is indeed easier than
most but you seem to be capable. This? This is a compliment. It takes work
and dedication to dig out the newsgroups, add them, and opt to use them. You
seem interested in security as a process and not just sitting idle and
clicking the box when ZA warns you. My problem goes back to a marketing
choice with ZA where they completely disabled the ability for free users to
turn off automatic updates and then foisted numerous malfunctioning (and not
worthy of even beta status never mind release candidate) releases on
end-users. I have a number of issues with denial as well but please do read
on. As far as I know ZA, as a product, is an acceptable solution though I do
not and will never recommend their software until they've made changes in
their marketing practices. Again, that is my problem and mine alone. My
posts, the initial, secondary, and now tertiary, are meant to help you to
secure your computer and to understand the traffic warning that you're
seeing. They are not meant to bash a specific product but rather to decypher
the problem and give an answer accordingly.
If you're even more curious and, for example, you're not even on a LAN/WAN
then you could consider checking running processes and services to see
what's running. Have you file and print sharing enabled? Do you have a
wireless network? Where is this traffic coming from and what is it doing?
Are the other PCs set to index networked drives? That sort of thing is where
I'd start to debug this issue but in 99.999% of these cases it's legitimate
traffic doing what it's supposed to do and being erroniously blocked by the
software firewall and YES this even happens with my beloved Outpost until
I've debugged it or configured it properly. So, again, the problems with ZA
are mine and mine to hold. You can use any application you want provided you
use it wisely. Your posts show that you are doing so. My posts are only
meant to show you why this is being reported.
Enough said? Carry this down to the TCP/IP packet at the lowest level? I'm
willing to share AND learn from your experiences. I don't use ZA but I'm
almost willing to try it again now that I've heard a number of good things
about it's recent changes and functionality. I like easy and simple... ZA
provides that for the AVERAGE user but in the process of doing so it tries
to show it's working and this scares anyone who is alert to the messages it
pops up and doesn't understand the stacks or IP at a level beyond my
comprehension. Me? Personally? I know just enough to know I don't know
anything
Galen
--
Signature changed for a moment of silence.
Rest well Alex and we'll see you on the other side.
Hello Galen,
)