Hi all,

I just updated my WinXP Pro SP3 computer with today's Microsoft Updates. When I booted back up, I lost all use of Internet browsers and POP3 Email. It didn't matter which browser (IE7, FF3, and Opera 9.2) or POP3 (Thunderbird and OE6). None of them worked. I uninstalled the new updates, one by one. After uninstalling KB951748, Internet returned. I re-installed all the updates except KB951748. Internet was still working. I then re-installed KB951748. The Internet stopped again. On a hunch, I shutdown ZoneAlarm Free 6.5.737. The Internet was suddenly working again. I ran ZA again. The Internet stopped again. I shutdown ZA again. The Internet worked again.

So, KB951748 doesn't like ZA Free 6.5.737 (and maybe newer versions too). I am not sure which to deactivate or uninstall, ZA or the MS update.

What do you mean he's the Doctor? Doctor Who?

Holden

Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40 Ghz Asus P5KPL-VM mother board,350 Gb HDD,2Gb DDR2 RAM, Invidia GeForce 8600 GT card, Samsung 21.5" digital LCD monitor , Dynalink RTA220, Soundblaster Live 24bit sound card, WinXP Pro SP2, Altec Lansing Subwoofe

This may help http://forum.zonelabs.org/zonelabs/board/message?board.id=cfg&message.id=52727

Same thing here. Using ZA Free 6.5.737
I tried to uninsatll ZA and re-install, but no luck.
I'll wait to update my other computers till a fix is found.
Might have to switch to a different firewall but in the mean time still behind the routers firewall.
Denbeau

Microsoft update kills ZoneAlarm
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/09/microsoft-update-kills

Also, a discussion of the problem:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20759839-MS-update-KB951748-and-ZoneAlarm-PROBLEM

I had seen that dslreports link yesterday, & had wanted to get into here to put up a warning, but never made it .

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BANK OF AMERICA.COM ONLINE BANKING SUCKS IN THE HUGEST WAY IMAGINABLE

...but as I said before, this problem is not isolated to ZA. It has also affected the FW in NOD32 ESS. I wonder what other FW applications this has stuffed up and yes, there will be a lot of people who have lost their internet connection and won't have the faintest idea why.

Holden

Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40 Ghz Asus P5KPL-VM mother board,350 Gb HDD,2Gb DDR2 RAM, Invidia GeForce 8600 GT card, Samsung 21.5" digital LCD monitor , Dynalink RTA220, Soundblaster Live 24bit sound card, WinXP Pro SP2, Altec Lansing Subwoofe

You are the only person that I know of that has stated the update has goofed up ESS. I have seen others report using ESS with no problems after the MS update. Did you at one time run ZA? If so, I wonder if it didn't completely remove itself when you uninstalled it (this is not uncommon).

What do you mean he's the Doctor? Doctor Who?

Holden

Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40 Ghz Asus P5KPL-VM mother board,350 Gb HDD,2Gb DDR2 RAM, Invidia GeForce 8600 GT card, Samsung 21.5" digital LCD monitor , Dynalink RTA220, Soundblaster Live 24bit sound card, WinXP Pro SP2, Altec Lansing Subwoofe

Some talk of TrendMicro, some versions of PC-Cillan:

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BANK OF AMERICA.COM ONLINE BANKING SUCKS IN THE HUGEST WAY IMAGINABLE

My ESS running in Vista was not impacted.

Shelly

Comodo?

On edit: I had a minor problem with Comodo on my laptop running XPSP2. I'm not running Comodo on my Vista box but I haven't had any problems either. I had a weird error but nothing seems to be affect....yet.....
Jazzgirl

I just encountered this twice last night. Beth's parents called saying that their computer wouldn't go online after a "FireFox update." As I was ready to leave for their house, we got a call from Beth's grandmother saying that her computer wasn't going online.

So I went to Beth's parents' house and, after a couple of attempts, decided to shut down ZoneAlarm. Sure enough, it connected just fine. So I restarted ZoneAlarm, did some digging and tried setting the security level to Medium. This worked and I left for Beth's grandmother's house.

This one seemed trickier as she didn't appear to have ZoneAlarm running. I rebooted and restarted her modem, but that didn't work. I plugged my laptop into her router (using her network cable) and it worked fine, so obviously the problem was on her computer. Finally, on a whim, I checked her Services and there was TrueVector. Somehow, ZoneAlarm's services started, but not the GUI. So I started ZoneAlarm's GUI and set it to Medium. Bingo! Instant Internet!

I'll have to keep an eye out for any patches to fix this. I wonder how many people will lose Internet access and not know why.

It seems that Microsoft has done some major fixing of the networking part of Windows. I doubt Microsoft is going to change it back just so the firewall software can work again. So, the firewall applications will have to be fixed to work properly with the new update.

I will either have to dump my firewall or not get the new update (or turn down my security to "medium"). ZoneAlarm free has been a crap product after version 6.5.737. I am not going to download a newer version until it returns to its former glory. I really haven't found another firewall that I like. So, I guess I will turn the security to "medium". Thank God I have a router; so, turning down to "medium" isn't so bad.

What do you mean he's the Doctor? Doctor Who?

Appears this problem goes hand in hand with the DNS updates:

"Another flaw in the Internet?"
http://www.pcqanda.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=2&topic_id=486194

From looking (only briefly at this point), this seems the most common sense post so far:

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BANK OF AMERICA.COM ONLINE BANKING SUCKS IN THE HUGEST WAY IMAGINABLE

What do you mean he's the Doctor? Doctor Who?

Attachment #1, (jpg file)
Attachment #2, (jpg file)

Yes, that is correct.

Though I seem to recall at times, you would select High & it would jump back to Medium. Perhaps that was with more recent versions (or another product altogether)?

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BANK OF AMERICA.COM ONLINE BANKING SUCKS IN THE HUGEST WAY IMAGINABLE

I think that was a limitation of older versions because I remember that too.

What do you mean he's the Doctor? Doctor Who?

Fix now available from ZA for XP users affected.

http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/pressReleases/2008/LossOfInternetAccessIssue.html

Also note that not all versions of ZA are affected.

I'm running 5.5.094 (free) & installed MS's updates without incident.
(My firewall settings are High, Medium respectively.)

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BANK OF AMERICA.COM ONLINE BANKING SUCKS IN THE HUGEST WAY IMAGINABLE

Thanks for the tip Steven. You're suggestion works great even with Firefox 3.0.

it would seem reasonable for MS to test their patch against what is probably the most popular software firewall.

I get the feeling that the MS (DNS in general) security update is far more important then ZA working or ZA breaking (or any single application breaking). And I would not expect MS to make any changes on their end because of it (unless there are errors in what they did).

Now why ZA was not aware of these issues that have manifested ahead of time? Perhaps ZA was not considered important enough to be included with the group that put forth the DNS changes (in "secrecy") & so they didn't know?

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BANK OF AMERICA.COM ONLINE BANKING SUCKS IN THE HUGEST WAY IMAGINABLE

Old news, but, email from ZoneAlarm:

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BANK OF AMERICA.COM ONLINE BANKING SUCKS IN THE HUGEST WAY IMAGINABLE

A few days earlier I renewed my NOD 32 Anti-virus program and it was working beautifully; updates coming through, etc.

After installing the MS updates, I had no internet service and NOD was telling be my service was expired even though it showed and expiration date of 7-10-10.

I also use Zone Alarm versio .0.337.000.

After uninstalling the MS updates my internet service was back to normal, but I had to completely reinstall NOD the repair solution would not work.

Everything is now working fine without the MS updates.

This update really did a number on me.

Copper

The update from Microsoft is more important than ZA (if behind a router).

Install the Microsoft Update!

You have 5 options:

1. Don't run a firewall (only do this if behind a router)
2. Turn down ZA Internet Zone to Medium
3. Update to the latest version of ZA (listed above)
4. Revert to ZA version 5.5
5. Change to a different firewall (Comodo, Eset Security Suite, Online Armour)

What do you mean he's the Doctor? Doctor Who?

This is not complicated. Newest za version, 7.0 483.000, will solve the problem. I think the ZA folks were pretty quick with this, especially considering it's the free version.

Personally, ZA versions 7+ are crap. That's why I offered the version 5.5 solution.

BTW, I did offer your solution, even though I believe that it is a crap version. As some others on this forum will tell you, we try to provide the most complete answer possible. Sometimes that is providing more than one solution and allowing the person posing the question to decide which is the best option for him or her to take. Thus, I provided the most complete information I could, even a solution which I personally don't believe in.

What do you mean he's the Doctor? Doctor Who?