Microsoft update interferes w/ZoneAlarm
 

This may be old news but yesterday's (7/8/08) Microsoft updates cause most ZoneAlarm users to not access the internet. This was driving me crazy as pings would work but browsing to the same addys wouldn't.

ZoneLabs official response is to roll back the update.

http://forums.zonealarm.com/zonelabs...l&message.id=6

You can also set the Internet Zone Security level to medium although neither solution is ideal. Some folks are jumping ship to Comodo firewall.

Anyway if you're reading this you're not affected :) but if another machine seems to not access the internet keep this in mind.

Heh, and it definitely happens. I was just dealing with this earlier today, there's a lab here at work that has had someone else go through and do all their security setup, and they use Zonealarm. Half the computers in the lab sorta couldn't access the internet. (Oddly, they could traceroute though). Haven't liked Zonealarm for a while, this didn't help the cause.

Interesting write up on the events that caused the patch to be created here, http://blog.washingtonpost.com/secur...et_tues_1.html. Although I still don't understand what went wrong, or what is being fixed.

The ZoneAlarm lock out isn't mentioned until the final paragraph. And given some of the quotes, it seems safe to hold off on the patch for a few days.

Conflict between KB951748 and ZA Firewall
 

I am running Windows XP Pro and ZA Firewall/Anti-spyware. I also have AT&T DSL at home. I've been doing system restore in the last two days in order to get back online. :mad:

I suspect it was due to the recent Windows updates because I had perfect internet access up till the reboot after updates. After googling, folks said XP KB951748 is causing the problem for no internet. I also saw two suggestions:
A. Remove KB951748; 0r
B. Set Zone Alarm to "Medium" instead of "High".

Where else will I will find better advice? Voilà! I know FT will have a thread on this! :D

What can a non-techie do to avoid the headache? I set up my system to notify me when Windows updates are available/ready to install. Right now, the yellow icon is sitting in my system tray, prompting me to install two things (KB951748 & Malicious software removal tool July 2008-KB890830). I know I have to de-select KB951748 so not to lose my internet AGAIN after reboot.

I assume the system will keep bugging/notifying me to install the bad guy whenever I use my computer. :(

Is there any EASY & qickie workaround before Microsoft releases a newer fix? I rather not to perform another system restore and I don't want to change my ZA settings from High to Medium. TIA!

ZoneAlarm claims to have a new version 7.0.483 available that fixes the problem.

Where do you see that? It is not on their release history page, nor does ZA itself recognize that an update is available past ver 7.0.473.000.

http://forums.zonealarm.org/zonelabs/
http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/fr...cessIssue.html
http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/fr...483_000_en.exe

funny, I didn't read this thread, but knew as soon as the update installed last night and nothing on the internet worked, it was once again zone alarm and microsoft not playing well together. I only have one machine still using ZA, it's just too much hassle to go through all the time.

This page has all the new versions and manual instructions for those who don't want to download the new ZA.

http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/fr...cessIssue.html

It also totally stinks they didn't push this update out immediatly or send a notice to people explaining to upgrade.

I waited until this afternoon to do the update and blam... no connectivity, tho my iPod could connect...

time for a rollback, and everything worked fine...

There's no need to roll back.

Deactivate zone alarm (right click, exit in the system tray)

Go to the zonealarm home page

Wait, because apparently everybody on the planet is doing this

Click on the giant yellow warning on the right for the microsoft update

Download and install, reboot and start answering allowed to everything all over again

I've been sitting without home internet for two days figuring it was a Comcast outage. Fortunately I finally got impatient and searched for this answer. Just converted both my home computers to this new and improved version of Zonealarm that plays better with Windows. Boo to Zonelabs.

In ZoneAlarm I changed my Internet Zone Security from High to Medium and that fixed the problem.

I installed and happy used the earlier versions of ZA but it became so bloated a couple of years ago it caused problems on every computer I had. Goodbye ZA.

MisterNice

Poor, poor MS only users :-))

I (my daughter) encountered the same problem - easy to locate the culprit

1/ Boot into Linux - net works like a charm, so router, ISP, etc problems are not the reason

2/ Result - either XP or ZA borked, go to ZA site DL new version, daughter happy again.
:)