XP / Zone Alarm caution

[SavantMan]

I have spent the last 2 days trying to solve a problem, and thought others might run into the same problem.

I had zone alarm installed on a laptop that I travel with to different clients sites. I simply don't start the program in certain environment and figured that would mean it's not running. NOT TRUE. If you use zone alarm, it MUST be configured for your environment, if not, you're in for trouble, whether it's running or not.

Don't get me wrong. Zone alarm is a GREAT product, and for people not moving from network to network, it shouldn't cause a problem, for those that do, know that it MUST be configured for each and every different environment. In my case, I simply uninstalled it completely on the machine I travel with. I still intend to use it at home and work though.

 

[SuperJon]

Built into Xp is the ICF ( internet Connection Firewall ) this is just as effective as zone alarm but with out any flash features.

Tie that to policy for each location.
MCSE NT4 MCSA 2000/XP CCNA CCDA

 

[fastlanwan]

"Built into Xp is the ICF ( internet Connection Firewall ) this is just as effective as zone alarm but with out any flash features."

Your point is just incorrect. ICF is a one way firewall by filtering by port number only. Zonealarm is bidirection and can filter by application as well as port. Also Zonealarm has the feature of being able to get help on what the log file entries mean and rate them by threat level as determined by zonealarm.

Zonealram is a full level above ICF but still not a full blown IDS. But you get what you pay for. So that makes Zonearlarm the best for no money.

As far as policies that can be done along with any firewall. ICF, Zonealarm etc... Just like tcp/ip filtering.



A+ N+ Sec+ SME/Sec+

 

[bcastner]

ServantMan,

Your warning is a good one. But I think you can stop the vector services in Task Manager.