OT: dialup firewalling / freeserve

I know this is OT so i`ll apologise now, but i`m guessing i`ll get a more
accurate answer from you chaps than from a "narrowband" newsgroup.

I was called in to an elderly relatives` machine earlier today to install
a virus checker and sort out a firewall. (Their McCrappee had just
expired)

The virus checker went in as well as could be expected given the age of
the machine (48Mb 166Mhz...) but i`m getting weird behaviour from an
older version of ZoneAlarm (2.x) which does all she`d need on 98SE
without graphical bloat.

Freeserve connects slightly differently to what i`ve come across before,
and i`m not sure if this might be the cause of the problem - in the form
of surname1234.fsnet.co.uk - I know this shouldn`t be classed as the
"local zone" being an external network, but when starting any apps like
an email program, there is no prompt from ZA to ask if I want to let it
out, and the apps remain unable to connect externally.

I didn`t have chance to uninstall it again tonight, but everything was
working immediately prior to installing ZA, and left me rather confused.
I even tried reducing the local and internet zone security to medium to
see if that would kickstart something. No dice. The browser did still
work, but that was pre-configured by the installer.

Have I missed something really dumb ?

TIA :-}

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if i remember this also affected a few AOL users too

turn off ZA

try again

and reinstall ZA , then go through the automatic option to configure progs

or try sygate personal firewall

Hope this helps .

Mark


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.744 / Virus Database: 496 - Release Date: 24/08/2004

> if i remember this also affected a few AOL users too
> turn off ZA
> try again
> and reinstall ZA , then go through the automatic option to configure progs

I`ve installed it on countless systems over the years (*every* PC i`ve
ever come into contact with that didn`t have a firewall in fact) but i`d
never seen this behaviour before...

> or try sygate personal firewall

hmm... at a push, but as its for someone else, and i`ve got no experience
with sygate / tpf etc i`d rather stick with something I can diagnose
remotely by phone if possible :-}

> Hope this helps .

Me too :-}

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