ZoneAlarmPro and Wireless (LinkSys)?

Hello,
I installed ZoneAlarm Pro 4.0 on all 4 PC's at home. They all have a LinkSys
wireless 802.11b adapter. They worked well for a little while, but I see
screens of "New Network Detected" and have to follow thru on "wizard". Once
done, it disconnects the PC from others so no drives/printers can be shared
or seen . LinkSys tech support was of zero help. All 4 PC's can still use
the cable modem. Anyone have any ideas on how I can make the PC's share
again? Thanks in advance ,,


Mike

Michael V. wrote:
> Hello,
> I installed ZoneAlarm Pro 4.0 on all 4 PC's at home. They all have a LinkSys
> wireless 802.11b adapter. They worked well for a little while, but I see
> screens of "New Network Detected" and have to follow thru on "wizard". Once
> done, it disconnects the PC from others so no drives/printers can be shared
> or seen . LinkSys tech support was of zero help. All 4 PC's can still use
> the cable modem. Anyone have any ideas on how I can make the PC's share
> again? Thanks in advance ,,
>
>
> Mike
>
>
If it is a problem with ZoneAlarm, it may not be fixable without
reinstalling the OS. I no longer use ZoneAlarm for that reason.


Can you ping each computer from the others? That is ping ComputerName ?

If not, can you ping each computer's IP address?

What level of security do you have ZoneAlarm running at? I had tons of
network problems running it on "high"... took it down to "medium" and
everything started working fine.

"Michael V." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:Cbmib.121456$(E-Mail Removed). ..

> Hello,
> I installed ZoneAlarm Pro 4.0 on all 4 PC's at home

Jerry,
Thanks..

Does that mean,, uninstalling ZoneAlarm will not do the trick? I have to
re-intsall the OS's on 4 machines (not to mention all the apps,
customization. ect)??

What do you use for firewall/security? With all the hackers attacking (my
network was comprimised through the router and one PC .. sent out many
un-athorized e-mail from my sons AOL account.. Hacker got.. passwords ect..

Thanks for the reply.

Mike VW





"Jerry Park" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:cbmib.6981$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Michael V. wrote:
> > Hello,
> > I installed ZoneAlarm Pro 4.0 on all 4 PC's at home. They all have a
LinkSys
> > wireless 802.11b adapter. They worked well for a little while, but I see
> > screens of "New Network Detected" and have to follow thru on "wizard".
Once
> > done, it disconnects the PC from others so no drives/printers can be
shared
> > or seen . LinkSys tech support was of zero help. All 4 PC's can still
use
> > the cable modem. Anyone have any ideas on how I can make the PC's share
> > again? Thanks in advance ,,
> >
> >
> > Mike
> >
> >
> If it is a problem with ZoneAlarm, it may not be fixable without
> reinstalling the OS. I no longer use ZoneAlarm for that reason.
>
>
> Can you ping each computer from the others? That is ping ComputerName ?
>
> If not, can you ping each computer's IP address?
>

i'm not sure what router you're running but i've always found mine to be
secure. try this link and run the free testing it provides.

http://www.dslreports.com/secureme

good luck

jtm


"Michael V." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:ORnib.121486$(E-Mail Removed). ..
Jerry,
Thanks..

Does that mean,, uninstalling ZoneAlarm will not do the trick? I have to
re-intsall the OS's on 4 machines (not to mention all the apps,
customization. ect)??

What do you use for firewall/security? With all the hackers attacking (my
network was comprimised through the router and one PC .. sent out many
un-athorized e-mail from my sons AOL account.. Hacker got.. passwords ect..

Thanks for the reply.

Mike VW





"Jerry Park" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:cbmib.6981$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Michael V. wrote:
> > Hello,
> > I installed ZoneAlarm Pro 4.0 on all 4 PC's at home. They all have a
LinkSys
> > wireless 802.11b adapter. They worked well for a little while, but I see
> > screens of "New Network Detected" and have to follow thru on "wizard".
Once
> > done, it disconnects the PC from others so no drives/printers can be
shared
> > or seen . LinkSys tech support was of zero help. All 4 PC's can still
use
> > the cable modem. Anyone have any ideas on how I can make the PC's share
> > again? Thanks in advance ,,
> >
> >
> > Mike
> >
> >
> If it is a problem with ZoneAlarm, it may not be fixable without
> reinstalling the OS. I no longer use ZoneAlarm for that reason.
>
>
> Can you ping each computer from the others? That is ping ComputerName ?
>
> If not, can you ping each computer's IP address?
>

Michael V. wrote:
> Jerry,
> Thanks..
>
> Does that mean,, uninstalling ZoneAlarm will not do the trick? I have to
> re-intsall the OS's on 4 machines (not to mention all the apps,
> customization. ect)??
>
> What do you use for firewall/security? With all the hackers attacking (my
> network was comprimised through the router and one PC .. sent out many
> un-athorized e-mail from my sons AOL account.. Hacker got.. passwords ect..
>
> Thanks for the reply.
>
> Mike VW
>
>
>
>
>
> "Jerry Park" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:cbmib.6981$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>>Michael V. wrote:
>>
>>>Hello,
>>>I installed ZoneAlarm Pro 4.0 on all 4 PC's at home. They all have a
>
> LinkSys
>
>>>wireless 802.11b adapter. They worked well for a little while, but I see
>>>screens of "New Network Detected" and have to follow thru on "wizard".
>
> Once
>
>>>done, it disconnects the PC from others so no drives/printers can be
>
> shared
>
>>>or seen . LinkSys tech support was of zero help. All 4 PC's can still
>
> use
>
>>>the cable modem. Anyone have any ideas on how I can make the PC's share
>>>again? Thanks in advance ,,
>>>
>>>
>>>Mike
>>>
>>>
>>
>>If it is a problem with ZoneAlarm, it may not be fixable without
>>reinstalling the OS. I no longer use ZoneAlarm for that reason.
>>
>>
>>Can you ping each computer from the others? That is ping ComputerName ?
>>
>>If not, can you ping each computer's IP address?
>>
>
>
>
It doesn't even mean that ZoneAlarm is the problem. However, on two
different occasions, with two different machines, ZoneAlarm completely
disabled TCP/IP. I was unable to restore TCP/IP functionality even after
completely removing ZoneAlarm. I was unable to restore TCP/IP even after
reinstalling the OS. Only when I reformatted the disk and reinstalled
the OS did the systems respond again.

For that reason, I don't use ZoneAlarm any more, and don't recommend it
to anyone.

If you use a router and don't open ports (run servers), don't open
unknown email attachments and don't download/run unknown programs
(without first scanning with a good antivirus program), you will be
relatively safe from viruses/worms. In addition, avoid using compromised
browsers and email clients such as Outlook Express.

To get back to your problem though, can you ping the machines?

> It doesn't even mean that ZoneAlarm is the problem. However, on two
> different occasions, with two different machines, ZoneAlarm completely
> disabled TCP/IP. I was unable to restore TCP/IP functionality even
> after completely removing ZoneAlarm. I was unable to restore TCP/IP
> even after reinstalling the OS. Only when I reformatted the disk and
> reinstalled the OS did the systems respond again.

> For that reason, I don't use ZoneAlarm any more, and don't recommend
> it to anyone.

I don't use ZA, but I also don't think that ZA had anything to do with the
TCP/IP Stack becoming corrupt on the machine, which is a easy fix to make
like 2 minutes instead of rebuding the machine.

>
> If you use a router and don't open ports (run servers), don't open
> unknown email attachments and don't download/run unknown programs
> (without first scanning with a good antivirus program), you will be
> relatively safe from viruses/worms.

True

> In addition, avoid usingcompromised browsers and email clients such as
Outlook Express.

I use Outlook, Outlook Express, and Internet Explorer and I have not had
any problems with them. The other stuff can be attacked too, after all they
are just programs running on the machine and they are not infalible,
because a Human Being wrote them.

Duane

Duane Arnold wrote:
>>It doesn't even mean that ZoneAlarm is the problem. However, on two
>>different occasions, with two different machines, ZoneAlarm completely
>>disabled TCP/IP. I was unable to restore TCP/IP functionality even
>>after completely removing ZoneAlarm. I was unable to restore TCP/IP
>>even after reinstalling the OS. Only when I reformatted the disk and
>>reinstalled the OS did the systems respond again.
>
>
>>For that reason, I don't use ZoneAlarm any more, and don't recommend
>>it to anyone.
>
>
> I don't use ZA, but I also don't think that ZA had anything to do with the
> TCP/IP Stack becoming corrupt on the machine, which is a easy fix to make
> like 2 minutes instead of rebuding the machine.
Yes. I know about fixing such things. Whatever ZoneAlarm did was unfixable.

>
>
>>If you use a router and don't open ports (run servers), don't open
>>unknown email attachments and don't download/run unknown programs
>>(without first scanning with a good antivirus program), you will be
>>relatively safe from viruses/worms.
>
>
> True
>
>
>>In addition, avoid usingcompromised browsers and email clients such as
>
> Outlook Express.
>
> I use Outlook, Outlook Express, and Internet Explorer and I have not had
> any problems with them. The other stuff can be attacked too, after all they
> are just programs running on the machine and they are not infalible,
> because a Human Being wrote them.
>
> Duane
>
Yes, but Outlook Express and Internet Explorer both can run ActiveX
code, which is not common with most browsers and email clients. It is an
additional and often exploited security weakness.

> Yes, but Outlook Express and Internet Explorer both can run ActiveX
> code, which is not common with most browsers and email clients. It is
> an additional and often exploited security weakness.
>

They have security features like IE where ActiveX execution can be disabled
and with OE not doing a Send Email Immediately. The products have many
features that cab be disabled or enabled to invoke security with the
products.

It's just that the average home user doesn't know what to do, but it's all
out there on Google. And it's easy to do, even I can do it.

Duane

Hello and thanks for all the help and suggestions fo far!

To answer some questions and ask some more.
I have a LinkSys Etherfast router-4 port. It is the LinkSys BEFSR41. The
link for this router is thus:
http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...rid=20&scid=29


In addition I have a LinkSys WAP 11 for the wireless access and as you all
are aware, the WAP 11 is connected to the Router. I have 4 PC's connected on
this wireless network. All have unique IP addresses that only differ in the
last 3 digits and that is ".100 for "first PC". .101 and so on to .104. All
4 PC's still have access to the cable modem, with the exception of the
Windows 98 system that was causing problems before.. it was holding onto the
..100 address and therefore it created IP conflicts with one other PC. All
the other 3 have Windows XP with all the patches.
- All PC's have Norton Antivirus w/ daily scans.
- Each PC cannot Ping one another.
- Each PC Can Access the router setup by enterting it's address on Internet
Explorer.
- From what I understand, this router has only a basic "Nat" firewall
protection.

- Even after one PC had a hacker intrusion (3 others were off) , I was able
to isolate the damage and then decided to install ZoneAlarm Pro.
- Zone Alarm Pro 4 and these systems seemed to play well together for a
while.
- Now all PC' cannon see each other, not can use an printer that is
connected to a PC.
- It all seemed to happen when Zone alarm, each PC.. one by one .. said "New
Network Detected" and took me through a wizard that seemed to cause these
problems. The Window's 98 system can not get any access to the cable modem
at all now.
- If I get all systems back, don't I need some additional security? I was
hacked for someone found an open port on my router. What software should I
use? .. hackers are always trying to hit people with cable/Dsl for we are
"always on"

I want to get back to having each PC see each other as well as use the
finite printer resources I have. My 10 yr old son has Leukemia and spends
time on one PC, but was printing to another, and he now does not have any
printing capability (no local printer attached to his PC and no room for
one.

Any ideas on how to get be back up with out destroying all machines as in
complete reloads of 4 machines and apps and data .. which would take
weeks?? I am upset with ZoneAlarm.. No support.. and LinkSys was worthless
after waiting one hour to talk to a tech rep, who was not very knowledeable,
I want my son to be able to print to the color printer.

I did use/try the XP home network setup wizard and it croaked. All PC"S have
same workgroup name which .. allowed them in the past to see each other. If
anyone can help me solve this problem.. I will send a 40.00 certificate to
your fav. store. Thanks again and hopefully can make it work

Thanks again!

Mike VW


"Duane Arnold" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:Xns9412F31A4CAD6darnold92insightbbco@204.127. 199.17...
>
> > Yes, but Outlook Express and Internet Explorer both can run ActiveX
> > code, which is not common with most browsers and email clients. It is
> > an additional and often exploited security weakness.
> >
>
> They have security features like IE where ActiveX execution can be
disabled
> and with OE not doing a Send Email Immediately. The products have many
> features that cab be disabled or enabled to invoke security with the
> products.
>
> It's just that the average home user doesn't know what to do, but it's all
> out there on Google. And it's easy to do, even I can do it.
>
> Duane
>