you will get a pop-up window similar to
This page available as zA2-6-362.zip, about 292K
Getting the program:
Acquire the ZoneAlarm installation program -
It is free for personal use and may be found at this link:
ZoneLabs.
Click on the link: "_Download FREE ZoneAlarm_".
As of this writing (07 Aug 2004) the latest version appears to be 5.1.011 and is approximately 5680KB in size.
This page does not address the latest version, it only addresses ZoneAlarm version 2.6.362.
As of May 30, 2002, the exact file information is:
Be sure to note which directory you are downloading the file to.
It will take from 15-30 minutes to download the file depending upon your connection speed.
After you have downloaded the ZoneAlarm installation program,
An important note about uninstalling and reinstalling ZA 2.6.357 :
If you decide to uninstall and reinstall zoneAlarm, be certain that you perform a cold boot after the uninstallation!
Then, when you reinstall zoneAlarm, if you get the following warning:
"A required file VSNETUTILS.DLL not found",
just click "OK" and continue with the reinstallation! The installation
will continue as it did the first time.
Do a cold boot after the installation is complete.
About "broken" shortcuts after upgrading:
When I upgraded from 2.6.357 to 2.6.362, I found that all three of my shortcuts to zoneAlarm got broken because 2.6.362 uses the filename "zoneal~1.exe" instead of "zonealarm.exe".
This is not difficult to fix, but it is annoying that the installation program isn't smart enough to chase down and correct potentially incorrect shortcut link files. To fix this problem find the ZoneAlarm shortcut files; they may be in any of the following areas:
Change the Target of the shortcut files to read the correct filename.
Note: Versions of zoneAlarm prior to 2.6.362 displayed a splashscreen when the program loaded. Version of 2.6.362 apparently does not display the splashscreen.
After you have installed zoneAlarm, the natural questions arise:
How am I supposed to use this thing?
What good does it do me?
Well, the way you are supposed to use zoneAlarm is to configure it in such a way that it prevents undesired traffic between your computer and the internet.
Undesired internet traffic may be defined in a two very general ways:
For example, I happen to know that a program (named LEXPPS.EXE, see here) associated with my Lexmark printer is intent on connecting with someone, somewhere, out there, undoubtably the good people at Lexmark.
I don't like that idea, so I explicitly tell zoneAlarm to not allow the program to access the internet.
Likewise, there is a weird Windows program called Distributed COM Services (see here), which has little information written about it, but it wants to go online on a very regular basis. Rumor has it that it is sending personal info to the lovely folks at Microsoft.
I can neither confirm nor deny this assertion, but I don't like the idea so I don't allow it to access the internet either.
I do this by putting those red X's you see in the Programs screenCaps.
Selecting a green checkmark gives a program explicit permission to access the internet.
Selecting a black question mark tells zoneAlarm that everytime the program wishes to access the internet, you will be informed (by a pop-up dialog box) and you must give it permission on a per-Windows session basis.
The first time a program tries to access the internet,
you will get a pop-up window similar to
The "More Info" button will take you to the ZoneLabs page and
that page will attempt to tell you what the program does.
ZoneLabs is not above a bit of self-aggrandizement.
If you do not give the program full permission to connect to the internet,
then the next time it tries to run you will get the following type
of pop-up:
With either pop-up, make sure you understand what program is trying
to connect,
then click "Yes" or "No" accordingly.
In the second case, somebody out there is trying to get into your machine
and zoneAlarm will show the following:
I prefer to have these pop-up warnings active
so I know what's going on with my machine,
so I never "check" the "Don't show this dialog again" box.
Click "Ok" to continue.
With this type of alert, the "More Info" button is really useless
unless you're running zoneAlarm Pro (the purchased version).
It used to take you to the ZoneLabs site and their machines
would do a reverse DNS lookup for you so you could
at least know from what domain the intrusion was originating.
They have since discontinued that nicety.
If you want to know what entity is trying to get into your machine,
you can go to the following site and enter the DNS number:
http://www.arin.net/whois/index.html
This screen will differ based on your machine's hardware.
Security - Advanced - Add
This screen will change as you decide how you want your machine
to interact with the 'net.
Every time a program wants to access the the 'net,
you will asked how zoneAlarm should handle such a situation.
In general though, I would say there are few reasons why
a program should *need* unrestrained access to the internet.
The few exceptions I make to that opinion are for Norton Live Update,
my preferred browser, my Instant Messaging program, and my FTP program.
