ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite

Post date: Mar 13, 2010 8:16:43 PM

I'll start with Windows Vista Business. I had connectivity problems. This problem was present during winter months of 2007. OK I admit that these issues have most probably been sorted out knowing the Quality of service that CheckPoint provides. Back to the Point. I had major issues with connectivity with any network; LAN or WLAN, Corporate or Home network. Windows Vista used to give me limited or no connectivity errors every 10 mins or so. At this time I was connected to a University network through my halls. My first port of call was ipconfig/all. All the details such as Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, DHCP, DNS servers were all correct. then I noticed that the lease obtained was only 10mins. So I called up ICT service desk and asked them the what the lease should be and it turned out that the lease obtained was much shorter than expected. I took my laptop to the service desk and asked them to diagnose the problem for me and solve it.

A week later, I went to talk to them and guess what!? They didn't know what the problem was. They admitted that they had not previously tested ZoneAlarm on the Vista systems before but they could not find any of the settings which would solve the problem. They suggested that something with my LAN card hardware was wrong and that I should get it repaired/replaced. So I googled the problem and came up with some interesting forum posts. They suggested that Vista itself cut off the connection to the router if the pings weren't timed exactly and this was partly because of the new security system. So I uninstalled ZoneAlarm and just checked. This time my connection actually lasted 30mins or so. So Zone Alarm Security Suite was indeed playing a role reducing my connectivity.

I Contacted ZoneAlarm and explained them the problem and gave them complete details. All they replied was they had no idea of what was wrong and said that this had not occurred during thier extensive tests. So I was stuck with a couple of options 1)reduced connectivity with the firewall and 2) no firewall and security with full connectivity.

At this point I should also mention that I had in the back of my mind of downgrading to Windows XP Pro. So i went ahead and swapped HDDs. I had installed XP Pro previously on another HDD. Shove that in and realised I had Comodo Firewall and AVG free anti virus installed on it! So i didn't bother to replace them with ZoneAlarm until the Holidays had started.

Now I have XP Pro with ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite functioning near perfectly.

I concluded that the version I was using(one of the first full Vista compatible releases) had a bug.

Please do not hesitate to provide any feedback.