New ZoneAlarm 5.0 versions

What's really interesting about this is that apparently you can pick versions that have AV capability along with the firewall function or a full security suite ala Symantec or just the Firewall:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=33543


Quote from the post
Today, we're launching version 5.0 of ZoneAlarm, ZoneAlarm Pro, and two new products: ZoneAlarm with Antivirus, and ZoneAlarm Security Suite!
end of quote

Regards - Charles

 

ZoneAlarm notified me earlier today that the update to my free version was available, so I downloaded the 5.6 MB file. I installed it as an upgrade rather than as a clean install. I haven't played around with it any yet, but so far no problems.

 

Hi BOBBO,

The problems have been with the pro version's compatibility with McAffee - shades of MS's SP2 http://www.alanluber.com/pcfearfactor/news.htm

Its been "wild and hairy" over at the ZL forums for the last 2 - 3 days

Regards - Charles

 

More info on ZAP's security suite: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5218624.html

ZL imitating McAfee and Symantec - The Horror, the horror...

I don't know what to think of this - have not installed the new version yet. From what I've read, the components are optional. Quite happy with my present AV and don't want ZL into forcing eTrust on me.

Regards - Charles

 

The problem?

charlesvar,

Solved that problem years ago with switch to NAV.

Programmers and their corporations need to produce and market new software constantly to make a living: new versions, upgrades, you name it. So, new and improved often turns out, for me, to be anything but.

When competitors add firewall to antivirus, why not add antivirus to firewall? Then neither program has ideal expertise, and will provide years of bug fixes, pardon, "upgrades ".

 

I agree, I have an aversion to "suites ".

If you're saying McAfee is "worse" than NAV, agreed. I do use NAV2002 on XP.

BTW, ZL did issue a fix for the problem. It appears to have been a conflict with McAffee's Control Center. There have been problems with Symantec's security suite as well.

Regards - Charles

 

More info from Zonelabs on v5.0's AV features:

Quote
INFORMATION ON ANTIVIRUS MONITORING

GENERAL DESCRIPTION
This feature is present in all of our version 5.0 ZoneAlarm products (ZoneAlarm, ZoneAlarm with Antivirus, ZoneAlarm Pro, and ZoneAlarm Security Suite). It's meant to be a secondary alert system to support what your antivirus vendor provides. Most antivirus products include automatic updating, and alert you when your antivirus definition files become out of date. But if your vendor hasn't sent you the latest definitions, if your antivirus product's notification feature has been disabled, or if you're not running any antivirus that we've detected (see Coverage below) then our feature provides you with a warning as a second line of defense.

COVERAGE
Antivirus Monitoring currently detects the most popular antivirus products: Norton Antivirus, McAfee Viruscan, and Computer Associates EZ Antivirus. If you use a different antivirus product, Antivirus Monitoring will not recognize it at this time. This does not mean that your ZoneAlarm product is malfunctioning; your security remains as strong as ever.

We will be adding the ability to recognize more products over time. If your antivirus product is not currently supported, you may simply turn off the Antivirus Monitoring feature. Do not worry-- Antivirus Monitoring is monitoring only and has no affect on the firewall and no direct affect on security.

MONITORING IN ZONEALARM AND ZONEALARM PRO
In these products, you will see an Antivirus Monitoring panel. From this panel you can view the status of your antivirus product. You can also turn monitoring on or off, or you can turn on or off just the monitoring alerts.

MONITORING IN ZONEALARM WITH ANTIVIRUS AND ZONEALARM SECURITY SUITE
In these products, there is no Antivirus Monitoring panel because the products are equipped with Zone Labs Antivirus. When Zone Labs Antivirus is turned off, the Antivirus Monitoring feature is activated. Monitoring can be turned off from any monitoring alert, or from the Main tab of the Alerts & Logs panel, under Advanced Options. It appears as a checkbox under Antivirus Monitoring Events.
End quote

Regards - Charles

 

I’m wondering how many ZA users have upgraded to the new 5.0 version(s) and what if any problems with it.

Have ZAP installed on WinME - use Sygate on XP - and am not having any trouble with the new version; disabled the AV Monitor panel at setup.

Have been using ZA and ZAP from the 2.x days and like it very much, and very puzzled why ZL added this new AV feature to the free and pro versions. If ZL wanted to run a "Kitchen Sink" app - imitating Symantec/McAfee, then this should have been kept in their new security suite only.

I wonder also if ZL is anticipating XP's SP2 which will one) have a 2-way firewall with permission/denial, and two) also will have an AV monitor.

Regards - Charles

 

One of the non obvious problems that v5.0 may be causing XP users is with chkdisk:

http://forum.zonelabs.org/zonelabs/board/message?board.id=inst&message.id=12939

http://forums.zonelabs.com/zonelabs/board/message?board.id=inst&message.id=13363

Regards - Charles

 

Zone Alarm 5.0.590.043 release (21 June 2004)

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=37399

Zone Alarm 5.0.590.043 release (21 June 2004)

Will be interesting to see if succesful in clearing up the problems with the 1st 5.0 version.

Will install pro version within next 2 days - find anything wrong, will post.

Regards - Charles

 

ZA PRO:Known issues

ZoneAlarm Pro 'Mobile Code' Bypass Vulnerability

http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/366610


Known Issues with this latest .043 version:

The following info is in the ZAP readme. Tipped off by this thread at the ZL Forums - http://forums.zonelabs.com/zonelabs/board/message?board.id=inst&message.id=15863

Upgrade/compatibility
Mobile code settings not preserved during upgrade - When upgrading from ZoneAlarm Pro 3.0 or 3.1 to ZoneAlarm Pro 3.7, Mobile code settings (Block scripts, Block embedded objects, and Block MIME-type integrated objects) are sometimes not preserved. After upgrading, go to the Mobile Code tab to check your settings. [8385]

Log control settings not preserved on upgrade from 2.6 - When upgrading from ZoneAlarm Pro 2.6 to ZoneAlarm Pro 3.7, log control settings are returned to defaults. [8689]

Mailsafe doesn't support older versions of Outlook Express - If you want to use MailSafe with Outlook Express, make sure you are running version 5.00.2919.6700 or higher. [9219]

Running Zone Labs security software simultaneously with other firewall software may cause conflicts - We recommend that you not run other PC firewall products (such as PC-Cillian, Kerio, Sygate) simultaneously with Zone Labs security software. [12641] , [17734]

Certain versions of McAfee antivirus software are incompatible with ZoneAlarm with Antivirus and ZoneAlarm Security Suite. If you are using a version of McAfee that uses Layered Service Provider (LSP) technology you will not be able to turn on the Zone Labs antivirus feature. [18034]

Using ZoneAlarm Security Suite along with DiamondCS Process Guard program can cause your computer to hang. To avoid this, disable Disable DiamondCS Process Guard when ZoneAlarm Security Suite is running. [19591]

The virus monitoring feature may falsely report that PC-Cillin 2002 virus definitions are out of date and that auto-update may not be working. [18839]

MailSafe/IM Security
E-mail attachments with a .vcf extension with ".com" in file name are not quarantined - Zone Labs security software incorrectly quarantines .vcf files if the filename also contains ".com ". For example, a .vcf file named smith.com.vcf would be renamed to smith.z16.vcf. [16046]

ZoneAlarm Security Suite users with Spam Blocker set to Off for ICQ, may not receive messages from users who are not in their contact list. [19197]



Privacy
Web Filtering and Privacy protection may prevent some images from displaying correctly. On rare occasions, some Web page images may not disply correctly when both Web Filtering and Privacy Protection are enabled.

Privacy Protection affects banners in uploaded Web pages - If you use Microsoft Front Page or a similar program to upload Web pages to a Web site while Privacy Protection is enabled, you may find that banners in those pages do not display properly. To avoid this, turn off Privacy Protection before uploading Web pages. [8922]

Other privacy protection programs should not be used with ZoneAlarm Pro - Other applications that contain privacy protection features (for example, AdSubract) may interfere with ZoneAlarm Pro's privacy features. To avoid this, do not run other privacy applications simultaneously with ZoneAlarm Pro. [9203]

"Page cannot be displayed" error when first opening browser with Ad Blocking on High - Users occasionally receive a "Page cannot be displayed" error the first time they open a browser after deleting temporary Internet files with Ad blocking set to High. If this occurs, click the browser's Refresh button. [9354]

IE/MSN Cookies to keep sometimes not displayed - After running Cache Cleaner with "Clean locked index.dat files" and "Clean IE/MSN Cookies" selected, cookies used are not displayed under "IE/MSN cookies to keep." To correct this, restart your computer. [11613]

MSN Explorer auto-complete data not removed by Cache Cleaner - Running Cache Cleaner removes Internet Explorer form auto-complete data, but doesn’t remove MSN Explorer auto-complete data. [11687]

Rediff Mail inbox unavailable when third-party cookies are blocked. If you are using Rediff Mail and cannot access your inbox, modify your privacy settings to allow third-party cookies. [18668]

Hardware
Dashboard flickers - When Zone Labs Security software is run on a computer with a slow processor, the dashboard may flicker.

Logitech cordless mouse problems - If you are using Windows 2000 or Windows XP along with a Logitech cordless mouse, you may experience problems. To resolve this issue, go to Program Control|Programs, and look for an entry called "Logitech Events Handler Application ". If you find this entry, click in the Access Column under the Internet heading and select Allow from the menu. [14277

Third-party software
VPN client error - When running Zone Labs Security software with a Cisco VPN client, you may receive the VPN error message, "System Error: Unable to retrieve connection status." To avoid this, add the client computer's loopback address to the Trusted Zone, and give access permission and server permission to the VPN client. [7212]

When you install Cisco VPN client, then install a 4.x version of Zone Labs Security software, Zone Labs Security software upgrades a .dll that is also used by the Cisco VPN client. If you either uninstall Zone Labs Security software 4.x or install an earlier version, you must also uninstall the Cisco VPN client, otherwise the shared .dll will not be downgraded to a compatible version. [11913]

Built in XP firewall prevents FTP - The built-in XP firewall can interfere with Zone Labs Security software handling of active FTP traffic. This may result in incoming FTP traffic being blocked by Zone Labs Security software. To solve this problem, either use passive FTP, or turn off the XP firewall. [8456]

Alerts not forwarded from ICS gateway to client - When "Forward alerts from gateway to this computer" option is selected under ICS setup, alerts are sometimes not displayed on the ISC client computer. [8462]

Windows Media Player v 9 requires server permission for RTSPU streaming media - In order to receive streaming video via the RTSPU protocol (RTSP over UDP) Windows Media Player version 9 needs to be given server permission in Zone Labs Security software. [9178]

Single host computer networks automatically added to Internet Zone. - By design in ZoneAlarm Pro 3.7, detected networks with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.255 are automatically added to the Internet Zone without the intervention of a New Network alert or Network Configuration Wizard. These networks consist only of the host computer itself. Such network detections normally occur when connecting to an ISP, either via dial-up or DSL connection. [8512]

If you are running the F-Secure Anti-Virus application, you might occasionally see a program alert whose name begins with "Object ID" instead of the actual program name.

Radmin software users on Win9x/WinMe platforms - If the "remote screen is controlled by mouse and keyboard" feature is enabled, clear the "protect the client" option in the Overview|Preferences tab. [11436]

Problems with Zone Labs security software and GoToMyPC on Windows XP- If you are connecting to a Windows XP machine that has the "Protect the ... client" option selected, remotely opening the Zone Labs security software Control Center on the host machine will block all keyboard and mouse activity. To resolve this issue, on the host machine, select Program Control|Programs, and give Trusted and Internet access rights to the "GoToMyPC Screensharing Plugin" (g2host.exe), then reboot the host machine.

To all this, I’ll add: this version has trouble with blocking browser referrer data to a web site – noticed in testing on multiple browser testing sites. The problem again is w/ mobile code options: Privacy tab > mobile control custom > cookies tab > 3rd party cookies > checking “remove private header information†doesn’t block referrer.

Otherwise, blocking javascript – vbsscript – java/activeX – mime objects options work on all sites or on a user selected site basis. Each can be toggled separately.

Regards - Charles

 

Below is ZL's response to this:

ZoneAlarm Pro 'Mobile Code' Bypass Vulnerability

http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/366610

Regards - Charles