Assistance with zone alarm requested.

Hello, my name is Forsaken Knight (F.K. for short). I recently changed locations and have a dilemma with my zone alarms fire wall. It seems that my fire wall is blocking the internet and its entirety. At my old location, it worked fine, no problems at all. Now, since I am at a new location, and a new provider, (new ip, etc.), I am having problems with it on while wanting to surf the net. Therefore, I am asking for assistance in reinabling my fire wall with my current location. The set up is about the same, except for the modem and ip, (and associated stuff). Any help will be appreciated.

Thank you to all whom will help me upon this matter.

 

O.k.; I got my fire wall to work while surfing the web. At first, I wasn't sure how to fix it. So, I went into zone alarm, looked at the fire wall tab (on the left), and clicked on the "zones" tab. Here, I looked at the (this is based off of my system), the NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller, the DHCP Server, the Loopback adapter, and the router, (the last one I added on when I moved). I then opened up the command prompt by going to start, clicking on run, and typing "cmd" into the blank bar in the run window. I then typed "ipconfig" into the window that follows. I saw that the information was the same as it was the day before. So, I then typed in the command prompted window, "ipconfig/all ". this showed all that I needed to compare with what my fire wall was saying. Then, I looked and compared the DHCP Servers'. They were different, so, I clicked on the appropriate cell for the ip address/site, and changed it accordingly. I then did "ipconfig/all" again on the command prompt (cmd) window. It was fine then, so, I then closed the windows, and clicked on internet explorer. The same error occured. Therfore, I went back, opened up both, zone alarm, and cmd. I then typed "ipconfig/all" to see if anything at all has changed; nothing did. So, at this point I'm thinking I must release the ip address, and get a new one. So, I then type "ipconfig/release" into the cmd window. After a minute or two, the window showed that the same things that are displayed when you type "ipconfig" into the cmd window appears; each either blank or with "0.0.0.0" respectively. I had the zone alarm window open to the firewall/zones tab; the information matched. I then typed "ipconfig/renew" into cmd, This took a bit, but a new ip address apeared in the zone alarm, as well as in the cmd window.

Note: I'm not sure if the following happened as I was performing "ipconfig/release ", or "ipconfig/renew ", but this message, (or similiar one) appeared. "After a minute or two of waiting, I got an error, that the system could not retrieve the ip address for some reason." Note: I continued, regardless of the message I recieved.

Anyways, after a few minutes, I noticed that my pc was starting to freeze. Well, I didn't want any damaged to be dealt to my pc, so I did a force shutdown. I waited a few seconds, and then turned my pc back on. After waiting for a couple of minutes, I logged back in, and tested the internet explorer out. No progress thus far. So, I then went into the program control tab on the left side of the zone alarm window, I then clicked on the programs tab and scrolled through the list. several things were either allowed, or blocked. I know most of them I did my self.

(Actually, I have my system set up so it asks' me for permission of the programs actions, if I am going to do something regularly, then I check the box in the pop up for it to be allowed from that point on. This way, if anything were to use a program I have, then there is a somewhat good chance that I'll catch a program trying to do things on its own. This is just a paranoid caution of mine). Now back onto the subject at hand.

I looked through the list, and started making stuff with that had the allow sign, (green check mark), or the block sign, (red "X "), to the ask sign, (blue question mark). Eventually, I worked my way from the bottom up, and things that had given a pop up message like, changing such a system setting may cause problems. I left those for last. I then checked to see after checking through the whole list if the internet would work with zone alarm active. It didn't, so I went back and started looking at those programs that gave such a message.

Now, I'm not sure if it was the "Generic Host Process for Win32 Services ", or something else, but everthing that had an "X ", I made it a "? ". After that, I then tested out the internet explorer, it worked. After some common test sites, it proved to be working as efficiently as before.

Now, I think I should make a distinquishing note here. When in zone alarm, under program control/programs, if something is allowed on the "Access" column, and blocked on the "Server" column, then the fire wall may conclict with a legitamite program. Keep this, and other key parts in mind in the future for all whom may read this thread.

Now, this thread is resolved, (ironically, by the person whom started it). Now, I hope that in the future, for users whom may come across this problem, and find this thread, to find it helpful. Either way, all the best, to all whom this problem apply to.

Note: This issue applies to users whom have zone alarm, (free version). It also applies to users whom have windows xp professional service pack two; as well as, people whom use internet explorer.

Note #2: The reason that I am giving such a thorough explaination is, because, so that when people look up such a similiar problem in the site's data base, that a full step by step explaination of a possible solution is ready at hand for any user needing it. Or, at least something close enough to that, ( ).