Talk:ZoneAlarm

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Written in assembly?[edit]

This seems highly unlikely. One of the system requirements is .NET. Where does this information come from? It was added at https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ZoneAlarm&oldid=674570604

I'm tagging it as Citation Needed.Saturnalia0 (talk) 13:32, 19 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move[edit]

Zone Alarm → ZoneAlarm – {The proper name of the product is one word. The two word name is used only in the page title and a link to a site using the incorrect title. The page with the proper is currently a redirect which has been retargeted. … Please share your opinion at Talk:Zone Alarm. —[[|User:BioTube|BioTube]] 05:22, 30 July 2006 (UTC)} copied from the entry on the WP:RM page

Survey[edit]

Add *Support or *Oppose followed by an optional one-sentence explanation, then sign your opinion with ~~~~

Discussion[edit]

Page has been moved - Trevor MacInnis (Contribs) 11:40, 30 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Suspicious Behavior[edit]

While monitoring traffic on my network, I caught ZoneAlarm sending encrypted text strings to hs2.zonelabs.com

I wouldn't have thought much of this if it wasn't for the fact that I have Check for Updates set to Manually and Contact With ZoneAlarm set to Alert me with a pop-up before I make contact. Which means ZoneAlarm shouldn't be phoning home without alerting me with a pop-up first.

Well, I searched online for a few hours, trying to find some info on this, and, from what I've gathered, it appears that this has been going on for years now. And it appears that Zone Labs has always had quite a bit of trouble giving a straight answer when asked about what ZoneAlarm is doing.

I'd like to try to dig up some solid references so that we can put together a section on this but I'm really short on time right now, so if someone with some free time would care to do some investigative work, I think it would be very much appreciated by many people. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.77.228.69 (talk) 17:31, 20 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]


There's lots of links to this story, alot which come from The Inquirer news article here http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1008265/is-firewall-spying —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.107.243.113 (talk) 23:00, 2 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Must be kidding[edit]

I have to change this: The current issue has caused a rumour that the Israeli government may be using ZoneAlarm to spy on people, since Check Point Software, the parent company of ZoneLabs, is an Israeli company. However "Iggy," a member of the ZoneLabs 'Team Z' help program, asserts that the rumor is incorrect [2].

Zone Labs have since posted a press release on their website, giving instructions for users to disable the covert communications while claiming that "no personal information is shared" and "doing this will weaken their security" - although no evidence was presented to support either of these assertions.[3]

Mentioning widespread rumors that were later proven untrue can be okay, but when the only source is a random blog (there's absolutely no indication that "Iggy" is really connected to ZoneLabs) and the rumor is seriously inflammatory, it doesn't work. The second part is also clearly POV. -Unknownwarrior33 03:34, 16 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Driver issues[edit]

Some users report getting a BSOD from vsdatant.sys, which is believed to be used by ZoneAlarm. (Reference) 68.43.41.106 02:21, 3 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Some mention that vsdatant.sys is related to ZoneAlarm would be useful, and remove the need for a vsdatant.sys entry (as requested on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requested_articles/Applied_arts_and_sciences/Computer_science%2C_computing%2C_and_Internet). --Sgorton 18:07, 22 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Is there anyway to configure it so that Zone Alarm starts when you log on, but not pop-up? Thanks. --Smoothtofu 23:38, 19 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Seems to turn off randomly[edit]

I've noticed that sometimes ZoneAlarm just turns itself off, and there isn't any firewall when I come back to my Windows computer. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.101.68.212 (talk) 20:46, 15 April 2007 (UTC).[reply]

Get Rid of Windows98/ME compatibility criticism[edit]

I think we can do without that criticism, considering that ZoneAlarm is now compatible with Vista, and a lot of other software has dropped support for ME and 98. Achilles2.0 01:29, 24 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Annoying ZA data dumping issue[edit]

ZoneAlarm keeps several files generated by the TrueVector service (csmon.exe) and the ZA client (zlclient.exe) in \WINDOWS\Internet Logs :

  • IAMDB.RDB and BACKUP.RDB store the program permission settings
  • fwdbglog.txt, fwpktlog.txt, ZALog.txt are textual log files
  • tvDebug.log is a constantly growing dump file shared by the two above mentioned processes that I read is requested by customer support during troubleshooting (mine was over 80 MB)

I deleted it without consequences (gets recreated from scratch at next restart), however it is normally locked for output.

After Google-ing around I found that to circumvent this you can use any one of the following methods:

  • reboot in Safe Mode (easiest but slowest)
  • schedule a delete-on-reboot by setting a registry key. Save the following one-liner as tvclean.bat (in Notepad choose *.* from file type filter in the "Save as" dialog window to avoid appending .txt to the file name):
REG ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager" /v PendingFileRenameOperations /t REG_MULTI_SZ /d "\??\c:\WINDOWS\Internet Logs\tvDebug.log\0\0\0"

This command assumes your Windows drive is C:

It must not be run if a reboot is pending due to installed software, since it uses that key too.

I also tried releasing the two file handles on it (can be done with Sysinternals' Process Explorer or Handle tools). It stops growing and can be deleted. Apparently no consequences, not sure. Good if you use Hibernate.

Gannalech 12:23, 3 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

About Check Point[edit]

Was ZoneAlarm acquired by Check Point or did Zone Labs rename itself to Check Point? I think the former. If I'm wrong, please correct the first paragraph. Also, when did it happen?

Gannalech 13:05, 3 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Some info here:

Check Point to buy Zone Labs for $205 million Posted on ZDNet News: Dec 15, 2003 10:39:00 PM http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5124542.html —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.254.93.142 (talk) 01:32, 10 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

[edit]

The section where the article explains what the security suite is sounds like an advertisement, it should be re-written. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 151.205.236.80 (talk) 02:54, August 22, 2007 (UTC)

I rewrote it but it still sounds sort of like an advert. This whole article sounds very colloquial and unreliable.  Dooga  Talk 03:07, 5 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Alternatives[edit]

I wonder, why is there no mention at all to similar products/alternatives. Not even in the references. Not even like a general reference. Often when people try to find out about something, they start searches with similar ideas. If similar ideas are not connected, then the encyclopedia might not be very useful for some purposes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.201.100.166 (talk) 20:56, 16 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

ZoneAlarm#Problems_Associated_with_Microsoft_Software_Patch_KB951748[edit]

This section is new and discusses a very new event. This is current event material and may not be necessary or even notable in terms of the article as a whole and looking forward. E_dog95' Hi ' 17:00, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]


Update

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Oldmanbiker (talk • contribs) 01:40, 5 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

They fixed it within a day. Suggest removing entries like this. This is only relevant if it were a festering bug that was not fixed.

latest release?[edit]

Infobox shows version 8.0.020, while the intro text says the latest is 7.1. Which is correct? (8.0 does not appear their release history: http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/free/information/znalm/zaReleaseHistory_vista.html, which says 7.1.254.000 is the latest) ~~ ~~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.29.184.143 (talk) 23:52, 12 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

sentence about Windows XP SP2[edit]

The first paragraph of the article currently includes this sentence: "It includes an inbound intrusion detection system, as well as the ability to control which programs can create outbound connections—the latter not available in the Windows XP Service Pack 2 firewall." What does that mean? Is the feature available in ZoneAlarm for Win XP SP3 but not SP2? Or is it not available at all in ZoneAlarm for Win XP? Mathew5000 (talk) 22:32, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I read it as a comparison; ZA has a feature which XP SP2's firewall didn't. Which would make it, not untrue, but past relevance. Jim.henderson (talk) 04:53, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I didn't read it that way at all. But looking at it again, you might be right; thanks. Probably those words should be deleted from the introduction. Mathew5000 (talk) 08:17, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

References shouldn't be to the company's website or to download links[edit]

References shouldn't go to either the company's website (since anyone can say anything they want to about themselves) or to download links. Come on, seriously. If nobody's talking about ZoneAlarm's features, then they must not be notable and aren't worth discussing. Banaticus (talk) 11:32, 16 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Which country's product is this[edit]

The article does not mention if Zone Alarm is an American company, a European company, or Asian company etc etc etc. Generally most of the computer security companies articles in wikipedia identify the country of production — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.145.240.254 (talk) 08:43, 13 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Check Point has its headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel. --85.197.58.95 (talk) 03:42, 16 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Controversies[edit]

Thinking of adding in a few ZoneAlarm 'controversies' alongside the scareware issue. Any thoughts?

Here are possible sources on the toolbar issue, for example:

→ozhu (talk·contribs) 17:01, 29 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

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