if any of you guys use either ZoneAlarm or ZoneAlarm Pro i'd suggest you hold off on updating it to the latest version 5 when it asks you to.
i had severe problems after updating my LAN to the latest version yesterday. apparently the new version doesn't "play nice" with a lot of other software. most notably Anti-Virus software. it can cause numerous problems, from BSOD to random reboots and lock-ups. ZoneLabs are aware of the situation and the advise is that if you have updated and encounter problems then uninstall and revert to the older version. if you're yet to update then hold off for a while. the symptoms my machines all exhibited was to lose connectivity after varying amounts of time. from minutes to hours.

<tech support rant>

Doing tech support for an ISP (primarily dial-up), personal firewalls cause enormous amounts of problems in general for our users.  Doesn't seem to matter which developer - Norton, McAfee, ZoneAlarm, etc - for a large number of users they tend to work fine for a few weeks and then start crapping out (blocking all traffic or otherwise messing up network settings, even after being completely uninstalled).

In theory they're great ideas (preventing the bad guys from attacking your system), but given the sheer volume of problems our users have had with I can't in good conscience recommend them to anyone.

</tech support rant>

Now back to your thread in progress...

cheers for that, I've noticed that things were a bit wierd.

Thank you Wolf, as a ZoneAlarm Pro user I read the boards here, I downloaded It as soon as it came out (it was late at night) I didn't install it though.........lucky I didn't. I was crusing the boards to see what I could learn that I didn't know. When I find out people starting to have problems several are so bad...........they have to reformat. I am waiting to hear That they have debuged and rereleased it.

no worries guys

there are loads of people complaining at zonelabs' support forums their reputation will take a serious hit after this unless they can come up with a fixed version double quick. but considering people have apparently been reporting these faults since it Beta'ed i don't think they're likely to be able to respond quickly enough.

*Looks at my OpenBSD router in joy*

My Netscreen box laughs in the face of all of this!  (if I had one)

Norton INTERNET SECURITY has always been the best (IMO)!

It draws heavely on resorces  

Quote (mabman @ May 28 2004, 4:06 pm)

<tech support rant> Doing tech support for an ISP (primarily dial-up), personal firewalls cause enormous amounts of problems in general for our users.  Doesn't seem to matter which developer - Norton, McAfee, ZoneAlarm, etc - for a large number of users they tend to work fine for a few weeks and then start crapping out (blocking all traffic or otherwise messing up network settings, even after being completely uninstalled). In theory they're great ideas (preventing the bad guys from attacking your system), but given the sheer volume of problems our users have had with I can't in good conscience recommend them to anyone. </tech support rant> Now back to your thread in progress...

I feel your pain.  There is nothing wrong with trying to troubleshoot an issue that is being caused by a personal firewall.  Half the time the users don't even know what a firewall is, let alone how to start configuring it.