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General discussion

Long running Vista and Zone Alarm Problems

Jan 29, 2009 4:58AM PST

I have had a series of issues with Zone Alarm and Vista since Nov 2008.

I usually leave my PC on 24x7 as it acts as a media server. I had been running a new PC since Jan 2008 and in November started having Internet connectivity issues. I will have programs open that get Internet data and they will just appear to hang.

Whenever I try to launch something when this happens (Firefox, IE, etc.) I get a error message box saying, "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access them."
If I try to launch task manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del), I get a message box with the title "Logon process has failed to create the security options dialog" and the message within saying "Failure-Security options".

During the crash state I can right click items in my tray, I have Interent access via other PCs on my network so my Router and Modem are OK. I can access the start menu and click shutdown but this works only some of the time.

If I right click Zone Alarm in the tray and CLOSE it, I sudddenly get access to all my programs without the error messages and can connect to the internet again. I can then reopen ZA and things run fine for several hours until the same thing happens again. This has happened daily for over two months.

My other option is to press the hardware reset button because all other functions are locked. If I reboot, everything works for a while until the whole process starts again. This seems to mostly happen over time.

I have been through disabling all startup items using msconfig.exe. Uninstalled ZA and started from scratch with no luck. I uninstalled V8 of Zone Alarm and installed V7.1.254 and still have the same lock up issues. I dont have any other AV products installed so that is not a factor. I have disabled Windows Defender.

The funny thing is that I have had ZERO luck on the ZA forum getting this issue resolved.. There seems to be a coordinated effort to stifle discussion on the ZA Forum as my posts are being deleted and threads discussing this have been locked.

See the threads listed below. When I tried to start a new thread my post was deleted in 5 MINUTES so somebody is watching and censoring the forum.

http://forum.zonelabs.org/zonelabs/board/message?board.id=access&message.id=36638

http://forum.zonelabs.org/zonelabs/board/message?board.id=access&message.id=36638

http://forum.zonelabs.org/zonelabs/board/message?board.id=access&message.id=36563

http://forum.zonelabs.org/zonelabs/board/message?board.id=access&message.id=36557

Many ZA users have responded to these threads saying they have similar issues with these errors and have NO resolution. This is not related to the issue earlier in the year with the SP1 Vistal update as ZA put out fixes for that issue.

Any help would be appreciated here as Ive given up on the ZA Forum if its being censored.

Best Regards
mankeb

Discussion is locked

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So let's try this.
Jan 29, 2009 6:25AM PST

1. Why use ZA at all?

2. Comodo's firewall for Vista 32 is free too. Why stick with what doesn't work?

3. And of course I've never had any of those issues. Then again I don't run registry cleaners, torrent or anything that could be iffy.
Bob

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Ditto to long running vista and zone alarm problems
Jan 29, 2010 8:40AM PST

I have been having problems for months. I have vista 64 on a machine and regularly have conectivity issues. Close down za & everything free's up. It happens to a lesser degree on the other two vista 32 machines I have here as well. I have tried repeatedly to get help from za support but end up where they say try ... and call back. This is sucky get the pain off the phone so I can move on service. After hours on the phone I have had it. I am a long time za fan but have reached my limit with the repeated pop up questions from za combined with the endless ms vista questions. I was even going to upgrade my suite to extreme but since I cant get a straight answer from them, I have lost faith. I am ready to move back into norton, maybe 2010 version since from what I read it is more user friendly and stable.

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MSE
Jan 29, 2010 8:55AM PST

Microsoft Security Essentials is another option worth looking into...

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Zone Alarm Forum Censorship
Jun 28, 2010 9:38AM PDT

I have experienced the censorship on the Zone Alarm User Forum firsthand. My issue deals with ZA corrupting the Windows System Restore functionality whenever ZA is installed. I tried to establish a dialogue on this problem in the forum, but my posts kept getting edited, deleted and moved to subfolders that no on ever reads. This was being done by forum participants called "Gurus" that have to be Check Point employees. The odd thing was, almost everytime one of these gurus posts, they make the exact same unsolicited statement, "I am a user like you", almost to divert any suspicion of something going on. This is quite the shame - I have been a religious user of ZA since 2000 and had complete faith in the product until recently. When a company tries to jury-rig its own user forum, which is supposed to be objective and unbiased, something is amiss.

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Free choice?
Jun 28, 2010 11:22AM PDT

Why not pick the product you like?

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Zone Alarm
Jun 28, 2010 5:21PM PDT

I have experience issues with Zone Alarm Firewall also.

The only true fix I could come up with is to uninstall Zone Alarm. In its place I installed Comodo. I did this back in 2007.

Another firewall option is to use the one that came with Vista.

I am shock and angry to read that Zone Alarm's moderators are truly bad people. I am Happy that none of the moderators on the C-Net forms do anything like that. They only delete offensive and spam posts here. As for the Zone Alarm Moderators, one would think that they would be willing to help you out. Not going around and deleting your posts! If I was you, I would warn your family and friends against using Zone Alarm or any other product that there company sells for they are not providing help to users on there forms. That is I would have done if a company done that to me.

manmur