Zone Alarm Question

How do you unblock a program accessing the internet that has previously been set to be blocked by the latest free version of Zone Alarm? I accidentally clicked 'remember this' when asked by Zone Alarm and I need to undo this.

Thanks in advance!!

 

Right click on the Zone Alarm icon in your system try and click on "Restore Zone Alarm Control Center"

Then click on "Program Control" on the left.

Then find the program you want to change in the list.

Go to the Access or Server column and left click on it and you can set it to : "allow", "deny" or "ask"

 

Oh yeah, there's 2 tabs at the top here, MAIN and PROGRAM, you need the program tab open

 

Looks like this:

 

No, no no, Bill! Looks like THIS!

 

... and THIS!

 

... and also THIS!

 

Those question marks are only for "I haven't decided yet whether to block or permit this one, so ask me until I figure it out."

Otherwise, only your server (if you run one) has to accept contact from outside sources (the right-hand two columns), and most things like Windows Explorer and Word and Adobe don't need to talk to the Internet AT ALL.

For what it's worth, that's MY take on it.

 

Thanks, guys, got it sorted out!

 

As I see it, Bill (and Risus), the POINT of configuring your firewall with permissions and blockings is to almost never even know your firewall is there once you have it configured. The only times you hear from it are when NEW programs or programs that never TRIED before try to contact the Internet without your prior permission. Basically, you should never have to keep answering it and answering it, and ....

Tell all those things that try in the first few days that they can't. That's the right two columns. Tell everything that has a "check for updates" and such (that you want to use) that it CAN ... when you ask. That's the left two columns.

 

You're absolutely right Wiz. And I should have showed my whole permissions screen, which, mainly, looks just like yours. (It fills up quite a bit more of the page that way, thus using a lot of KB, so I cut the screen size down to facillitate the upload to MG.) The only reason I've set the apps. you can see to "ask" mode is after installing SP2 I'm a little bit of a Nervous Nellie about new stuff (and some older proggies) wanting out, so I'm monitoring everything and granting the "invisible protection" mode on a one to one basis until I see what's what. here's what the bottom half of the program permission
screen in ZA looks like.

 

Ahem *clears throat* uh, not sure about this but would like to know...

Just little ole me with a question:

Doesn't WORD need 1 (or 2) green checks in the left hand column for if you copy and paste from an internet site to a Word document (which I do a lot of)?

 

Or purple questionmarks. If you make ZA ask you if it's all right to let Word go rambling, then you know whether or not it's doing the walkabout at your request or on it's own hook. To check you could block the process straight across in ZA then try to cut and paste from the web. If you can't, put the checks or purple ?s back and try again.

 

Well, yeah, I knew that as soon as I posted, I just thought I'd take the easy way out by asking...

 

No, Pegg, Bill's right: When you copy from a Web page, you copy TO your clipboard. Word needs no access to the Web at all, but if you wait and leave the question marks in place for it, you'll eventually see that it tries to phone home at really strange times. Give it the two right-hand Xs because it shouldn't communicate with Redmond. Give it the two left-hand Xs because you never update Word by opening a panel in Word and clicking "Check for Updates." You get Word updates from the Office Updates site.

 

Didn't know that -- thanks, very helpful.

 

Hey, you're welcome. I was just looking for a good chance to give a lecture on setting ZA wisely, anyway.

Too many people have ZA and have no idea how to configure the Program Control settings. It's a kind of trial-and-error discovery process, because the ZA people give you very few clues. But I THINK I've got it more or less right now, and I'm eager to share the news with other ZA users who DON'T have it more or less right yet.

Your firewall should almost NEVER communicate with you once it's set correctly, because when you've set it correctly, the things that don't need to accept calls from outside DON'T, the things that should communicate DO (but only when you ASK them to), and the firewall just WORKS for you, but doesn't BOTHER you, unless there's a NEW threat, and then you NOTICE the pop-up, because it's so unusual.

 

Okay - mods, maybe you can put a link on the page where people download ZA from Major Geeks to something like a "sticky" that Wisewiz puts together so they can configure it "wisely".

Then maybe there'll be a little less work in spyware, etc. for others to do.

Just my opinion...

 

Quote Pegg: Just my opinion...
Which I share completely pegg Stick with the Wiz, he'll never lead you wrong.
Bill

 

Actually... when you copy text from a web page in IE, it stores the URL in its own private little Microsoft clipboard, word then connects to the URL and extracts the HTML (rather than just the text in the clipboard) to give you all the fancy formatting. If it can't get online, it will just paste the text (AFAIK, I don't have Word installed)

 

Goldie,

Hmmm. I can get just about anything form the Web in Word ... without using IE ... and with ALL of my Xs in place, to keep it from ever talking to the outside world. (I dunno. Mebbe I added sump'n to Word or to my clipboard.)

Regardless, I see no reason for a WORD PROCESSOR to reach OUT to the Internet or worse, to RECEIVE calls from the Internet --- unless I tell it to, and I don;t think I want to tell it to either send or receive. It's my word processor, fer cryin' out loud, not my FTP server.

 

Absolutley true No good reason for it to be going online when it does just fine without.

I just say that because when I'm at school you have no choice but to use IE and Word, and I can see it connecting to the website in the status bar and it downloading the page. I know it doesn't do this with firefox or any other browser but IE.

 

I understand, Mr. G, and once again (for the hundredth time or so), you've told me something I didn't know.

You gotta stop doin' that one of these days. I'm getting a complex.