ZoneAlarm Pro 3.7.098 Updating

[FanJ]

See:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=7411

In this thread in the Update-section, Blaze posted the following:

Quote:
[hr]
MY UPDATE THING DONT WORK I MISSED TO UPDATES cause zone alarm pro update checker ****.

worst off when i go to the site manuealy theres no where there where i can dowenload an update my ZAP with out haveing to buy it ie add to cart what gives


Note by FanJ: one word was removed by me

[FanJ]

Hi Blaze,

I have one kind question: please no more such phrases as you posted about the updater: they will be removed by the moderators!

[FanJ]

Installation & Uninstallation FAQ

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/support/zapInstallFAQ.jsp#1install


Uninstalling ZoneAlarm Pro Under Windows Me

click here (http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/support/zapInstallMeFAQ.jsp;JSESSIONID_ZL_STORE_COMMERCE=2ULTpG17HFRFdyxC7vP8x0idvL7h4zpfC0AGeW068UK77GvXwQfp!1149884956!173109956!7511!7512)

[FanJ]

-{ Quote: "worst off when i go to the site manuealy theres no where there where i can dowenload an update my ZAP with out haveing to buy it ie add to cart what gives" }-

http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/updates/zap/zapDownloadUpdateEXE.html

This page says:
Thank you for updating your security.
Your download will begin in a few seconds.
If your download does not begin in a few seconds, please click here.

Blaze, does it not work for you if you click at that site on those words “please click here”?

[FanJ]

And here is another possibility:

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/support/3zapMain.jsp#zap3FAQ1

Quote:

1. I received an alert that there is an update available - why won't "Check for Updates" let me download it?

Note: You must have a current, valid license key to receive any Zone Labs updates. Click here for instructions on how to determine your support and update expiration date.
If you have trouble getting your update, try adjusting the privacy settings for the site. On the Privacy panel, there are default settings under the Main tab, and sites affected by the privacy settings are listed under the Site List tab, when the Privacy Advisor option is checked. You can turn Privacy features on or off by site.
If that still does not help, you may need to drop some or all privacy settings while visiting that site, specifically Cookies and Mobile Code Control.

[JimIT]

I had trouble with the ZA+ upgrade also. When attempting to use the built-in "check for updates" feature in ZA+, it did its thing and replied with "Your Security Is Up To Date".

I was able to manually download the .exe, and save the file using the link.

Before you execute the update, shut down ZA. The .exe will start and give you two radio buttons to either:

1. Update (which will save your current settings and update the program files--this is defaulted)

or

2. Do a clean install. (which will blow out your current settings--you will have to manually select this option)

Let the installer do it's thing, reboot, and you should be back in business.

Hope this helps! ;)

[marti]

-{ Quote: " quoting: JimIT link=board=23;threadid=7419;start=0#48986 date=1045753899]
I had trouble with the ZA+ upgrade also. When attempting to use the built-in "check for updates" feature in ZA+, it did its thing and replied with "Your Security Is Up To Date"" }-Jim,

I gave you guys advance notice of the update. If the updater is not working by now, it will be soon.

[JimIT]

-{ Quote: " quoting: marti link=board=23;threadid=7419;start=#48989 date=1045755564]
-{ Quote: " quoting: JimIT link=board=23;threadid=7419;start=0#48986 date=1045753899]
I had trouble with the ZA+ upgrade also. When attempting to use the built-in "check for updates" feature in ZA+, it did its thing and replied with "Your Security Is Up To Date"" }-Jim,

I gave you guys advance notice of the update. If the updater is not working by now, it will be soon.
" }-

No problem! ;)

Wasn't too worried about it. Everything worked fine for me from the website last night.

Thanks for the heads-up!

[eyespy]

Update works fine now !!

bill :)

[Jooske]

Hi all,
i see in my windows autostart a file minilog.exe, which should be in the windows\system\zonelabs\minilog.exe
I see that i no longer have this file. I'm not even sure if that belongs there to be either (can anybody be so kind as to check in that location if it's there on your system?)
Did a search but it's not on my system and i don't know how to find out when it disappeared (win98se is so primitive in such search functions)
I did this 3.7.098 update and hoped it would install all there is only leaving my settings as they are, so hoped, if it belongs tehre, the file would be back.

Thanks in advance for your help. I wonder if this 3.88mb d/l was the full program as well or just an update. I mean: if i would have to get back first the former version 3.6 or 3.5 whatever it was recently and then running this update over it which seems rediculous, and then finding out the minilog.exe would not belong there at all, you can imagine........
All seems to be working correct till now, so thanks in advance for your minilof.exe - info!

[marti]

Jooske,

I can't find "minilog.exe" anywhere on my Win98SE system. Did you do the update, or a clean installation?

[Jooske]

Thanks for looking Marti, the update. I did several settings i must try to remember and only recently i took the former update --not sure if that time i did clean or update that time, maybe update too like now this time.
So to avoid trouble i updated this time to this 3.7.098 too.
(lazy ?)

I looked with SpyBotS&D recently and had it check registry errors too, which i did not repair yet, i first look what is which, where it alerted on this missing file; today TDS alerted on a change in the Autostart (but which??)
So i don't know since when i miss the file! Maybe it was from old times and should no longer be there!
But the former version closed a few times as well all of a sudden, so of course i am suspicious, even though scans and online scans don't indicate any infections causing such things.

[Jooske]

I emailed their tech support with the question and just got a confirmation the case (my email) is created and for possible updates to scroll down in my email.
What kind of reply is this? Just only my own question is there, now i still don't know if minilog.exe needs to be there or not and if so, how to get it there again.
Support! pffff!

[marti]

Joose,

I just sent an IM to you, asking that you email your question and the Zone Labs response to me. I'll make sure that one of my contacts at Zone Labs gets them.

[LowWaterMark]

Jooske,

minilog.exe was part of older versions of Zone Alarm and disappeared with the significant changes made with version 3. (Actually, I think 3.1 was what finally removed it. ZAP 3.0 might have still used it.) ZA used to have three processes running - the User Interface (either zonealarm.exe or zapro.exe), the firewall (true vector service - vsmon.exe) and the logger (minilog.exe).

With the significant redesign, the logger functions were combined into one of the other processes. (A file monitor shows vsmon.exe touching the log file - ZALog.txt, however, the UI may access it, too. I didn't take the time to check that.)

You should no longer have a minilog.exe file in the version of ZAP you are running. The registry key (for starting minilog) must have been left behind from a previous upgrade or bad deinstall of the older version. Just remove the key, it is not used in these later versions of ZA/ZA+/ZAP.

[marti]

Jooske,

I have an answer for you. Minilog.exe is not used in the 3x versions of Zone Alarm. If you have the file it can be removed.

Oh, I agree with you that the email "auto-response" from Zone Labs is very hard to understand and I have been speaking English all of my life.

[Jooske]

Thanks LWM and Marti for taking the trouble to find this out. So it was a bad uninstall while i always leave it to ZAPro to do it with their installer.
The file has gone but not the registry key, so i'll dig that up and delete it. SbS&D found the error, and glad you found the answer so quick!

[sredliW]

Hi, is there an update for the free version of ZoneAlarm? I have run the update check from within ZA numerous times and continue to get the message that there are no new updates, despite the fact I'm using v3.1.9.5. I've tried searching their site for a free update but can only find update links for ZA+ and ZAP. TIA!

[marti]

-{ Quote: " quoting: sredliW link=board=23;threadid=7419;start=15#49081 date=1045803828]
Hi, is there an update for the free version of ZoneAlarm? I have run the update check from within ZA numerous times and continue to get the message that there are no new updates, despite the fact I'm using v3.1.9.5. I've tried searching their site for a free update but can only find update links for ZA+ and ZAP. TIA!
" }-Zone Labs always issues updates for Pro & Plus first. Then they issue an update for ZAFree. The update might be in a few weeks, or a month, or ... When ZAFree is updated, the info will be posted on security and other forums, so you will probably hear about it in a timely manner.

[CARCHARODON]

Has everybody notice the resource usage is WAY down.

[yoshi]

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/zap/trial/zapDownloadTrialEXE_1043.jsp

Works ok for me.

[yoshi]

Or even:

http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/free/1043_zl/zapSetup_37_098.exe

is better.

[LowWaterMark]

Oh, very nice!! 8)

I've been testing with the new Zone Alarm Plus (ZA+ 3.7.098). It looks really good. I was previously running ZA+ 3.1.395. The below list of improvements are based solely upon the observations I've made in the first 10 hours of using the program, not from any information from Zone Labs. My observations may not be 100% accurate to what the Zone Labs changes were within the ZA+ design.

Improvements:

1. ZA+ now includes the Advanced Program Control feature, as ZAP 3.5 and above already had. This is the extra program protection feature that prevents one program from using (calling) another program to access the network on its behalf. (This provides protection from leak tests like "tooleaky (http://tooleaky.zensoft.com/)" that try to access other programs, which already have permission to access the Internet, to "piggy-back" on their network access rights.)

2. Faster!!
> Starts much faster. Component verification is much faster!
> Less overhead/resources used, overall.

3. An issue I had with desktop icon flashing at ZA+ UI startup, as well as "always on top" and systray icon interference is gone now. It's hard to describe, but the previous versions on ZAP and ZA+ always caused me problems in the systray (icons disappearing or being blocked) and with other aspects of the desktop (especially keeping things "on top" of the taskbar).

4. Better "component" identification. Previous versions were unable to identify some components of a program - they'd give generic, often "single letter" names to several components (such as: "A" or "C" and a few others, related to Adobe Acrobat, AOL, and other programs). This version identifies more components overall.

5. Change in the way the Log Viewer works. Entries in Log Viewer window appear to only be generated (loaded) upon displaying the ZA user interface (GUI) Log Viewer pane, rather than being prepared (pre-loaded) with the UI off (i.e. minimized to tray). Guessing: probably done to reduce resource usage, in cases where the log viewer is never called up - why waste resources on it?

6. Product online registration improvement. In all past versions of ZA+ and ZAP, I always had to wait days or spend a large amount of time trying to force ZA to register itself. (Using tricks like: adding a space to the end of your name or email address in registration window.) This version registered right away upon first access to Internet.

So far, no issues or problems...

I like it. :)

[marti]

Low Water Mark,

*****
ZA+ now includes the Advanced Program Control feature, as ZAP 3.5 and above already had. This is the extra program protection feature that prevents one program from using (calling) another program to access the network on its behalf. (This provides protection from leak tests like "tooleaky" that try to access other programs, which already have permission to access the Internet, to "piggy-back" on their network access rights.)
*****

I had to turn that option off until I have time to experiment. I have OE set up per your great tutorial. With that option on, I can't click on links in emails.

I had program control set to Medium for a couple of days, and moved it to "high" last night. Today, I haven't been on the computer much at all. Hope to have time tomorrow to figure this one out.

[LowWaterMark]

marti,

If you get a chance to re-test with that, let me know what block messages ZA logs when the option is enabled and it prevents you from clicking on email links... (I can do that just fine with OE, but perhaps I've got a different setting than you now. I can do some more testing if I learn a little more about what you're seeing.)

[eyespy]

LWM,
I agree completely with your comments.
I was using ZAP for a while. I tried the latest ZA+ Beta for a change. It's definately lighter on resources than ZAP. Also, it allows faster internet surfing as opposed to ZAP. While I used ZAP with "Privacy Protection" activated, it tended to slow down my page loads.

regards,
bill :)

[Joep]

Users of Windows 2000 SERVER - Think Twice about Upgrading!!

There appears to be a problem when upgrading ZAP 3.5.169.002 to 3.7.098 on a Server!

Here are the poblems I encounted after upgradeing and agreeing to reboot! :(

1. ZAP had poblems starting/finding the true Vector Service
2. The Icon was missing form the systray
3. Task Manager showed ZAP running in the Processes and CPU usage was a constant 100% even after ending numerous processes/services
4. My server was to a crawl and Internet access was sure not happing
5. Encounted all sorts of errors attempting to uninstall ZAP.

Well I searched the ZoneLabs site and looked at all the FAQ's but could not find anything that really addressed the issuse I was having and phone support from ZoneLabs is out of the question ???
Then I noticed a link to the ZoneAlarm® User Community http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/support/userCommunity/userComm_agreement.jsp and sure enough I found others with the same problems and a FIX ! 8)

Look Under the Thread: Installation, Uninstall and Upgrade
The at the subject: 3.5.169.002 to 3.7.098 upgrade problem entries

I sure do get a kick out of the banner on top of the ZA User Community Page Which Reads:
REMINDER - The ZoneAlarm User Community is a user resource, not an official support system provided by Zone Labs

I wonder if their Tech Support look here too! ;D

Joep

[LowWaterMark]

Bug! :-\

In the new ZA+, I have experienced the same bug that some others have posted about. If the ZA User Interface is set to open to the Log Viewer panel when you click the ZA icon in the systray, sometimes it opens and does not completely paint the window. The outline and primary structure of the UI is there, but, the scrollable portion with the log entries in it is not painted. Whatever was below that window on the desktop (another window or the desktop itself) is still visible.

It only seems to happen if the ZA UI has been minimized for a while and other programs are more active. I think it's a bug in how ZA is calling the Windows routines for painting windows. You can get the log viewer window to fully display by hitting another UI tab and coming back to it - which is a fairly standard work-around that I've seen with other window painting problems in other apps in the past. Perhaps this has to do with how they changed the handling of the updating of information in the log viewer as I noted in my post above.

So far, this is the only bug I've seen.

The new ZA+ is definitely seeing more Programs and Components than the previous version. Programs with even a hint of access to "network aware" routines are being seen and listed in the ZA+ program / component tabs. This does not seem to cause any problems though.

The oddest program to see in that list is the "IP Configuration Utility" (ipconfig.exe), which is what you use on Windows XP in a CMD window to list your network info (similar to winipcfg.exe on Win9x systems). ZA+ sees it, an alert will pop-up if I run an "ipconfig /all" cmd, but, the program never actually accesses the external network. (No packets go out.) I suspect that ipconfig.exe must link to other network aware components which ZA is monitoring.

[LowWaterMark]

Interesting thing with the Advanced Program Control...

By default, the global setting is enabled, (see top half of image below), so that ZA+/ZAP will warn you about programs using other programs to access the Internet. This works very well. A program like tooleaky will cause ZA+/ZAP to generate a pop-up asking if you want it to be able to use IE to access the Internet.

Now, most programs are not given the ability to bypass this warning, (see the OE example in the bottom half of the image). However, ZA+/ZAP does automatically give several programs this ability (by automatically setting the "This program may use other programs to access the Internet" check box).

On my system, following a clean install of ZA+ 3.7.098 (including a full wipe of previous version, including deleting the true vector databases, installing and re-entering all custom settings) , and without using the automatic program configuration wizard, ZA decided to give this bypass capability to the following programs:

1. Zone Alarm Plus itself (zaplus.exe)
2. Windows NT Logon Application (...\system32\winlogon.exe)
3. Windows Explorer (c:\winnt\explorer.exe)
4. Windows Command Processor (...\system32\cmd.exe)
5. Services and Controller app (...\system32\services.exe)
6. Microsoft Word (...\office10\winword.exe)

I'm not sure I agree with these being given those rights. Of course, you can go in manually and reset these so that they can't use other programs, or, you can grant a specific program this bypass capability, so that you don't have to disable the entire Advanced Program Control capability, if you are experiencing problems.

It takes some testing to determine just what you need to allow. For myself, I prefer starting with tighter security and granting only what's needed to make my system work as I have it configured.

[dwax]

Any one having problems with re booting?After updating to 3.7,when I make a dial up it re boots my PC.Then after a scan disk,PC will freezz up trying to load ZA.Have to go into safe mode to uninstall it.After that no problems.Can run ZA 3.5 with no problems.