Zone Alarm Alert Advisor Programs are not known...

[christophs]

Hello,
I am runing ZoneAlarm Security Suite (ZASS) 5.5.109.000 german
If for example Outlook tries to conect to the internet for the first time, the alert advisor cannot giveme a help.
It is written, that there is no further information about this program.
Spysweeper, Spybot the same!
What to do?
How can I make it works properly?

[CrazyM]

Hi christophs

Could you clarify a little more ...

ZASS is prompting you to permit or deny the connection attempt? Is it creating the rules?

Is it just the lack of more detail you are concerned about?

Regards,

CrazyM

[christophs]

It is written, that outlook wants to make a connection to the internet. The alert advisor said, he does not know this program and I expect, that he said, yes, outlook is safe, you can make the connection.
There is no nearer information known about outlook.

[ErikAlbert]

christophs;
Once you have installed ZoneAlarm, it will ask you the same question for EACH software on your computer, that tries to connect the internet and it will ask you also to remember your decision.
This happens only once for EACH software.
Don't expect from ZoneAlarm to recognize each legitimate software on the market. So this is very normal.

As long the software is legitimate, I usually allow the connection.
MS Outlook, Webroot Spy Sweeper and Spybot S&D are all legitimate softwares and need a connection to do their job and/or to update the software. I don't see any problem.

[christophs]

Thanks,
I know, that sysweeper and so on are legal software.
The point is, that the alert adviser says, it does not know these programs. There are no further details to connect or block.
NPF for example let well known programs automatica free connect.
I heard, that ZA knows a lot of programs and everyday they downloads the list on the compi.
Outlook for example is secure and ZA alert advisor should know and give help or further informations and not only "unknown program".

[Kerodo]

Last time I used ZAP it did know Outlook via Alert Advisor, so perhaps you should consider removing with /clean and reinstalling. I can't think of any other way to change how ZAP is reacting. Or perhaps there is just a temporary problem with ZoneLabs, preventing Alert Advisor from working properly...

[ErikAlbert]

-{ Quote: "Thanks,
I heard, that ZA knows a lot of programs and everyday they downloads the list on the compi.
Outlook for example is secure and ZA alert advisor should know and give help or further informations and not only "unknown program"." }-

I didn't know ZA was able to recognize legitimate softwares.
Of course I'm using ZA Free and that could be the reason.
Next time when I re-install ZA Free, I will pay more attention to this.

[ellison64]

The alert advisor is in my opinion just a gimmick that takes you to the alerts advisor page and suggests you upgrade to the pro or whatever.It didnt recognise one programe that i had running when i tested it and most of these programes were well known and popular applications.
ellison

[Kerodo]

In the Pro version at least, you can have Alert Advisor automatically configure programs that it recognizes for you, so you won't even get a popup asking about permission for it or anything else. I guess you don't get that with the Free version though...

[christophs]

Hi, Kerodo,
it is the payversion.
No spamfilter and no alert adviser (so it seems) in the german version ...
Hmmm...

[Bob5972]

I think the problem is that its blocking itself.
I have the english version of Zone Alarm Pro (and the free version used to do the same thing). In my access logs I get blocked attempts to connect to the ZoneAlarm server every time an alert pops up. So I think there's some way to allow it to contact them, but I dont know what it is.