Stranger than Fiction

I do not wish to start a long discussion, but would just like your verdicts, answers, guesses, anything on these strange Firewall events that have occurred to me. All I want is some idea why and I know there is no better way than to ask Wilders.

Firstly - I always use Sandboxie to open Firefox and all my programs are Free versions. One clue that I notice is that whilst the vendors bring their programs into the 21st Century with tremendous success and spectacular imaging and artwork, they appear to just love outdated Windows SP2 - a thing of the past and avoid SP3 like the plague. This factor could be significant IF there is some incompatibility with SP3.

1. Comodo FW Pro v-3. Used it for years with no problems. Program ceased to update when Comodo brought out CIS-v4.

2. Updated to CIS-v4. FW failed 4-5 times in a few minutes operation. Gave it up and went back to (1).

3. Not satisfied being unable to update. Tried Online Armor.

4. OA worked fine, liked it very much, but found certain sites froze on "Not Responding" and had to crash out of FF each time.
Uninstalled and reinstalled twice, but problem still the same. Apart from certain sites, everything worked fine.
OA worked 100% on un-Sandboxied FF and IE8.
Conclusion - OA and SBxie are not compatible in some way.
Uninstalled OA. I like OA and would prefer to have kept it.

6. Installed Comodo FW 5.0. Superb for a few days, then the FW seized up and I do not know why.
Uninstalled Comodo.

7. Installed ZA. This worked perfectly on everything.

8. Had reason to "Repair" my AVG 2011 by using the AVG wizard.
Problem ! AVG panel stated that ZA is a conflicting program and MUST be uninstalled.
I disabled ZA, but still the conflict panel came up.

9. Uninstalled ZA, repaired AVG without trouble. Reinstalled ZA without any conflict and now all is well and working. No conflicts, no "Not Responding".

So the AVG wizard would not proceed unless ZA was uninstalled, but when AVG was completed there was no conflict due to reinstalling ZA. A one way traffic lane.

I now operate on AVG 2011 and ZA and life is good.
Funny !

All I would like are your valued comments on these irregularities, just to satisfy my curiosity and technical need for an answer.

I do not wish to generate an enormous thread.
None of the sequenced problems can be re-checked as I am now at stage (9) and fixed - I hope,

My thanks to you all
John

 

AVG 2011 doesnt install over Outpost firewall as well .If you install it before Outpost you can notice that once you have them both ,the scan on demand doesnt work ,it hangs.
I wouldn t use AVG 2011 AV along some 3-rd party firewall for the moment.

 

ZAfree had an issue with AVG 2011 but a specific build to address the conflict has been released. So, you can simply ignore the warning.

Fax
P.S. Hopefully the ZA installed is build 9.2.102.000 (the one that fixed the issues)
EDIT: ignore the PS. I can read from the signature that you are indeed on the latest build.

 

In my opinion he didnt choose wiselly when pairing AVG with ZA in the first time .
But if the vendors fixed the issue it s ok.

 

Now Fax, that reply is excellent news and extremely appreciated. I thank you very much.

OK, so the AVG 2011 vs. ZA is explainable, but what about Comodo and OA ?
I would dearly loved to have kept OA.
John