Is Port Explorer identifying a problem w/Zone Alarm?

This post is an attempt to determine if I understand correctly what Port Explorer seems to be indicating, relative to what Zone Alarm is doing. I seek confirmation that my understanding is correct or an explanation of the correct understanding that I should have in that regard.

I have blocked Real Jukebox from accessing the Internet in the program control section of Zone Alarm. Yet even with it setup to be blocked Port Explorer shows it to be successfully sending 33 byte packets of date under the UDP protocol. This caused me concern about the effectiveness of the Zone Alarm firewall.

In an attempt to stop its sending of data I clicked on the STOP button to block all Internet activity. Port Explorer indicted not only didn’t stop Real Jukebox from sending but didn’t stop anything else either. This would indicate to me that my firewall has somehow been disabled. Is this a correct assumption?

I have been using various versions of Zone Alarm for several years now and it seems that I recall that when I first got Port Explorer it showed Failure instead of Success after I had applied a lock out of all internet activity. Perhaps there is a change to the way Zone Alarm is handling things with my current 5.5 version of Zone Alarm.

I contacted Zone Labs Customer Support about this issue. Here is what they had to say,

“Zone Alarm functions at a driver level. This is basically the Network Card Level of the computer. Zone Alarm does not disable programs. It merely blocks or allows data to pass through the firewall. You have realjbox.exe blocked. This doesn’t stop Real Jukebox from attempting to send data. It does stop it from getting outside of your computer.
DiamondCS Port Explorer monitors activity above our firewall. It monitors the NetStat functionality of the OS. This is the side that is inside of your computer. It doesn’t monitor the activity on the other side of the firewall. If it had the capability to monitor the activity on the external side of the firewall, it would show that nothing other than what you explicitly allow is passing through the firewall.”

Is what they have said about Port Explorer accurate?

Any users of Zone Alarm out there might check what is happening on Port Explorer when the Internet Lock is ingaged, to see if you have the same effects I have discribed. Any light that can be shed on this situation from DiamondCS’ perspective will be most appreciated.

 

Hi Johnniee, To determine what is happening, can you check your Port Explorer log for the Real Jukebox connection data.
What we need to know is what port and remote addressed is logged by PE for the sent packets. In Pe go to Settings - File Logging - View log.
You may find that it is "LocalHost" or 127.0.0.1 or "System" which is your own machine.

Thanks. Pilli

 

Thanks Phil,

I did as you suggested and checked the file log. There I found that almost the whole log was taken up with entries for DealBook, a trading program that is receiving streaming currency price data, but nothing on Real Jukebox. So I cleared the file log, as well as, the window log. I first enable the Zone Alarm’s Lock Mode, to stop all internet activity, and after first shutting down my IM programs, I then started Windows Instant Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger.

After doing those things I then checked the log again. It showed, no connections or attempts to connect in the file log for either IM program and no Failed attempts at anything. But even though There were no Failures in the log both IM programs stopped functioning. So the firewall must have been blocking activity to and from them.

I then unlocked the firewall and loaded Real Jukebox. Everything was logged just as it had been stated before in my earlier post for Real Jukebox, with sending Succeeding. But, there was something that I had not noticed before, it showed Connect had Failed for the Jukebox. I was pretty sure that it would tell me this, as it had shown it in the window log, as well. But that connection Failure was not shown in the window log before my previous post which was what caused my concern.

It seems I have gotten concerned for nothing. Phil I appreciate the advice that showed me the light and relieved my mind. As far as I am concerned this thread can end now.

 

No problem Johnniee, I am glad that your concerns have been satisfied.

Thread closed - Pilli