Q.s on Zone Alarm firewall on my XP

[Cloud]

will my free version of Avast interfere with the free version of Zone Alarm personal firewall?

and what are the best settings for this firewall?

[poru]

From what I've been able to glean, Avast! and ZA (free) should work together just fine. There is some opinion that ZA ver.6 is not as effective as 5.5 in this application. I have used ZA for several years, with my av, Panda Titanium, with little difficulty (except that ZA does not recognize Panda, and says that I don't have any av active; a glitch, no biggie).

 

ZA free actually gives you very few options, except for the "Program Control" page, and even here I would defer to the default settings until I had good reason to change any of them. There is a "learning curve" in which ZA will query all your comings and goings; as you tick-off the "allowed" box for the appropriate sites, this will soon subside. I like ZA; many folks don't, a good alternative might be Kerio, another good free firewall. Sygate is now a paid utility, so that's out.

[JohnD]

I've been using ZA and Avast together on several computers for over a year with no apparent problems and with no virus invasions or firewall failures.

[Cloud]

i keep getting generic host process for win32 services

what is this? and should i allow it?

and is it bad that there arent many settings?

also when i first installed ZA is said something about Avast possibly conflicting

and asked to turn something off to make sure they didnt

should i not have changed this setting?

also last night when i tried to go to a different site in my favorites

they all said server couldnt be found and wouldnt come up even after refreshing

but when i turned ZA off those sites worked fine and fast

any idea why this could be?

thanks

Edited February 6, 2006 by Cloud

[SuicideToast]

That's odd, I use ZA Pro and Avast! and didn't get get asked to disable anything to avoid a conflict.

 

"i keep getting generic host process for win32 services" That's OK by the way.

[Cloud]

so since its blocking that generic host process

how would i unblock it?

or did you mean its supposed to block it

[SuicideToast]

so since its blocking that generic host process

how would i unblock it?

or did you mean its supposed to block it

 

 

I allow mine access. To unblock it, open ZA, select Program Control and look through the list of programs until you find Generic Host Process. Click on it in the Access column. You'll get three options: Allow - Block - Ask. You can either click Allow or Ask. That's down to your discretion. Mine is allowed access to the trusted zone and internet. It's also allowed access as trusted in the server section.

 

When at first I blocked it, it kept on asking, I allowed it without any problems.

[Cloud]

thanks

ive never set up a firewall before

is it ok if all the AV and anti-spyware/adware programs are allowed in all sections?

what sort of things should be blocked?

and should IE ask in the server sections?

thanks again

[essexboy]

I use the ZA and Avast combo and the only application with server rights is webshield all the rest I have blocked with no problems experienced over the last 3 years. A screenshot of my programme controls for avast is

[Cloud]

thanks

 

ill make sure my settings reflect those in the pic

but does it matter that im useing the free versions of each?

also my web shield is set to ask in all sections and i never messed with it

is it supposed to ask for all programs in the begining?

 

thanks again

[SuicideToast]

Free of paid for - doesn't matter. I'm using a paid for version of ZA and the free version of Avast!. My web shield is set to ask in all sections and to my knowledge has never asked to be let out and play.