Author Topic: Lockup with firewall (Read 1004 times)

Dennis · « **on:** November 20, 2003, 04:37:02 AM »

I use Zone Alarm as a firewall. This morning I upgraded through an auto-notification popup, and since then, AH locks up when I try to go online.

As soon as I hit the OK button, total freeze. A hard lockup where the mouse won't move, I can't alt-tab or even ctl-alt-delete and have to hard boot to get out of it.

I figure this has something to do with ZA trying to re-learn some of my previously-set preferences ... (a number of other previously-configured programs are asking me again for access) ... but even after going in and manually configuring it to allow AH access in all cases, it still locks when I hit the OK button to go online.

I can't get to the popup I assume is under the AH screen when it locks, asking me if it's ok to allow access, because I can't alt-tab out of the AH screen. Using the arrow key and 'enter' to answer the tray popup didn't work, either.

Any tips on how to work around this snag? I can't alt-tab out of the AH screen.

My only success has been to shut down Zone Alarm, start up AH and connect to an arena, then alt-tab and re-start ZA. Not ideal, imho.

Any ideas?

XP Home is the OS.

Splash1

Skuzzy · « **Reply #1 on:** November 20, 2003, 06:36:35 AM »

It's actually not locking up, but Windows has control due to the request for a nextwork connection. Apparently ZA is still blocking the ports AH needs.
It will eventually timeout and AH will abort.

If you know the keyboard sequence ZA needs to approve the connection, you can hit it, even though you cannot see the ZA panel and it should work after that.

hyena426 · « **Reply #2 on:** November 20, 2003, 12:54:55 PM »

ya i have the same proublem every time i update ZA...if the preconfigure doesnt seem to work,,,you will have to reinstall za,,and preconfigure it again,,and if that dont work,,reinstall your aces high and then preconfigure,,, once ya update anything on za,,,it seems to think its under attack,,because its remmebering your old settings and old programs,,so its not allowing your old programs to access the web

so i would just reinstall za sence its only 3.5mb or somthing like that,,,and then go into your files and pick aces high,,and make sure its clicked as trusted internet site on your preferences,,and it should work:) hope i helped ya out on your proublem{good luck}

Furious · « **Reply #3 on:** November 20, 2003, 01:25:46 PM »

Just type a "y" first thing when it locks.

Dennis · « **Reply #4 on:** November 20, 2003, 05:38:34 PM »

Thanks for the replies.

Skuzzy, yeah, I know the sequence for approving access with the keyboard, ... (the popup is defaulted to NO, and pressing any arrow key moves it to YES. pressing tab first instead moves it to the "remember this next time" box) ... but it does not work with AH with this latest build of zone alarm. The cursor stays frozen to the OK button no matter what keys I press or in what order.
(Trust me, I've tried a lot of combinations)
-- The keyboard method DOES work when I can see the popup, btw.

I tried waiting for the 'time out' you mentioned. Got tired after 15 minutes with the cursor still glued to the OK button and hard-booted.

Furious, "y" doesn't work either.

hyena426, as a last resort I re-dl'd zone alarm, uninstalled the previous one and re-installed & reconfigured. No joy. AH still won't let me past "OK".
Uninstalled AH, and re-installed. Still no joy.

At this point I'm stuck shutting it down to get online, then firing it back up again, unless anyone else has an idea.

I haven't run into this issue with any other program. Everything else allows me to get at the access popup unimpeded.

Splash1

(Edit to re-empasize that I have AH in configured in the programs setup as 'allow' in all cases.)

Roscoroo · « **Reply #5 on:** November 20, 2003, 05:53:56 PM »

Can you do an individual Port setup to allow in/outbound traffic .
with pc-cillin i can set up the ports .

set them to 2000-5000 for in/outbound traffic and see if that works ..

DarkStarStv · « **Reply #6 on:** November 20, 2003, 07:59:13 PM »

Dennis.

I have the same problem. I think this is a new problem since I applied ZA 4.5.530.000. (I am familiar with the usual issues of permissions needed for AH, having used ZA and AH for a couple of years)

Can't Alt Tab, Can't Alt F4. Can only (sometimes) bring up Task Manager. It will not end AH. Can sometimes use "Shutdown" from
Task Manager. Otherwise have to hard boot.

Very odd. I have never see WXP (Pro) behave this way.

Has happened systematically about 20 times. Turn off ZA (Pro) and Aces High works fine every time.

I have logged it with Zonelabs. Could all others do the same? Perhaps HiTech Creations could also help get to the bottom of this?

Dennis · « **Reply #7 on:** November 21, 2003, 05:20:12 AM »

DStar.
Good idea. I'll contact Zone Labs, as well.

Splash1

214thCavalier · « **Reply #8 on:** November 21, 2003, 09:43:25 AM »

Yea i just updated to the latest version of ZA Pro and can confirm that no combination of settings will enable Aces High to run.

It totally locks you out of access to AH and makes no difference to your security level setting either.

Manually configuring makes no difference either.

They have added some new features for securing personal info passwords credit card info etc but it is not meant to be active unless you manually enable it.

Could be the problem lies here somewhere when we try to send login info.

Off to uninstall and roll back a version.

I have also logged it with ZA and posted a few times in the users forum regarding it.

If you check the forums you will see many people have this problem with various games using the updated version.

stenographer · « **Reply #9 on:** November 21, 2003, 12:12:37 PM »

I have exactly the same problems since I updated to this new version of ZAP three nights ago. As with others here, I've tried all combinations of reconfiguring the trusted sites settings - even manually configured every one.

Now that it's Friday evening, I was about to go through the reinstall process for both ZAP and AH but, having seen how unsuccessful that's likelt to be, I shan't bother.

I'll also post to ZoneLabs.

BTW, I'm getting fairly constant "Do you want to send system info to check for update" messages from Zone Alarm, which seems to be a new feature. Wonder if that's part of the same problem.

stenographer · « **Reply #10 on:** November 21, 2003, 12:43:14 PM »

After posting the previous, I fiddled a bit more - still with the inevitable lock-up. However, I found that it is possible to bring up the taskbar with Alt + F4, so at least it's possible to restart or shut down rather than hard rebooting.

Snoopy · « **Reply #11 on:** November 22, 2003, 03:13:16 AM »

same problem too. i put in trusted zones and ports dam thing still locks up. just sent them an email will see what happens.

Dennis · « **Reply #12 on:** November 22, 2003, 09:20:54 PM »

FYI, in perusing the Zone Labs support boards, I found this message in response to a similar problem (lockup when trying to access online games):

"Unfortunately, the latest version of ZoneAlarm does not work with games on WinXP for some reason. Downgrade to an older version. Apologies for the inconvenience."

So .. .I'm going to do just that. I'll let you know if if works. If anyone else wants to do the same, earlier versions of Zone Alarm are available here: http://download.zonelabs.com/bin/free/information/znalm/zaReleaseHistory.html

Splash1

Dennis · « **Reply #13 on:** November 22, 2003, 09:38:11 PM »

Problem solved.

Splash1

Oops. Spoke too soon. Curiously, I was allowed unfettered access the first time I loaded AH after installing the older version. Then the next time I got the same old lockup.

Trying the oldest version available for dl next., will report back.

Splash1

Dennis · « **Reply #14 on:** November 22, 2003, 10:34:23 PM »

Ok.
Seem to have whipped it. I've now been able to get online lockup-free three times in a row.
Hoping that's the end of it.

I downloaded the oldest version available on their site, which appears to be the version I had before this hassle began.

I also did something else different: Rather than pre-configure ZA to allow AH, I just started AH. This way the ZA access popup came up before AH took control in full-screen mode, and I was able to allow access and click the 'remember this' box.
(I'm not sure, but this might have been the way I did it when I first upgraded to a new box with XP. So maybe it's just an XP issue, and the 'start AH without pre-configuring' method might even work on the newer versions of ZA ... but I'm tired of diddling with it for now. I'm perfectly happy with the older build of ZA)

Splash1