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[sstalker]

Anybody here familiar with Zone Alarm setup to enable it to work with the DNS-323?

I can see my device in the Easy Search utility but cannot use it to map and cannot map using windows.
I can access the web interface.
When I ping the DNS's IP I get "Destination Host unreachable"

When I turn off ZoneAlarm everything works just fine.  I was able to use it previously but now it simply blocks me.  Not sure what has changed to cause this though.

I've tried adding the DNS's IP to the firewall's zones section as a trusted IP but still no luck.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Shawn

[shadowsports]

Shawn,
Am I familiar with it, yes.  Had to support it just long enough to realize it was horrible software.  What works one day fails the next after a simple definitions update.  Don't waste your time. 

Zone Alarm has been plagued with these types programming anomalies since it's inception.  Zone Labs failed.  Now check point has picked them up.  My advice would be to dump the software.  A properly configured hardware based firewall will provide more than ample protection.

Need network monitoring?  Look into open source or freeware.  Lots of good choices, easy to configure and manage.  Best of all, they work.  You'll just get grey hair trying to manage Zone Alarm...  sorry I had to flame it.

.

[fordem]

Shawn,
Am I familiar with it, yes.  Had to support it just long enough to realize it was horrible software.  What works one day fails the next after a simple definitions update.  Don't waste your time. 

Zone Alarm has been plagued with these types programming anomalies since it's inception.  Zone Labs failed.  Now check point has picked them up.  My advice would be to dump the software.  A properly configured hardware based firewall will provide more than ample protection.

Need network monitoring?  Look into open source or freeware.  Lots of good choices, easy to configure and manage.  Best of all, they work.  You'll just get grey hair trying to manage Zone Alarm...  sorry I had to flame it.

No offense meant, but I'm guessing you don't understand the differences between a software firewall & a hardware firewall - a good software firewall can provide ALL of the protection that a hardware firewall can, however, the majority of hardware firewalls do not come close to providing the protection of the average software firewall.

All of the consumer & business grade firewall routers on the market, will, by default, allow ALL outgoing traffic, without questioning it - your average software firewall does the reverse, it will notify you of any outgoing connection attempt and ask whether or not it should be permitted.

[jamieburchell]

I'd prefer a hardware firewall over software all day long. No resources being used on your computer, no annoying software updates and popups, no threat of it crashing and not running or being ended by a virus...

[fordem]

It's your choice - but if I were you, I'd keep the hardware firewall updated also - those are only as good as the firmware running on them.

I actually run both a hardware & software firewall, and would advise anyone with a laptop or netbook to do the same.

[shadowsports]

  Know the difference between hardware vs. software firewall...  yes, actually I do...  and no offense taken.  Fordem,  I like reading your posts.  It's all a matter of personal preference really.  What is it we are talking about protecting here?  Someone's home network running consumer grade hardware and storage, right?

I am all for layered security, but for goodness sake, pick a different software firewall then.  It's obvious the OP has configured his firewall correctly, and what...  he cannot connect to his device.  This is the kind of poop I had to deal with almost daily while supporting users who were runnning ZA.  It's ZA I was flaming.

Granted I personally do not care for software based firewalls.  They require constant management, updates and are typically cumbersome.  The overhead, as jamieburchell mentioned is also unattractive to me.  

I'm not knocking software based firewalls, just the ZA choice.  Guilt now setting in..   All these posts and we haven't helped the OP get his issue resolved.  

Other firewalls you might want to consider:
Ashampoo FireWall Free 1.2
Comodo Firewall
Agnitum Outpost Firewall Free 2009
Online Armor Free 4.5.1.431

      

[jamieburchell]

How about just using Windows own built in firewall? Granted, it's not as feature rich but in Windows 7 at least you have quite a bit of control in the advanced settings. I have mine on, even though my router also has a built in firewall.

[fordem]

@shadowsports - personally I found ZA Pro to be a fine & very usable piece of software, which is not the picture you paint of it, I used it until Microsoft brought Window's native firewall to what I considered a reasonable level of maturity, including at one point, running it on a system which provided "gateway" services to my SOHO LAN, in pretty much the same way as hardware firewalls are now used.

I would consider the problems you describe as caused by a lack of user education - going from memory there are two types of popup - one requesting user intervention (allow/disallow a connection), or a notification of a blocked attempt (which can be disabled).

ZA Pro's behaviour as regards updates is not signficantly different to that of any other security suite - or even Windows itself - I've lost track of the number of times I've had to reconfigure McAfee enterprise to allow software to run after an update, and I have seen a Microsoft update cripple a functional system on more than one occasion.

@jamieburchell - if you use a laptop and travel with any regularity, load the free (or 30 day evaluation) version of ZA midway through the next trip and I'm pretty sure you'll see some pop ups - ZA traps more than the Windows native firewall does (at least the XP version - yes I am still running XP Pro, on a new Netbook).

[shadowsports]

Agreed.  I think this demonstrates that all of us have different preferences and varied experiences (both good and bad) with the various products being discussed.   

[jamieburchell]

Surely if you block all incomming connections and are sensible with outbound connections using the Windows firewall is adequate.

[jtma67]

Shawn... I can't see that you ever received an answer to your original question of "Anybody here familiar with Zone Alarm setup to enable it to work with the DNS-323?"

I am using ZA Pro v3...yes it's old but it does what I want it to.... along with the DNS-323, and it functions just fine.  It seems to me that all I had to do was add the DNS-323 as a "Trusted Zone" on the Firewall / Zones tab.   I used "dlink-73770C" as the Site name rather than supplying an IP address (which I have dynamically assigned in my case).

Just a few additional comments.... and I'm probably not the technical guru that others may be on this site.... but I really like the fact that " I " get the opportunity to decide if I want a program to connect to the internet.  I can't remember the number of times that I've been alerted of some new software app wanting to connect to an external website...without it asking me if that was okay .... and more specifically not even letting me know what it's intentions were.  I'd bet that I've kept my machine a little less exposed to the myriad of hackers out there by running ZA.  I'm more than willing to put up with the occasional pop-up asking for permission.  It's not fool proof but it let's me sleep a little better.  I know that running "Shield Up" from www.grc.com tells me my computer is in "Stealth" mode an not able to be seen from the internet.

[HSishi]

Additional to jtima67's advice putting the NAS on the "Trusted Zone(s) / site(s)" list, you could also lower the restrictions for the safe zones.

If you have full control about all PC's in your network, (means *you* work on them, not your kid(s), wife, mom ...) you might turn the restrictions for the safe zone completely off because any new program should request access to the trusted zone, even if restrictions are off.

So the following setup should be fine:
* If you have NO WLAN clients in your network or your WLAN has its own IP range, you can apply the whole LAN IP range to the "Trusted" zone.

* If WLAN client IPs are in the same IP range as your LAN clients, apply every WLAN client controlled by yourself to the trusted zone.
In this case you should either setup your PCs with static IPs or setup your router to "assign always the same IP to MAC adress".

* Apply "127.0.0.1" (aka "loopback" adaptor) to the trusted zone.
If "127.0.0.1" is not in the "Trusted" list, you get asked if a machine-only server (e.g. MySQL, some virus scanners etc.) should accept connections from internet (even if they don't need it). With 127.0.0.1 in Trusted list you can grant them access from PC's on your network (which make them working fine for your PC) and deny access from internet.
For some unknown reason there's no "loopback zone" in ZoneAlarm.

* Lower the restrictions of the Trusted Zone to Medium (should be the default setting) or turn them off.
Keep the restrictions for Internet security on "High".

The IP selection is for the case someone visits (or breaks into) your WLAN. Not all routers support different subnets for LAN and WLAN (or are set up for that), and much less have "WLAN Guest Account"(1) functionality.

(1) "WLAN Guest Account" provides a WLAN access with an easy to remind passphrase. Per default on my router (AVM 7390) it's turned off, has to be turned on manually and will turn itself off either after a set time or if all guests disconnected.
Your normal WLAN network stays secure because WLAN Guest clients don't have access to your internal LAN or WLAN (including the router config), they can only access the internet.
A typical useage for this is when you have visitors who want to check mails or show you something on the web.

I hope this helps a bit.
//HSishi