Firewalls

[jmolinejr]

Hello guys,
I noticed that lately my pc was running slower and slower when I was on line. I talked one of my dsl provider tech people and he had me disable my antivirus software and my firewall. It turned out to be my firewall that was slowing me down. Zone Alarm was the culprit. I'm flying superfast again. Do you know if this is a Zone Alarm issue or is it because of my system.W95, 48 megs ram 6 gigs hd etc? If it is ZA, are there any other freebie firewalls that you would recomend?
Thanks, John :)

[zipulrich]

I've been running ZA for a long time now (on cable - same diff), without slowing down 1 bit :confused:
Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the latest version? Do you have it set to block everything in sight?
I really don't see how ZA could slow down surfing...

[jmolinejr]

Hi zipulrich,
I did unistall and reinstall zone alarm, but for a different reason. From the message alert section, I would click more info to see what got blocked. This used to work fine, but it just quit responding and sent za back to the systray. Reinstalling did not help this problem nor did za support. I didn't have za set to block everything. I was very happy with it until this happened.
Thanks, John

[zipulrich]

Well, the latest version of ZA came out yesterday. You could always uninstall what you've got and D/L the newest, see if that makes a difference.
Tiny distributes a free firewall, but not having used it I can't really comment.

Well, yes I can....just not intelligently :D

[jmolinejr]

Hello again,
I installed the latest version of za. It hasen't slowed down my surfing much, but when I hit the more info button, it doesn't tell me who is trying to access my pc like it used to. It just sends za back to the tray. Any ideas?????
Thanks, John
:confused:

[zipulrich]

John, I've never used the "more info" button - when I want to see who's pinging me, I just copy the IP# and paste it in SamSpade. Gives me more info than I need, usually!

[jmolinejr]

Hi again zipulrich,
Could you tell me exactly how you copy and paste? I can't seem to make it work right, but then I'm new at a lot of this stuff. I can get in pretty deep in some areas of the pc with no problem, but somehow I tend to overlook some of the basics. :o
Thanks, John

[Junky]

*hand raised*

I know, I know...

Take the mouse pointer and hilight the section you want to copy. Drag the pointer across an area to hilight it. While its hilighted, hold down the Ctrl key while pressing the letter C key. Then place the pointer or cursor where you want to paste it. Then hold down the Ctrl key again while pressing the V key. That's the way I do it...zip, zap, zoom.

*hope I got it right. ;)

[jmolinejr]

Hi junky,
OK, I can do this, but, say I want to highlight an address blocked by zone alarm and drag it to Sam Spade. It's on my desktop and I'm in the Zone Alarm window. I can't figure this one out. Could I put Sam Spade in my send to list, right click the address, and send it to Sam Spade this way? :confused:
Thanks, John

[zipulrich]

Hi, me again :)

What I do is copy the IP address, then launch Sam Spade (http://www.samspade.org/t/) and paste the addy in where needed.

When you copy to the clipboard (Ctrl-C), it stays there as long as you want. No dragging needed. You can also paste (Ctrl-V) as many times as you want, 'til you copy somethin' new. Confusing enough for you? :)

[jmolinejr]

Hi again,
I have placed the clipboard on my desktop and can copy to it. No problem so far. When I open clipboard, I see what I've coppied. I'm not sure what to do next. :confused:
Thanks, John

[Junky]

This is a test, right? ;)

Once you have it in clip board you can go just about anywhere and paste it. Just like if I hilight something here with the Ctrl and C, it's copied to the clip board. Then I can open notpad or even MS Word, start a new document placing my cursor at the begining of the page and hit Ctrl V, and there it is.

In some programs you can use the right click button on the mouse to pull up a little window menu with copy and paste listed and use that instead of the Ctrl C and V. You'll just need to mess around with it to see what you can do and with what.

Boy, this is tuff. Yer making me think. OUCH! :D

(Just having a bit of friendly fun with ya.)

[ 09 May 2001: Message edited by: Junky ]

[zipulrich]

Junky, I put my clipboard on the desk next to my speakers.

Makes a fine drink coaster :)

[jmolinejr]

Hey Guys,
I can now copy to clipboard and paste to notepad, and I owe it all to you. It's amazing to me that a 44 year old man can now do what most 15 year olds probably think is a no brainer. :D
Thanks for all of your help, John

[zipulrich]

In the meanwhile, have you done a lookup at SamSpade yet? :cool:

[jmolinejr]

Hello,
I have pasted a couple addresses in Sam Spade's addres bar. So far it can't find anything about the addresses. I coppied the number only. Am I doing this right? Maybe I should check out the help section or read me file. I know, it's a guy thing to figure it out without instructions. :D
Thanks, John

[Junky]

jmolinejr, you're doing just fine. Keep at it and you'll pass them little kids up in no time. :D

BTW jmolinejr, you're not the oldest one here. ;)

[smurfy]

OK guys, 1st of all, don't get ZA to show the pop-up, it's just damn annoying and makes you paranoid.
Log the alerts to a file and then once a week or so, analyse the log with a good log analysis tool.
Here's the best advice on using ZA with a link to a free analyser:
http://www.suggestafix.com/ubb/Forum26/HTML/000344.html

[jmolinejr]

Hello smurfy,
I've downloaded the zonelog analyser and I'll give it a try. I just wish the more info button would work in ZA. That was simple. Oh well, thanks for the tip.
John :)