Inline:

"I.C. Greenfields" wrote in message ...

"Gary VanderMolen" wrote in message
...
If you have unwanted outgoing connections then your system is
already compromised.

It's compromised by WMP for example?

Any outbound connections eminating from WMP are benign (not
malicious). It's the malicious malware you should be cncerned about.

A resident Trojan virus can easily disable
the outgoing portion of the firewall. The primary wall of defense
should be prevention of incoming viruses and malware.

Please recommend software that monitors connections both ways that works
with Vista.

Windows Firewall in Vista can be configured to monitor outbound
connections, should you be so inclined. See
http://www.vistastic.com/2007/03/09/...ound-filtering
--
Gary VanderMolen, MS-MVP (Mail)

As your example proves, for the average user, third party firewalls and
anti-malware programs cause more problems than they solve.

--
Gary VanderMolen, MS-MVP (Mail)


"Questor" wrote in message ...
---

"Questor" wrote in message
...
---
You don't say whether a clean install or upgrade.
No hardware specs to see if your computer is capable of running Vista
properly.
We don't know what applications you are running.

You don't say what you have scanned your System with.
There are many applications to find different kinds of infections,
spyware, Malware, Keyloggers.

Post a proper question.

"freezes so many of us are enduring with Vista?"
Exact number please!

This guy has been asking the same question in several groups for the
last couple of days. We all answer him, but he chooses to ignore our
advice. He needs to uninstall ZoneAlarm until they fix the bug that
traps these programs and won't allow killing them.

What BUG is trapping the programs and stopping Task manager from working
and causing the lockups? I did remove Zone Alarm this morning, but you
failed to tell me what to replace it with that monitors crap trying to
phone home. MS firewall allows anything and everything to connect to the
net.


Questor


ZoneAlarm traps programs (notably web browsers and email clients) by
holding them in the 'system' area which prevents 'user' programs such as
Task Manager and Process Explorer from killing them. In the ZA forum,
there are quite a few posts pertaining to this particular bug. They
appear to be working on it, but haven't come up with a solution yet.

Questor

---
As your example proves, for the average user, third party firewalls and
anti-malware programs cause more problems than they solve.


Making a broad statement like that is not really a good idea. I've used
ZA for years from Win98 to XP Pro and haven't had one ripple of problem.
Other third party programs perform just fine on my machines. Once in
a while, a good program throws a clunker and needs to be fine-tuned.
That's all.

Questor

You probably have an above average tolerance for nuisance alarms.
I tried ZA once, and was frustrated by all the benign stuff it alarmed on.
Yes, you can tell it to ignore certain apps, but that takes patience
and a learning curve. Most newbies have no clue as to whether they
should approve a specific SVCHOST process or not.

--
Gary VanderMolen, MS-MVP (Mail)


"Questor" wrote in message ...
---
As your example proves, for the average user, third party firewalls and
anti-malware programs cause more problems than they solve.


Making a broad statement like that is not really a good idea. I've used
ZA for years from Win98 to XP Pro and haven't had one ripple of problem.
Other third party programs perform just fine on my machines. Once in
a while, a good program throws a clunker and needs to be fine-tuned.
That's all.

Questor

On Fri, 13 Feb 2009 10:40:43 -0800, Gary VanderMolen wrote:

As your example proves, for the average user, third party firewalls and
anti-malware programs cause more problems than they solve.

One swallow does not a summer make.

--
Gene E. Bloch letters0x40blochg0x2Ecom

---
You probably have an above average tolerance for nuisance alarms.
I tried ZA once, and was frustrated by all the benign stuff it alarmed on.
Yes, you can tell it to ignore certain apps, but that takes patience
and a learning curve. Most newbies have no clue as to whether they
should approve a specific SVCHOST process or not.


But all those "benign alarms" is how ZA 'learns' what to block or allow
through. If you have Process Explorer on your system when one of those
alerts pops up that you aren't sure of go ahead and deny access, start
PE and see what it does. Hovering over the process in PE will show you
what the process actually does and what DLLs/EXEs are used. If it is an
OK process, then go back to ZA's Programs panel and allow it through.

I agree that it may intimidate some, but once done a couple of times it
becomes second nature.

Questor

"Questor" wrote in message
...
ZoneAlarm traps programs (notably web browsers and email clients) by
holding them in the 'system' area which prevents 'user' programs such as
Task Manager and Process Explorer from killing them. In the ZA forum,
there are quite a few posts pertaining to this particular bug. They
appear to be working on it, but haven't come up with a solution yet.

Questor


I uninstalled ZoneAlarm but don't like the idea of anything onboard phoning
home, even if it's benign. I like to control and know what's going out so
to speak.

"Questor" wrote in message
...
---
As your example proves, for the average user, third party firewalls and
anti-malware programs cause more problems than they solve.


Making a broad statement like that is not really a good idea. I've used
ZA for years from Win98 to XP Pro and haven't had one ripple of problem.
Other third party programs perform just fine on my machines. Once in a
while, a good program throws a clunker and needs to be fine-tuned. That's
all.

Questor

I've used ZoneAlarm since W98 also, with never a problem. I don't like not
knowing what's accessing the net. This really sucks.

"Gary VanderMolen" wrote in message
...
You probably have an above average tolerance for nuisance alarms.
I tried ZA once, and was frustrated by all the benign stuff it alarmed on.
Yes, you can tell it to ignore certain apps, but that takes patience
and a learning curve. Most newbies have no clue as to whether they
should approve a specific SVCHOST process or not.
~~~~~~~~~~

I never had ZoneAlarm ask about SVCHOST processes. And you can turn the
*alerts* off. It'll just ask when something onboard is trying to access the
net. Once you give the program permission or not, it doesn't ask again.
Very easy to use software.

"Gary VanderMolen" wrote in message
...
Inline:

"I.C. Greenfields" wrote in message
...

"Gary VanderMolen" wrote in message
...
If you have unwanted outgoing connections then your system is
already compromised.

It's compromised by WMP for example?

Any outbound connections eminating from WMP are benign (not
malicious). It's the malicious malware you should be cncerned about.


I know they are but don't want anything accessing the bet without
permission. I wan to know what's going on. (Scroll down)


A resident Trojan virus can easily disable
the outgoing portion of the firewall. The primary wall of defense
should be prevention of incoming viruses and malware.

Please recommend software that monitors connections both ways that works
with Vista.

Windows Firewall in Vista can be configured to monitor outbound
connections, should you be so inclined. See
http://www.vistastic.com/2007/03/09/...ound-filtering

*HOW? There's no choice in the Firewall window that opens. HOW and WERE is
the place you make that change?

It says "* Change Outbound connections from Allow (default) to Block" but
WHERE is the place where the change is made?

----------------------------------------
I bet you didn't know that Microsoft Windows Vista includes a two-way
firewall.

Unfortunately, the outbound filtering has been disabled. I'm not quite sure
why Microsoft made this decision but from a security point of view it would
have made perfect sense to have it enabled by default. I suspect it's due to
Microsoft not wanting to frustrate customers when their internet dependent
applications suddenly stopped working.
Windows Vista Firewall: How To Turn On Outbound Filtering

* Click the Start Button (Windows Orb)
* In the search bar type "wf.msc" and press the Enter key
* Click the Windows Firewall Properties link
* Change Outbound connections from Allow (default) to Block

From the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security properties you can also
configure additional rules for incoming as well as outbound connections.

--
Gary VanderMolen, MS-MVP (Mail)