Unwanted software snuck into your PC

[Bardan the Slayer]

Originally posted by Sir Krustin: First step, complain to the website where the dialer was installed. Second step, do get a firewall, ZoneAlarm Pro is very, very good. You are right in that it will affect all your outgoing software, but you can set certain apps to "always allow" or "always deny", and unknown apps to either "always deny", or "query" (asks you if you want it to get through). ZoneAlarm has a database in it's control panel that allows you to customize it's settings, whether or not a certain app can be a server or just a client for example.

Zonealarm Pro also has serious issues with resource hogging and crashing computers every half hour. For some people it works like a charm, for others it will wreck their PC. I know - I had it on mine, and on startup, my system resources would drop to 60% with ZA running. I removed it, replaced it with Kerio, and now get 80%. Reboot time has gone from 2 minutes 30 to 1 minute 15.

Zonealarm is very, very cool if your PC is ok with it, but about half of users experience severe problems with it.

Oh, and this was on an Athlon 800Mhz, 256Mb RAM,. it's not like I was running it on an Amiga

The old freeware version of ZA (2.6, available at www.oldversion.com ) is far superior in terms of resource management. Go with that.

[ 03-03-2003, 05:53 PM: Message edited by: Bardan the Slayer ]

[Kakero]

I see. since I don't have any strange occurance with my computer yet, I guess there's no need to have such programs.

thanks btw.

[andrewas]

Except that, if someone had broken into your computer and found interesting files, and had decided to steal them, there would be no indication. What harm that does depends on what you keep on you computer, of course.

I can almost garauntee your comptuer has been scanned at least once every ten minutes every time you log onto the internet. Firewalls prevent those scans from returning any data, and prevent anyone from getting in again even if they have previously been in.

I woudnt run a system without one on the internet. At all. In the past 3 weeks, I have logged 2053 attacks. And its not as if I advertise this system or have anything interesting to steal.

[Harkoliar]

originally posted by Sever ----------------------------------- Unless you really like browsing those 'interesting junkmails', i'd suggest altering your hotmail account so that you do not receive any. The copious quantities of crap that gets thrown in your email means that sooner or later, you're gonna pick something up. Sure, a firewall will stop those nasty visitors (and is highly recommended) but isn't there enough porn on the web without them force feeding it to you?

actually its one of those junkmail with those products that was suppose to reduce wieght and stuff... i wasnt checking the porn stuff if that is what your kind implying (or that how i interpret it .

originaly posted by Nachtrafe ---------------------------------- EDIT: Hark...feel free to PM me anytime! I'm off to work now myself. Have a good night!

im getting the hang of it now but i will soon when i find some of those features that i cant understand...

originaly posted by Bardan the Slayer -------------------------------------- Zonealarm is very, very cool if your PC is ok with it, but about half of users experience severe problems with it.

ill keep that in mind and i will download the older version (just in case thanks for showing the site

originaly posted by andrewas ----------------------------------- I can almost garauntee your comptuer has been scanned at least once every ten minutes every time you log onto the internet. Firewalls prevent those scans from returning any data, and prevent anyone from getting in again even if they have previously been in.

actually since yesterday, ZA program blocked 52 attempts in accessing my computer... it makes me wonder why my computer get scanned every 10min in the first place... [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img]

[GokuZool]

ZA sounds like a pretty cool program. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Q.

*How big is the d/l?
*How will I know if it's screwing up my comp.

Thanks [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Harkoliar]

*How big is the d/l? *How will I know if it's screwing up my comp.

its only around 3mb so its okay... its freeware as well. to know if its screwing your comp is when your comp keeps on crshing every 30 min.. if that happens get the older version which is linked above by bardan the slayer... its better.

[WillowIX]

Originally posted by GokuZool: ZA sounds like a pretty cool program. [img]smile.gif[/img] Q. *How big is the d/l? *How will I know if it's screwing up my comp. Thanks [img]smile.gif[/img]

How oyu will know if it´s toying with your computer? First of all your email will die, then you will notice a lag when browsing the net. You can of course change all this with some manual tweeks, and IIRC Zonelabs have some very good manuals on their site. Don´t use their pop-up killer though. (The free dedicated ones are much better anyway)

Personaly I prefer Norton´s firewall, although Kerio´s (is that one called Tiny now or is the other way around?) is also extremely good. Perfect stealth and checking inbound and outbound traffic. The best is of course a hardware firewall, when you can get it to work. Grrrrr!!

Edit: I also hate unwanted software tht snucks into my PC, Windows and the like for instance.

[ 03-04-2003, 07:15 AM: Message edited by: WillowIX ]

[Ziroc]

Originally posted by Harkoliar: [img]graemlins/1pissed.gif[/img] im kinda angry right now that some stupid website that (unknowingly supports porn) placed a dialup porn website program without my consent or knowing. since i was also using dial up, i all of a sudden got disconnected and them have my modem dial an international no to connect to a porn website without me knowing (since i left it for 5 min) thank goodness the phone line was busy or else i would be in deep trouble explaining to my parents why i was connecting international (very expensive) and of all things PORN. [img]graemlins/madhell.gif[/img] . now because of this kind of stupid incident, i was thinking of having a firewall installed now in my computer (nothing goes or exits wihtout my consend ) but the problem is that i also have kazza in my computer so i dont know if that would be affected. i also the trend pc-cllin antivirus, yahoo, aol and (now installing msn) chat program. so i wonder if those programs will also get affected.. help? [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img]

I wish people like that would die. Evil assholes. [img]graemlins/1pissed.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/1pissed.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/1pissed.gif[/img]
Or I wish you could teleport through the internet to where the person that runs the site is, and beat the living crap outta them

[Nachtrafe]

Originally posted by Bardan the Slayer: Zonealarm Pro also has serious issues with resource hogging and crashing computers every half hour. For some people it works like a charm, for others it will wreck their PC. I know - I had it on mine, and on startup, my system resources would drop to 60% with ZA running. I removed it, replaced it with Kerio, and now get 80%. Reboot time has gone from 2 minutes 30 to 1 minute 15. Zonealarm is very, very cool if your PC is ok with it, but about half of users experience severe problems with it. Oh, and this was on an Athlon 800Mhz, 256Mb RAM,. it's not like I was running it on an Amiga The old freeware version of ZA (2.6, available at www.oldversion.com ) is far superior in terms of resource management. Go with that.

Huh...guess I must be one of the lucky ones. I have never had a problem with ZA. I run an Athlon 500, 192M RAM, and Windows XP.

But, if I ever have any problems with it, I'll definitely check Kerio out. Thanks Bardan.

[Nachtrafe]

Originally posted by Harkoliar: originaly posted by Nachtrafe ---------------------------------- EDIT: Hark...feel free to PM me anytime! I'm off to work now myself. Have a good night!

im getting the hang of it now but i will soon when i find some of those features that i cant understand...

No problem. [img]smile.gif[/img] Like I said, feel free to PM or email me anytime if there's something I can answer for you. [img]smile.gif[/img] I'm always happy to help. Although, there are definitely some folks around here who are just as, if not more, knowlegable than I.

Nacht