asked on Managing Zonealarm Program Settings in Bulk
I like the Zonealarm "Extreme" Pro firewall. But I don't like its management options.
My biggest irritation is the difficulty in managing the program list. Mine regularly bloats to over 2000 programs. The vast majority of which are duplicates.
I can understand why that would happen if a program has changed but the vast majority of the time, they haven't so my first question is
1 Why do we get duplication when a program in the list hasn't changed?
Next, once a program has been authorised either manually or automatically, it often has its "outbound trusted" flag set true. There are almost no programs I want sending data outbound without asking my permission first. So I find I need to "correct" a few hundred of them. Unlike deleting programs, which can be done in bulk (select a bunch, then click "Remove" and they all go) the ONLY way to switch off that "outbound trusted" flag is one at a time. That's insane. so
2 anyone know a way to switch off (or on) such flags in bulk? and
3 is there a way to make the default flag "Ask"
Ideally there would be a file we could hack outside zonealarm with all these settings and use standard database commands (or even text "search and replace" commands) to do bulk editing but I appreciate that would break their security model so I don't expect anyone to come back with that option but something like that, within ZA, is desperately needed
Finally, we used to be able to disable things, like the tvdebug.log by rightclicking the ZA icon and choosing "Set Debug Level" (to "Off") but that option has disappeared in the current version.
(ZoneAlarm Extreme Security version: 15.3.060.17669; Vsmon version: 15.3.58.17668 ; Driver version: 15.1.29.17237)
So
4 anyone know how to do that nowadays?
My biggest irritation is the difficulty in managing the program list. Mine regularly bloats to over 2000 programs. The vast majority of which are duplicates.
I can understand why that would happen if a program has changed but the vast majority of the time, they haven't so my first question is
1 Why do we get duplication when a program in the list hasn't changed?
Next, once a program has been authorised either manually or automatically, it often has its "outbound trusted" flag set true. There are almost no programs I want sending data outbound without asking my permission first. So I find I need to "correct" a few hundred of them. Unlike deleting programs, which can be done in bulk (select a bunch, then click "Remove" and they all go) the ONLY way to switch off that "outbound trusted" flag is one at a time. That's insane. so
2 anyone know a way to switch off (or on) such flags in bulk? and
3 is there a way to make the default flag "Ask"
Ideally there would be a file we could hack outside zonealarm with all these settings and use standard database commands (or even text "search and replace" commands) to do bulk editing but I appreciate that would break their security model so I don't expect anyone to come back with that option but something like that, within ZA, is desperately needed
Finally, we used to be able to disable things, like the tvdebug.log by rightclicking the ZA icon and choosing "Set Debug Level" (to "Off") but that option has disappeared in the current version.
(ZoneAlarm Extreme Security version: 15.3.060.17669; Vsmon version: 15.3.58.17668 ; Driver version: 15.1.29.17237)
So
4 anyone know how to do that nowadays?
Software FirewallsDatabasesSecurity* zonealarm
Last Comment
Mike Jacobs
ASKER
Stacy, I really appreciate the effort you've made trying to answer this question. However, I can only inform you that the most charitable interpretation I can provide is that Zonealarm didn't understand the issues.
I have installed ZA on probably over 200 machines and "cleaned" ZA probably more than a thousand times. It has no effect whatsoever on the behaviour I describe. Duplications are normal on every system I've ever installed. Bulk flag clearance/modification is never an option, there is no way to make the default permission "Ask" and no way to disable the debug feature.
I have installed ZA on probably over 200 machines and "cleaned" ZA probably more than a thousand times. It has no effect whatsoever on the behaviour I describe. Duplications are normal on every system I've ever installed. Bulk flag clearance/modification is never an option, there is no way to make the default permission "Ask" and no way to disable the debug feature.
ASKER
Just a further update on the above. I've been forced, in recent weeks to disable ZA altogether on a number of machines because it's aggressive pursuit of user permitted activities and software has dragged performance to well below anything usable. On my own main workstation, I decided to try, yet again, the clean install routine (which, for the time being, has worked - as it usually does for a few months) but, as you begin the uninstallation part of that, we are routinely directed to a "Survey" option which I have routinely ignored. This time, I didn't and basically gave full throated detail to Checkpoint. If I ever get a reply (which I invited), I'll update this again.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
THIS SOLUTION ONLY AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS.
View this solution by signing up for a free trial.
Members can start a 7-Day free trial and enjoy unlimited access to the platform.
I talked to ZoneAlarm Support regarding the issues you described. They suggested that you would need to do a fresh install here are the steps they provided:
Here are the steps to clean uninstall and reinstall the program.
1. Right-click the Windows logo at the left corner of your desktop.
2. Click on settings then click on Apps/ Programs and Features
3. Scroll to the bottom of the programs list. Click the ZoneAlarm Security program to select it.
4. Click Remove or Click Uninstall.
5. Follow the prompts to uninstall ZoneAlarm
6. When prompted to reboot the PC to finish uninstalling.
7. After PC has rebooted download the clean utility using any browser from this link.
http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/downloads/CLEAN.exe
8. When prompted by any browser click the ‘Save As’ button and Save the clean.exe program to your Desktop.
9. Run the clean.exe program that is saved to your Desktop.
10. Follow the prompts and reboot the PC when prompted to.
11. Clear your Windows temporary file cache by following the steps below:
- Go to Start -> Run
NOTE: If you do not have the Run option on the Start menu, you can press and hold the Windows logo key and tap the letter R.
- Type %temp% and click OK
- Select all of these files and delete them
- Empty your recycle bin
12. Delete any current ZoneAlarm setup files you may have saved, then reinstall ZoneAlarm again from the link below:
Below is a link to download ZoneAlarm Extreme Security for Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7 and Windows Vista.
Please click the link below.
Click Save, select Desktop on the left side of the Save Window and then click Save to the lower right.
Once this file has finished, run the file to install ZoneAlarm.
https://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/1001_za/ZASPSetupWeb_154_062_17802.exe
https://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/1042_za/ZASPSetup_154_062_17802.exe
*** use either or link**
13. Enter your license key when ZoneAlarm is successfully installed. To enter your license key please follow the steps below:
1. Open your ZoneAlarm application
2. Click on Tools
3. Click Enter License
4. On the license key field, Paste your license key
5. Click OK
Hope this resolves your issues.
Kind regards,
Stacy Richard
EE CS