Promlem with Zonealarm

[B4349]

Hi,
After I installed Avast! home edition, I installed Zonealarm too. Installation of Zonealarm was ok, but program won't work   In the tray (at the right-bottom of the window) is Zonealarm's icon with X which means that "trueVector security service is shut down". And the Zonealarms program window says also "system error: please reboot", but that didn't help.

What to do? I tried to install ZA for various times, but the result was always the same. Previously I have had ZA in my computer, but I uninstalled it because I tried F-secure antivirus, which includes firewall. Well, F-secure was VERY heavy and I got rid of it and updated it with Avast!. Avast! works fine, but I still would like to have ZA too. My computer's spesifications are: 800 MHz/512 MB/20 GB/WinXP
Avast! and ZA versions are the latest.

[Pavel Baudis]

avast! works with Zonealarm without any problem - the only thing is that you must allow several avast! programs to access the Internet.

It seems that your problem is about installing Zonealarm itself  . I have no idea what can be wrong with it...

Pavel

[shgoh]

yes...i tink the problem lies with zonealarm....i never have a good impression of zonealarm!

it crashed my comp last time..

[trigger]

I have both zonealarm and zonealarm plus running on systems together with avast. No problem whatsoever. The only thing I can think of as being different is that i first installed zonealarm and later avast (was using another virus program before)

Peter

[B4349]

Because Avast! is running ok, the problem might be in Zonealarm, or in some settings. I have XP's own firewall turned on -could that be disturbing? If I remember correctly I didn't turn that off when used ZA earlier. Strange indeed.

I dont't think that ZA's installation is the problem because I have installed it from two different downloadings and the installation process works fine. The problem exists when ZA is launched.

[trigger]

Ohhh yeah!!! Two firewalls on one computer is a guarantee for trouble. I have made that mistake once... It led to every possible problem from crashing computers with blue screens to comuters that were not protedcted at all.

You must understand that a firewall tries to control all tcpip traffic. If there are two processes trying to get full control on things, they are bound to have problems with each other.

COMPLETELY disable one before attempting to install another...

Peter

[Lisandro]

I have both zonealarm and zonealarm plus running on systems together with avast. No problem whatsoever. The only thing I can think of as being different is that i first installed zonealarm and later avast (was using another virus program before)

Peter

Me too, ZA works fine with avast!  
Why don't you uninstall avast!, install ZA and then avast! to see if it works... Of course, disable (or, better, uninstall) any prior antivirus or firewall application  

[techie101]

B4339,

Firstly, ZA and Avast get along rather well, and it doesn't matter in which order they are installed.

I would not recommend having XPs internal FW running against ZA.  Two firewalls do not always get along, and often limit effective protection or create a "wall" preventing useful internet access.  MORE of a good thing is not always good!
Zone Alarm does have some problems at times loading True Vector.
By default TV is configured to run as a service at bootup and continue until the computer is shut down.  It monitors and controls internet activity.
If True Vector has never loaded, then you must try uninstalling Zone Alarm according to the instructions at this link.  YOU MUST FOLLOW THEM CAREFULLY!
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/support/znalm26Main.jsp#xp

Another thing to consider, is that ZA will not run until you sign on to the system....meaning if you do not have Administrator rights, then it will not load TV either.

If ZA is not uninstalled propertly, serious conflicts could result since files will be leftover and a clean install will not occur.  

If we are unsuccessful, then we will need to remove all non-essential programs from the startup menu until identify which one is interferring with TV.

PAVEL,

If B4339 is getting a True Vector shutdown, then ZA is not even running, and therefore it doesn't matter what access is granted.  True vector is the "active guard" portion of the ZA application.  At times, it can be quite tempermental.
This usually occurs when another app interferes with it loading fully.

Good luck
techie

[B4349]

Thanks for the advices. I'm the admin of that computer so the rights are not the problem. I tried to turn XP's firewall and avast! off and then launch ZA again. That didn't help. Next I migth have to try unistalling ZA, and installing it again with XP's firewall turned off. But why I'm wondering this, is because earlier used ZA with XP's firewall enabled and still ZA worked very well. But that was before I had Avast! antivirus installed, maybe it somehow causes some misunderstanding between programs (firewalls)?

[Lisandro]

Thanks for the advices. I'm the admin of that computer so the rights are not the problem. I tried to turn XP's firewall and avast! off and then launch ZA again. That didn't help. Next I migth have to try unistalling ZA, and installing it again with XP's firewall turned off. But why I'm wondering this, is because earlier used ZA with XP's firewall enabled and still ZA worked very well. But that was before I had Avast! antivirus installed, maybe it somehow causes some misunderstanding between programs (firewalls)?

I never had any trouble with internal XP firewall and ZA or avast!. I'm not so sure the use of both (internal + ZA) is worse than only ZA. Anyway, maybe it will work with techie's advices.

[B4349]

I never had any trouble with internal XP firewall and ZA or avast!. I'm not so sure the use of both (internal + ZA) is worse than only ZA. Anyway, maybe it will work with techie's advices.

No it didn't   I did just like the instructions told to, but when I installed ZA again the result was same: "TrueVector security service shut down". Now I really don't know what to do. If I can't solve this it would be better to concider another firewall? What a shame, I liked ZA.

[Lisandro]

I never had any trouble with internal XP firewall and ZA or avast!. I'm not so sure the use of both (internal + ZA) is worse than only ZA. Anyway, maybe it will work with techie's advices.

No it didn't   I did just like the instructions told to, but when I installed ZA again the result was same: "TrueVector security service shut down". Now I really don't know what to do. If I can't solve this it would be better to concider another firewall? What a shame, I liked ZA.

Is the True Vector Service running? (C:\WINDOWS\system32\ZONELABS\vsmon.exe -service)

This service has a lot of 'dependencies': Network AFD, RPC, TDI, DHCP client, DNS client, wireless configuration, and so on... (I don't know exactly what these services do, but without them, ZA won't work properly).

Could you see what is happening with True Vector Service and, besides of this, try to post the Windows Event Error for it...
Let´s try a little more...  

[techie101]

B43,

This is a peculiar problem which seems to defy solution at this point.

I read that you tried shutting down the XP FW and Avast itself with no change.  I also read you tried the uninstall as per ZA vendor instructions with no change.

Did you shut down all unecessary programs in Startup except ZA, TV, Systray and Explorer?  If not, let's try that if only to eliminate a possible solution.

Technical is correct.  Zone Alarm depends on many sub-processes.....any one can cause a problem.

As a rule, I never recommend having more than one of "anything" running.  Just because XP FW and ZA got along once doesn't mean that it will continue.

Hang in there, we'll get to the bottom of this.

Also, Did you know that Zone Alarm has a "support chat" live?

You'll find it at www.zonealarm.com under Support.

techie

[shgoh]

i've got the same problem long time back...

so annoying

y not trying using kerio instead of zonealarm?

[B4349]

Well, maybe I'll try to solve this with ZA's assistant by asking him on-line. I also posted this conversation  to ZA's forum, where someone was having samekindoflike problem I have..

I checked startup, and the TrueVector included list, so it should start running in startup. There was also Avast in that list, and I didn't try to ignore it from list. But last installation of ZA (I did) was when Avast! and XP's FW was turned off like you read. I also deep-scanned hole C with Avast! for some viruses which may interfere system but it was clean.