Is there a way to manually add programs to ZoneAlarm's program list?

Factual Questions
1

Just like the subject says.

For those of you who don’t know, ZoneAlarm is a personal firewall. Whenever a new program tries to access the Internet, a dialog pops up and asks if it’s OK; you can at that time also tell the ZA whether to remember the choice you made for the future. You can also change these settings in ZA’s program list.

This all works fine for most Windows programs. The big problem is games.

Because games tend to take over, and don’t necessarily like being task-switched out of, it can be a hassle to get them into ZA’s list.

Most recently, I installed Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Now, I haven’t even gotten to the multiplayer; for some reason, the game wants to access the Internet before I can play single player. The problem is ZA’s dialog pops up and that hard-freezes my computer.

I finally got the game to work by closing ZA and running the game (I also unplugged the cable modem for security’s sake). After running the game and mucking about in the training mission for a bit, I re-enabled ZA and plugged the modem back in, then re-ran the game. This time the dialog worked fine, and now I can play the game OK.

OK, so problem solved, but this isn’t the first time I’ve had a problem like this with an new game. Once I finally get it onto ZA’s list, everything’s fine, but the game gives me hell until I luck into the system not crashing long enough for me to answer the dialog.

It seems like it would be a lot easier if I could just add the program’s executable to ZA’s list before I even try to run the game, and tell ZA to enable internet access for that program. But I can’t see any way of doing this. So, is there a way of doing this or is it just a really dumb interface decision by Zone Labs?

2

Not that i know of, i put it on my comp at work when i caught someone accessing it. (the sysadmin liked it so much, he put it on every comp, then tried to take credit for it cuz he’s a jerk, but enough of lab politics) the only internet game i use is Starcraft, and i had to do the whole alt-tab thing to get it to work. I do like denying access to Media player, since it reports to Microsoft what you do, and they don’t need to know i watch sifl and olly episode.

3

I got frustrated with Zone Alarm so I moved over to Tiny Firewall (dont let the name fool you)

Perhaps you’ll have better luck with that…

www.tinysoftware.com

4

Readers are cautioned that PC firewalls vary widely in terms of effectiveness.

This link suggests that Tiny Personal Firewall, Norton and Sygate have their problems.

I would link to Gibson Research, which discusses these issues (or used to at least), but their server appears to be down at the moment.

5

That article must be old.

[quote]

Sygate personal firewall easily let BackOrifice through on my system after I renamed the executable to iexplore.exe…

…I tested Sygate, Tiny Personal Firewall, Norton Internet Security and ZoneAlarm by renaming BackOrifice to iexplore.exe. Once it was renamed I then attempted to have it make an outbound Internet connection. Sygate, Tiny Personal Firewall and Norton Internet Security all allowed an outbound Internet connection without question.

[quote]

Interesting, because Tiny doesn’t do that. It knows the application has changed and asks to verify if you want to allow it access.
That said, I don’t know if it allows access with two different applications, in tow different locations with the same name.

I’ll try it and find out.

This IS a security risk if someone it sitting at your computer. But it would be hard for someone to upload a file to your computer and rename it to “iexplore.exe” with the firewall in place and configured correctly.

6

sigh

I must learn to not type on my laptop in the dark without proof-reading first. :slight_smile:

7

Ok. I tried that test above with Tiny Firewall version 2.0.14.

The only application on this drive which has incoming/outgoing access is Opera.exe.

I took a copy of ewan (a telnet program) and changed the name from ewan.exe to opera.exe.

I started ewan and tried to connect to a server and tiny firewall asked if I wanted to allow this or not.

Seems fine to me.

8

Specific answer to your question. :slight_smile:

I assume you have Zonealarm installed in the default manner, so that an icon appears on the taskbar.

1)Double-click on the icon.

2)Select “Programs”

3)Move the mouse pointer to the lowest part of the programs listed - ie the blank area(you can do it by using Hotkeys but for now try the most obvious way)

4)Right click your mouse(unless you have it set up for lefthandedness)

  1. A dialogue box will open, it is very similar to the “save to” box that you get when downloading.

6)Use the controls to locate the executable icon for the program.

7)With games you may find that every time you download a patch(but not a map and usually not a mod) that you have to remove the game from Zonealarms list of programs, and then give it access rights to the net again::::dunno why::::shrugs::::

8)Even if you are running a game that takes over your PC, you can still get back to the windows desktop by hitting Alt-Tab from where you can close the game down if it misbehaves.

9)I have found this out from bitter experience, disconnecting the modem, or switching off the PC can cause damage to the operating system and unless you can locate the damaged file to reinstall it you may end up having to reinstall your hard drive completely.

10)If you have a power outage or some problem that shuts down your PC in an uncontrolled manner it may well mean that your next boot up will fail.
For some reason Zonealarm is usually the culprit, and it is a good idea to correctly uninstall in it safe mode, and possible to reinstall you modem drivers too.
You can boot up your PC without having Zonealarm load by going to ‘Start’ then ‘Run’ then type in ‘MSConfig’

This brings up a dialogue box and the option you select is called ‘selective startup’
Having done that then go to the tab marked ‘Startup’ and uncheck Zonealarm.

You will then be required to reboot.

This usually cures the Zonealarm bootup woes, and then you simply remove it and reinstall.