# Latest Zone Alarm Update - Heads Up **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 20, 2003, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-zone-alarm-update-heads-up/214392 "2003-11-20T23:37:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SkyBum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@SkyBum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkyBum)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2003, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-zone-alarm-update-heads-up/214392/1 "2003-11-20T23:37:20Z")
A lot of people seem to be having problems with the latest Zone Alarm update reducing or in some cases disabling their internet access. You might want to consider waiting a bit to update if you haven’t already done so. With the update installed, I can get online just fine, but if I try to launch an online game it crashes my PC with no ability to launch task manager. After uninstalling Zone Alarm, my games could connect just fine. I then did a clean install of the latest version of ZA and once again my games are crashing as soon as I try to connect to a game server. I just checked the [Zone Lags Forum](http://forums.zonelabs.com/zonelabs/board?board.id=inst) and sure enough, there are many others experiencing similar problems with the upgrade. Just thought some of you might find this helpful… ---
**Author:** ![SkyBum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@SkyBum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkyBum)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2003, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-zone-alarm-update-heads-up/214392/2 "2003-11-20T23:39:04Z")
Heh. Meant to say “Zone LABS Forum”. ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2003, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-zone-alarm-update-heads-up/214392/3 "2003-11-20T23:45:09Z")
Interesting. I downloaded it a couple of hours ago and didn’t realise there were problems (although I don’t do anything fancier than web browsing). It would be nice if companies tested software properly before releasing it. ---
**Author:** ![SkyBum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@SkyBum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkyBum)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2003, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-zone-alarm-update-heads-up/214392/4 "2003-11-20T23:57:03Z")
I just spoke with a friend who also uses Zone Alarm. He just did the update this morning and thought everything was fine. I had him try to take a couple of his games online (Virtual Skipper 3 Demo, Need For Speed: Underground) and both immediately crashed his PC when he tried to connect to a server. He had to reboot in both cases. After uninstalling ZA he was able to connect fine with both games. Anybody else here having similar problems since updating? ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-zone-alarm-update-heads-up/214392/5 "2003-11-21T00:01:19Z")
No, I haven’t updated. I’m still using 2.6! I heard about problems with the release after that and haven’t bothered since. ---
**Author:** ![SkyBum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@SkyBum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkyBum)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-zone-alarm-update-heads-up/214392/6 "2003-11-21T00:11:41Z")
Wow! I can’t even remember what that version was like… I was actually extremely pleased with 4.0. Very stable and no problems. ---
**Author:** ![I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-zone-alarm-update-heads-up/214392/7 "2003-11-21T00:18:33Z")
I had streaming audio problems with NPR and WSM yesterday; I simply restored to last Friday to fix this. Would this be a product of Zone Alarm? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-zone-alarm-update-heads-up/214392/8 "2003-11-21T01:24:39Z")
Whew! Glad I saw this. I just downloaded the upgrade, but haven’t gotten around to installing it. Guess I’ll wait and see what happens. I’m currently running ZAP 4.0.146.029. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-zone-alarm-update-heads-up/214392/9 "2003-11-21T01:31:28Z")
I updated, and it interfered with my Outlook communications. But after I re-installed and didn NOT opt for the 14 day trial of ZA Pro, but rather for the regular free version, all went back to normal. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-zone-alarm-update-heads-up/214392/10 "2003-11-21T01:39:38Z")
**SkyBum** , are you talking about the free or pro version? ---
**Author:** ![SkyBum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@SkyBum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkyBum)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-zone-alarm-update-heads-up/214392/11 "2003-11-21T06:51:47Z")
The free version is the one I was using, **Revtim**. **Coldfire** , when it asked me if I wanted to do the ZA Pro 30 day trial I said no. I had the problems mentioned above in spite of this. Additionally, when it asked if I wanted to do a clean install I specified to keep my old settings. Even after uninstalling it completely and doing a fresh clean install of 4.5, I still had the same problems. From looking over the Zone Alarm forums it looks as if it is affecting Pro users as well, but I didn’t spend much time looking at the posts regarding the Pro version. I looked around online a bit and finally found a download for the 4.0 version (new version is 4.5) and after installing version 4.0.123.012 all is well again. Hopefully, this is somewhat coherent, I’m not thinking so clearly at the moment… ---
**Author:** ![SkyBum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@SkyBum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkyBum)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-zone-alarm-update-heads-up/214392/12 "2003-11-21T07:04:49Z")
Here are two of the threads which mentioned the problem since the update… [ZA Forum thread 1](http://forums.zonelabs.com/zonelabs/board/message?board.id=inst&message.id=6636) [ZA Forum thread 2](http://forums.zonelabs.com/zonelabs/board/message?board.id=inst&message.id=6558) There are others if you dig around a bit. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latest-zone-alarm-update-heads-up/214392/13 "2003-12-19T17:30:28Z")
it’s been a month, is it safe to upgrade yet ^^?