How do you safely debug a firewall issue?

I'm having firewall issues, from around the time of the XP update about three weeks ago. Now I noticed that it's not allowing me to use the Winamp Media Library. ZoneAlarm didn't even ask, it seems it just blocked it. When I go to my Security Center in Control Panel, I see the Firewall as being on, I take that to mean that I've now got back the Windows Firewall (which I thought was off).

How do you safely start from a relative zero point to track down a problem? If I turn off the firewall in the Security Setting, am I only turning off the Windows Firewall, or am I turning off ZoneAlarm from that setting?

-- Robert Pearson ParaMind Brainstorming Software

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Virtue Press/Telical Books/Regenerative Music

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No. The Security Center only shows whether an application has registered itself as active firewall on the computer. The Windows firewall is one of those which make the Security Center show an active firewall.

Just check whether the Windows firewall is turned on of off in the firewall control panel "firewall.cpl". That should tell you the current configuration of the firewall.

So far you did not really describe the problem. If ZoneAlarm is blocking something you should fix ZoneAlarm or deinstall it.

Which "Security Setting"? The Security Center (if that is what you have meant) only shows the status, but you cannot change the setting there. It just points to another control panel to make changes.

If the Security Center says you have no firewall active then you should have no firewall running, although it is depends of course whether ZoneAlarm correctly keeps the current status in the security center or not...

Gerald