ZoneAlarm Service Agent popup

Yes. This is a standard update dialogue box from Zonealarm.You can always check the version installed to the version that is available at

Others answered that for you. Usually when you get a message like that, you usually have to choose one of the two choices to get the box to go away(choose either "Yes" or "Remind me later"). Doing a hard shutdown is rarely the best choice. I use ZAPro also and I use the 'check for updates manually' selection located in Overview, Preferences in the ZA Control Center.

Check it out at

The link to the latest update of ZoneAlarm Free is the latest 6. version. I'd get rid of the popup box and follow the legit link to zonealarm.com to get the update if I were you. I'd also run my AV and other security scanners to see what's causing the popup. charlie R

snip

Since personally I do not trust any version of Zone Alarm later than

4.5.594, I turned off the option to automatically check for updates.

This prevents messages like that from coming up at all, ever.

Untill and unless somebody gives me good reason to trust versions more recent, this will not change.

I strongly recommend that the OP (or anyone else for that matter) take the same step to stop it from looking for updates.

wylbur37, on 2005-08-19 at 09:20, scribbled:

Just because someone knocks at your door, it doesn't mean that they're trying to steal your belongings!

Welcome to the Brave New World of security updates: Install now or install later, but you won't find a "Stop bothering me with this" button.

Yes. You're using Zone Alarm and it's telling you that there's an update available. (In fact, I believe that V6 came out a few weeks ago.)

Are you looking for an alternative answer to "install the update"?

Cheers, Fred.

If wylbur37 had ZA set to automatically check for updates, that is exactly the message (pop-up) he/she/it would get.

?

My current version is................

ZoneAlarm Pro version:6.0.631.003 TrueVector version:6.0.631.003 Driver version:6.0.631.003 Anti-spyware engine version:4.0.9.7 Anti-spyware signature DAT file version:01.200508.111

The new 6 is pretty good and probably the best since 4.5, so if you're ever in the mood to try again, you might try 6. Otherwise, I don't see any great need to upgrade either. Many people are still using 4.5.

me skrev:

Why don't you trust them? 4.5 is a good version, but there might be security holes and stuff that 4.5 does not handle...

I'm not trusting Zonealarm in (or any other "Personal Firewall") at all, because:

Zonealarm lies, when they allege, that their product would make a PC "unvisible" in the Internet. Zonealarm is annoying the user with popups, a user cannot deal with. Zonealarm is vulnerable to the SelfDOS-Attack. Zonealarm cannot prevent any application from "phoning home", because tunneling is easy. But in their advertising, Zonelabs is assuring this. Zonealarm can be deactivated from any Malware, which is running already, by inserting rules, because Zonealarm has no password after installation. And if they would have one, the malware just has to wait until the user enters it anytime. The "ID and privacy protection" feature even is counterproductive - it's resulting in publicizing the data, not protecting it.

This is for Zonealarm. Some "Personal Firewalls" are somewhat less catastrophic, some (like Symantec Norton or Sygate) are even worse.

None of the "Personal Firewalls", we tested, offered more protection then the Windows-Firewall. But most of them made a PC less secure than a PC with the Windows-Firewall.

F'up2 comp.security.firewalls.

Yours, VB.

Volker Birk skrev:

Huuu? The Windows Firewall is even worse. It can't control applications at all compared to the others, can it? IT can possibly stop applications from acting like servers, but not from connection to the net (like others like ZA can).

No. It does nothing but portfiltering. But this works.

No, it can't. Exactly as the "Personal Firewalls", which only can control applications, which admit that. So also "Personal Firewalls" are not able to control this really.

Just a little effort is needed to ignore every "Personal Firewall" in that point, see my POC here:

This works with every "Personal Firewall" we tested, including:

Kerio Personal Firewall 4.1.2 Norman Personal Firewall 1.42 Agnitum Outpost Firewall Pro 2.5 Sygate Personal Firewall Pro 5.5 Tiny Firewall 6.0 Zone Labs ZoneAlarm Pro 5.5 Symantec Norton Personal Firewall 2005

Alexander Bernauer has written a remote control software ("trojan horse"), which uses this:

BTW: this is not the only way to ignore "Personal Firewalls", if you're writing malware; it's only one of hundreds of ways to implement tunneling.

Yours, VB.

Because I noticed that later versions, even if you turn off the automatic check for updates feature, insisted on 'calling home' anyway without my permission. I don't allow software to remain installed if it does that.

If 6 behaves like 5 did and 'calls home' even though I turn automatic check for updates off, then no. I won't bother.

....>

Please tell me what you base this on?

I've been running 5.50 for quite some time, and have never seen it 'phone home' without my explicit permission.

I can say this authoritatively because I monitor my internet activity very closely using both ZoneAlarm and a router/firewall, and have never identified any traffic that I have not explicitly initiated.

This is from "Contact with Zone Labs" and then in the "Exceptions" tab in the ZAPro6 Control Center regarding contacting ZA.

"Alert me with a pop-up before I make contact Displays a warning before contacting Zone Labs to deliver registration information, get product updates, research an alert, or access DNS to look up IP addresses. Note: There are certain situations in which you will not be notified before contact is made. Those include sending DefeneseNet data to Zone Labs, contacting Zone Labs for program advice, when an anti-virus update is performed, or when monitoring your anti-virus status. The "Share setting anonymously..." setting below, turns off the DefenseNet transfer. All other settings can be disabled from the main tab of their respective panels."

So it 'appears' that you can stop ZAPro6 from contacting Zone Labs without your permission or notification.

Perhaps I failed to make my question clear. Please excuse my murkiness.

What I meant to ask was this. You seem to be asserting that you are aware of ZoneAlarm establishing contact with ZoneLabs (or perhaps some other provider?) despite the fact that you have deselected the options in ZoneAlarm which would tend to cause the program to do so.

I was trying to learn from you what behaviors on the part of ZoneAlarm, or perhaps some other program or piece of hardware was initiating contact. For example, do you have transcripts of internet connections with ZoneLabs, or log files either from ZoneAlarm or some other software or hardware whowing that connection being established and used?

Hallo Volker Birk, Du teiltest mit:

[causes]

Do u try to stay here for a longer time? That's a ray of hope here.

THX Watchin', Wolfgang

;-)

VB.