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zonelabs blocking internet access even when uninstalled!

Okay, this is driving me nuts.

After a brand new install of windows xp pro, I downloaded zone labs free edition from my broadband provider. Which worked fine, like it always has done for me. But then shortly after it prompted me to update, which I did... but then all I could get was 'system error please reboot'. Internet access was blocked, and the page displayed instructions for regaining access. Eventually I regained internet access by switching to the windows firewall, and not using zonlelabs.

However, I later got the 'internet access denied' message again, so this time I uninstalled zonelabs, renamed the internet log files etc, and carried on with the windows firewall. This seemed to work, but when I booted up my machine this morning I got the 'zonelabs denied internet access' message in my browser AGAIN, even though zonelabs is no longer installed !!

How can this be? And how can I fix it?

Another unrelated(?) problem

------------------------------------------- I've also got a problem with my hard drive, which is presumably unrelated, but is as follows: my hard drive was 40GB... and I was running a manufacturer-installed windows xp home edition. But after installing windows xp pro it went horribly wrong. Did a clean install and got a 'can't load operating system' error, or words to that effect. Ended up having to use my windows 98 cd just to get access to the pc and format the hard drive. Did that, installed windows 98, and then upgraded to win xp pro. But my hard drive has shrunk ! The 40GB hard drive was NTFS and when formatting via win 98 this had been confirmed and I'd said 'yes' to all the prompts about catering for that. But now, in win xp pro I'm rather alarmed to see that my hard drive is listed as being FAT32 and only

4.99GB !!

I've gone into the windows disk managing tool, hoping to find a huge unallocated space I could partition or something, but instead I'm contradictory info... on the one hand I'm being told there's a whopping

149GB there, on the other hand the C drive is only 4.99GB and somehow takes up all this space. I'm really confused and don't know what to do next. The disk manager info is as follows: the lower half of the screen

------------------------------------

  • disk 0 basic 149.05 GB Online
*Volume C: 149.05 GB FAT32 Healthy (System) - no unallocated space is listed
  • right click>properties I see partition style as master boot record mbr, capacity 152625GB Hard drive is named ST3160021AS with Microsoft drivers

the upper half of the screen

------------------------------------

  • describes C as partition basic fat32 Healthy (System) 4.99GB Free Space 1.02GB 20% Free Fault Tolerance-no overhead 0%
  • below it is my CD drive described as partition basic cdfs healthy etc

I'm at a complete loss... any ideas (preferably not involving floppy disks as I don't have a floppy drive) would be *very* much appreciated !

Reply to
zapzapzapzap64
Loading thread data ...

Zone Labs is a company. Did you mean their product "ZoneAlarm"?

Obviously you had no clue how much you messed up your system... until now. I guess you don't even know why you installed it at all.

ZoneAlarm is a piece of bit garbage. I'm sorry if this is news for you.

Did you ever try reinstalling over the damaged installation and then uninstall it again? And why don't you ask ZoneLabs' support?

Reply to
Sebastian Gottschalk

Take the computer to someone who knows what they're doing and get them to fix it for you.

My first move might be to boot from a bartpe/xpe cd. I might then search for files matching vs*.* and remove any written by zonelabs. I might also check the BIOS version and decide whether to flash it.

Jason

Reply to
Jason Edwards

hmm... well I think I've got to the bottom of the hard drive problem, but I'm still perplexed as to why zone alarm should suddenly stop working like that. I've used it for years on a variety of os and have always found it really reliable... and I can't see why after a new windows installation it can cause so many problems. Like I say, the older version ran fine when I installed it, but when it updated to the latest version I just got 'system error please rebbot' in the zone alarm control panel. I did install MS office in between installing the old zone alarm and zone alarm updating itself, so maybe the conflict was there... but after unintstalling both I just need to get rid of any zone alarm remnants. I followed zone alarms instructions for doing so, but all of the folders etc it mentioned appeared to have uninstalled okay.

oh, and a little less sarcasm would be appreciated ;)

Reply to
zapzapzapzap64

I've removed it from a variety of PCs and have always found it to be useless for home users who do not have the faintest clue what it does or even why they installed it.

But no doubt you are still going to use it and spread the message to others.

It's sometimes difficult for people, who often have to repair PCs which were destroyed by their users, to remain calm when reading about someone who destroyed his OEM OS installation by installing unnecessary software.

It sounds to me like you believe that no PC should be used without zonealarm, so I will repeat that you should find someone who knows what they're doing.

Next time please install a virus scanner first example

formatting link
forget about firewall software.

Jason

>
Reply to
Jason Edwards

I already use AVG... and I'd guess you'd be in the minority thinking that I should forget about firewall software... you may be right, but I'm sticking to the majority view on this one - that is what most novices have to do, after all. I've heard far, far more positive things said about zone alarm than negative.

Reply to
zapzapzapzap64

I have too. Mostly from people who don't know what zonealarm does or why they installed it.

I've met many people who tell me that zonealarm is essential but cannot begin to give a correct explanation of what it does or how to configure it. These people do not need anything more than the Windows firewall and a virus scanner if they are using XP SP2.

Jason

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Reply to
Jason Edwards

Look in the Zonelabs forums

formatting link
and you'll see that there have been loads of problems when updating to the latest version of Zone Alarm, especially when you didn't remove the older version first.

To remove Zone Alarm see this

formatting link
Like you I can never understand why some posters have to unleash sarcasm at people who are further behind in learning than they are.

Reply to
JIP

Many thanks JIP... I've done a manual uninstall and fingers crossed its off my system for good!

Reply to
zapzapzapzap64

On 6 Mar 2006 00:31:54 -0800, snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com put finger to keyboard and composed:

I don't know about Win XP, but in Win98SE ZoneAlarm loads vsdata95.vxd which can interfere with Internet access even if ZA has been prevented from launching at boot time.

See this post for a description of the problem:

formatting link

- Franc Zabkar

Reply to
Franc Zabkar

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