Replies

Charlotte,
Yes, ZAP does cover more than just the basics, but there is plenty of room for other programs that overlap its coverage. SpySweeper, for instance, seems to play very nicely with ZoneAlarm Pro, even though they both prevent malware from installing itself on your machine. Microsoft’s beta antispyware also plays well with ZAP’s antispyware element. So, in this case, I suppose that more is definitely better. A layered approach to security is wise. Even though I tend toward the ‘belt and suspenders’ approach, it’s better to have too much than too little, unless you’re talking about antivirus programs.

Thanks! Looks like a good project for the next snowy weekend.

Just as an addendum:

Don’t forget to add the .wmf extension to the firewall’s blocked email attachments!

Good! I hope you can get the new one. As I said, this (5.5.114) doesn’t seem to be losing settings, unlike the version that was downloadable from RR. In the newest version of the Internet Suite, PestPatrol has been updated so that it no longer thinks that the QuickTime updater is a threat, which is good. In the past, I’d noticed that PestPatrol generated a few false positives; that seems to have been fixed. Incidentally, after installing PP, you will need to open the program and start it manually, but it should run automatically after that, if you set it to run at bootup.

Hi Steve,
Having gone for two years with an ISP that used ancient DSL equipment, I can verify that rebooting the modem and router often helps in situations such as this. I haven’t had to reboot often since I switched ISPs — maybe five times in a year, but well remember what it was like having to reboot the entire system three or four times a day — just to be able to surf. Their entire server system was junk! It wasn’t my fault at all… My point is that the problem may well be on your ISPs end. It also could be a problem with your modem; it may be faulty.

Hi Skitterbug,
RR should have sent you an email about your download. Did you try logging into the CA site using your RR master password and username? If you originally registered your EZ Armor with CA using that user name & pass, it should work fine. Attached is a screenshot of the CA suite firewall I downloaded yesterday, v. 5.5.
Liberty

Added Later: Perhaps you never did register with CA, since you downloaded the suite directly from RR. In that case, just register it using an email address & username.
Your new userpic is nice, but I miss the b/w picture!

Sorry it didn’t work for you. It worked for me, but I also own ZAP, so the versions may have gotten confused. Anyway, ZAP 6.5 is very stable. Incidentally, I tried to renew my CA EZ Armor this morning, and found that it’s not being updated; they’ve replaced it with CA’s Internet Security Suite, a collection that includes version 5.5 of the firewall, the antivirus, PestPatrol, and an antispam application. So far, the firewall isn’t losing settings. Again, sorry the license thing didn’t work for you; as I said earlier, it worked for me, but possibly because I already own ZoneAlarm Pro, and run it instead of the CA version. My installed license key is for CA, though.

Hi,
My Braun coffeepot only brings coffee to a temp of 158 F. You’d want any meat you have in a stew to reach an internal temperature of 160 – 165 F; it’s highly doubtful if a coffeemaker’s warming plate would produce a high enough temperature to insure food safety. But, since you’re already experimenting with cooking in your coffeepot, make sure you use a good, calibrated food thermormeter to check the internal temperatures of whatever you’re ingesting. None of us here at the Lounge want to hear of your spending time in the hospital due to food poisoning!

Unfortunately, no… I’ve been hunting for one for several years. There are directions on the Web for how to make a cardboard dongle that accomplishes this, but the location is long lost. Please let me know if you find anything worth trying. Maybe with Jezza’s inventiveness, your input, and my mechanical skills, a solution can be found.

Can you boot into XP at all at this point? If so, you might want to use a keyfinder (Magic Jelly Bean, for example). If not, you could drill down into the Registry to find the Product Key. Another option might be to run the System File Checker (sfc /scannow) from a command prompt. You could also run chkdsk from the Recovery Console. If getting to XP is totally impossible at this point, I’m afraid your only option is to wipe the disk and start over. Get a Windows 98SE boot floppy diskette and boot to a DOS prompt. Use the FDISK command to remove the non-DOS partition (I’m assuming that XP is on an NTFS partition), then create a Primary DOS partition. This new partition will be FAT32. Exit from FDISK, and type format c: /u at the prompt. This will prepare your machine for a reinstallation of Windows ME using the factory’s Recovery CDs. Just don’t wipe any Recovery Partitions with FDISK, or the CDs may fail!

Thanks. I’ll pass on the info to Cle’s friend, Pedro — who has the spyware infestation. Cleaning up spyware third-hand isn’t easy, but it can be done…

Thanks, Bob. In the meantime, why don’t you switch to Firefox, and be done with IE 6?

Bob,
You’re absolutely right about the slowdown. As an ardent supporter of SpySweeper — who uses Firefox — I hadn’t noticed. I will now advise my customers who use IE 6 and SpySweeper to be patient. All the more reason for them to switch to Firefox! Please keep us posted as to your response from WebRoot. Thanks again.
LR

His battery voltage is a bit low, also.

John mentioned the answer above in post 539,996 . You will need to get into the bios and set a master password that will prevent users from accessing both the bios and the operating system so that only you will be able to boot the machine. There may also be a user password setting that will let users boot the o/s, but will not let them have access to the bios settings, but this does not sound as if it is what you want.