zone alarm

Recall -- Yesterday, Andy P. asked if there was a freeware program that could display the send and receive activity of his internal modem: " I use a dialup Internet connection from AOL. Before I upgraded to Windows XP, I ran a wonderful utility ... called 'FMLights' which allowed me to view the Send and Receive activity internal modem. Unfortunately, FMLights is not compatible with Windows XP, and I can no longer view my network traffic when I'm connected to the Internet ... If you can recommend a freeware application that displays my modem lights and is compatible with Windows XP, that ... (view more)

Happy Birthday to me! Today, I turn 30. Special thanks to those folks who noted my Birthday pre-announcement in the "today in History" section in Yesterday's newsletter. And now getting on with today's question, Infopackets Reader Roberta W. writes: ... " Dear Dennis, I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure out how to report a hacker that has been trying to hack in to my computer. I have 3 firewalls and plenty of antivirus software installed on my computer. I keep getting messages that dav.bay0.hotmail.com is 'sniffing' my communication ports, and is attempting to send me ... (view more)

XP SP2 Frequently Asked Questions: Continued from Part 1 ... Q: " I already have Norton Internet Security installed and running. Does it make sense to use the Service Pack 2 Firewall or should I stick with Norton? Should I use both at the same time? ... " A: It is not recommended that you run two firewalls at once, as this can cause problems with programs which rely on your Internet connection. I don't have any experience with Norton Firewall, but I personally recommend using Zone Alarm (free), as it is widely accepted among the Internet community as a very strong and secure firewall ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Ron H. writes: " Dear Dennis, I enjoy your newsletters, as they are very helpful. I would like to know if there is a way to password protect a web browser (MS Internet Explorer in particular) to prevent access to the internet for ... unauthorized persons? This is a plant security problem where some off-shift personnel have access to the computer for e-mail but do not need to have access to the web browser. Any help with this matter would be appreciated. " My response: In this case, your best bet is to get in touch with your IT guy at the plant and tell him to restrict ... (view more)

I'm making oodles of progress in my quest to finish a Failsafe guide on installing XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). The majority of the eBook is completed; all that is left now is to finish off the "post installation" section, make a video tutorial, answer ... 300 emails related to SP2, and put together a mini FAQ (frequently asked questions). A lot of work? You bet -- but certainly not impossible. I really thought I'd have this guide complete last week, but ran into a bit of a delay when I realized that it would be best to streamline a major portion of the book in order to simplify and ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader John S. writes: " Quite often, my web browser displays gibberish characters throughout the entire web page, instead of the web page itself. I have to refresh the screen (sometimes repeatedly) to get the page to display correctly. ... This also sometimes happens to my emails, too. I did a clean reinstall of Windows, but it didn't help. Any suggestions? " My response: I was plagued with a similar problem for quite some time. After upgrading to Windows XP, my old firewall program (Black Ice) didn't work properly. I decided to replace Black Ice with Zone Alarm ... which ... (view more)

Almost a month ago we were knee-deep in discussion with respect to tracking down a hacker. In short, our ongoing discussion probed possibilities and known methods which might be used to track down a hacker, if one ever attempted to hack into *your* ... computer system. RE: Can I track down a Hacker?, Part 1 , and Can I track down a Hacker?, Part 2 . Shortly after Part 2 was released, I received an email from Dan Daily (editor / webmaster) of Danny's Daily . Dan's comments focused on a proposed supposition, which was sent in from John B. in Part 2 of our Discussion . To recap: John suggested to ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Linda S. write s: " Dear Dennis, With regards to the last newsletter , is it possible that you are assuming that Christine R. accidentally stated that Windows Explorer was trying to access the internet and that she actually meant ... that Internet Explorer was trying to get access? My firewall also will not allow me to have access to the internet unless I give both Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer access. Her question may have been a typo but I think maybe she is having the same problem as I am. Can you offer any suggestions to remedy this? " My Response: I'm ... (view more)