Norton

annie1 · Post by **annie1** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:44 am

Hi Alan,

Thank you for all this information, your a great help! I am connected through broadband, Avg does seem to have spyware there, and I also have windows firewall and defender, but I think I will follow your advice and add something else.
Its better to be safe!
I hope I dont sound stupid, but can I ask you what you mean by, connected by a router?

Ann

Added later:
Just seen Maggies post, ok now I know what connection by router means, I am learning

annie1 · Post by **annie1** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 2:13 pm

Thought I would give an update on how I got on with AVG and ZoneAlarm firewall.. well

I cant get to grips with them at all, my computer now seems to have a mind of its own, and at the same time everyday internet explorer stops working, its not when its scanning, as I checked, I dont know how many reports I have sent to microsoft, it goes so slow now and takes an age to connect, it also says on the wee icon on my toolbar that I am not connected when I am, I ave checked all the settings and cant find a problem, but, I am a total novice.
I have never had problems before, and computer always ran well, and was fast, so I think somewhere along the line I have done something wrong in the installing

help

Ann

Moray_Lass · Post by **Moray_Lass** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 5:33 pm

Sorry you are having so many problems Ann.

Remove Zonealarm and go back to the Windows Firewall and see if that cures your problems. If it does, reinstall ZA and see if if it behaves better. ZA can have bad installs that cause all sorts of problems.

You can turn off ZA asking you question all the time, but that usually settles down after a few days as it learns what software you have got. I basically don't let anything onto the internet that I don't know has to - unfortunately that does include some Microsoft files I'd rather not give internet access too - like svchost.exe.

Hope that helps.

annie1 · Post by **annie1** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 8:22 pm

Maggie thank you, I am just back on again, thats the second time I have had to restart the computer since this morning. I will try what you have said and keep my fingers crossed. I like the asking part of ZA, but I have been letting all things to do with microsoft through! I assumed it was okay to do this. Something kept asking to be allowed through and I kept refusing as I didnt know what it was, turned out it was something my son has for itunes! I was not popular!

Thanks
Ann

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 4:37 am

Hello Ann,

As Maggie said it won't take long before the asking by the Firewall slows right down and will only crop up when you install a new program or a new version, but make sure you also tick the remember (?) box or whatever so it won't keep asking. The firewall, on installation, will if I remember correctly, give the ok to Windows programs it thinks are safe and a beginner could probably go along with that until they get used to things.

You can view the list of program permissions by double clicking the Zone Alarm icon, clicking Program Control and then Programs under that and you can change the permissions by clicking any of the program entries. It’s reasonably safe to allow a program access if it’s one you recognise and you think there’s a legitimate reason, in your own mind, for it to do so.

If you think that the problem is with the ZA Firewall you could always just uninstall and go back to using the Windows one and see if things are back to normal. The Vista version is better than the XP version as regards outbound packet filtering but only if you turn that part of it on. Windows Firewall lets every thing out unless you specifically say it can’t whereas ZA lets nothing out unless you say it can, or so I've read. Make sure Windows Firewall is turned on after any uninstall. http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-6690672-1.html

What is happening that is requiring the computer to be restarted? Is it completely freezing or is it just slowing to a crawl. Here’s something you can try with Windows XP but I’m not sure how this translates to Vista.

The next time your computer is running really slowly close all your programs except those that normally run all the time such as Virus and Firewall. Press ctrl, alt and del at the same time. Windows Task Manager should then appear. Maximise the Task Manager window.

On the Applications tab take a note of what applications are running.

On the Performance tab take a note of what the approximate cpu usage is. Is it near 100%?

On the Processes tab make sure “show processes from all users” is ticked. The third column shows CPU usage as a percentage of the total. Usually if nothing much is running most of these will be zero or less than 10. The System Idle Process is just the currently unused CPU capacity so that will be high if the others are low and visa versa. Take a note of the details of anything in the list that shows a CPU number of more than about 20. If there’s something gobbling up resources and slowing down the computer it may show up there.

See how you go,
Alan

annie1 · Post by **annie1** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 11:39 am

Alan thanks for your reply, I have uninstalled Zone alarm and restarted windows firewall, now its all back to normal, I wonder if windows defender was and Zone alarm were working against each other?

The whole computer just crawled to a slow, it took 18 minutes and it was still trying to connect, I opened the task manager and the only thing running was internet explorer, something new I have learned! the cpu was about 56% and the other was jumping from 0-2%, when I went to end task it took ages, microsoft tried to restart but no luck, then when I tried to restart, it seemed to freeze and I had to switch off from the mains, which I hate doing, funnily though, I could use my windows mail with no problem.

Everything is running fine today, quick connection and fast, but my computer is still saying I am not connected to the internet, but once I open the connect here box, it tells me it is

I am going to try the task manager today and see if the numbers are the same.

Thanks
Ann

Added later, just noticed physical memory 80%, is this normal? and no programme above 6-7%

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 12:59 pm

That’s okay Ann,

I just looked up Defender to see what it was and it’s a security program mainly for spyware so maybe there is a conflict of some kind there. Just quickly googling there seems to be some instances of similar problems elsewhere. Possibly if Defender was disabled and AdAware or Spybot used instead Z.A. may work okay but I’m not sure about that. It may be just a matter of getting each program set up so as to accommodate the other.

With the ‘not connected’ thing it may be worth checking both ends of the connection cable and any other cables between the wall plug and the computer in case one is a bit loose.

Is that 80% physical memory on the task manager performance tab? I can’t see a % on mine but comparing Total to Available I’m probably using about 60%. It depends on what’s running and you can usually increase available memory by adding more RAM if you think it needs it.

But if things are fairly back to normal then that’s the main thing.

All the best,
Alan