Just installed my prize, and my machine is having problems with it. It started the reboot routine, and doesn't seem to like other applications running. I tried rebooting to Safe Mode and got stuck at the infamous mup.sys entry, after which my monitor went white. ZoneAlarm is still installed but currently disabled. The machine is P4 2.6Ghz 512 RAM, and I just this morning figure out a 6 month old problem and got the machine running fine.
Any suggestions?

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You probably have made common mistake assuming that exiting (not
uninstalling) a previous firewall prevents all compatibility problems. In any case,
while a firewall installed (even that is not running/disabled) it keeps all the
system level drivers inside the system, so possible points of conflicts are stayed alive.

So this is common with another firewall? I had ZoneAlarm Free installed. I do nothing on the internet without at least anti-virus and a firewall running in spite of all the warnings.
I didn't even have the time to disable ZoneAlarm before the first problem occurred. I had just gotten an old mysterious problem fixed on my system before I installed this product.
I uninstalled it as my sytsem had become so unstable after fixing it just that morning. After the uninstall my start-up time on Windoes XP is unusually long. All my security programs gave a clean bill of health with the exception of 3 cookies, that snuck in.
Are there any major compatibilty issues I should know about before trying again? I have several small, useful applications that start up with Windows
Will regestering your product a second time cause a problem?
Thanks for responding
Charles
(Egads - sorry for all the questions - not one of my better posts)

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Dear Charles!
We (at sphinx) know the single compatibility problem at least.
The simultaneous use of two or more firewalls on the same system is categorically inadvisable.
It is not the problem of ZA+x-wall or even x-wall+any_other_fiewall. It is the common problem.
As far as we know, the problem has no common solution. If the common solution had been we would had embed it in x-wall immediately. There are even no ways of preliminary problem detection.

Let me brief explanation …..
Many securities related software (and especially firewall) is based on their specific kernel driver. Driver comes with the program package, is installed with the software and is required by the software. Driver is special program acts as part of operation system and usually starts/stops with the operation system (not with the program). I do understand that exiting the program means nothing for the driver. The driver is still in memory and works. So possible conflicts (frozen windows, system crashes, blue screens) are allowed. It is not concerns with developers’ dirty hands or something like that.
Additionally, drivers (all drivers installed into the system) work in common system’s address space and are allowed to control all the system. It is not similar to applications working in its own separate virtual memory. Any application program could crash itself only, if it crashes.
Driver crash is significantly more serious. It could appear in any application or in any other driver. Completely unpredictable….
Why do we still use drivers? Because only drivers are powerful enough to intercept and control network traffic and produce serious barrier for hijacking etc ….


Thank you
Serge

I am willing to give it another go, And I appreciate the explanation.
This time, I will be less lazy, disconnect my internet connection, and uninstall ZoneAlarm first, reboot, and install this product.
Will I be okay with re-registering the product is my biggest concern if I go through this much trouble.
For what it's worth, although I do not do it any longer, from 2000-2002, I did successfully run ZoneAlarm and Norton's Personal Firewall together, and was not alone. Perhaps the earlier verisions of both products were more compatible. I did do this for two years on several machines. I found that NPF was quicker to detect incoming, and ZoneAlarm was quicker and more responsive on the outgoing.
This is just an observation, and I no longer advise anyone to do this.
So please let me know about the re-installation and re-registration.
Nice talking to you.

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Unfortunately, the crash accident drives you away from several _unique_ features ….
Anyway I respect your choice.
>So please let me know about the re-installation and re-registration.
Anytime you are able to re-install and re-register your product with the license code you have been sent.

I will give it a shot later on, as for now I am busy and cannot shut down until maybe this evening.
I will update you as to my progress.

Thanks

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I followed the instructions found in the Zone Alarm forum http://computercops.biz/t47761-If_you_need_to_uninstall_version_5_and_go_back_a_version.html to completely remove Zone Alarm Pro and then installed C-Wall with no problems. I'm still trying to get it to recognize NOD32 however.
Well I Rebboted and it works fine with NOD32 now so all is well.

Thanks farky!! I'm not exactly sure how you knew, the old ZoneAlarm Pro did't uninstall properly, but 2 updates of free ZoneAlarm later I did get, "Automatic Program Control has been disabled".
I didn't even notice it at first.
Your heads up will save me the trouble of using a shall we say more creative way of removing ZA.

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Okay, Serge. Sorry to keep you waiting for so long. Just goes to show how little I shut down my PC. I have just reinstalled the x-wall, and this time there were no problems. Now I will have to get used to new functions and all, but so far so good.

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If a problem is encountered, do not hesitate to ask me. I will be glad assisting you.

Thanks again.
It was as simple as you said - uninstalling the ZoneAlarm.
I have traditionally had a second firewall installed as a back-up and had never run into this problem before, so it shook me, especially on the same day I fixed the long-standing problem I had been having, thinking, I would have to format and re-install Windows, a procedure I didn't want to do.
So, far, so good.

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There is one little thing. Perhaps it is my unfamiliararity with the program. With Yahoo Messenger, the main program obviously needs to connect. Then there is the Updater version of the program. With ZoneAlrm, this was two different rules, which I could set to enable and disable. When I tried this with your program, when I disallowed the updater function, it also disallowed my Messenger from connecting. Did I miss something?
CFC

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Each time a program tries to perform internet connection, x-wall tries to identify the program.
For that purpose, process name is used. Usually, it is equal to filename (shorted to first 16 symbols – kernel name representation).
As I am not the messenger user (don’t know its process names) I cannot answer you precisely about x-wall behavior in that case.
If you supply me with the additional information, I could open the details for you.
1 I need exe filenames of the messenger itself and the updater.
2. I need exported register branch (reg format) from

2000/XP

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SOFTWARE\sphinx-soft\x-Wall\Driver\3.0\Process

98/me

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\sphinx-soft \x-Wall\Driver\3.0\Process

Half of your reply went over my head. In the case of Yahoo Messenger, it has an updater that in the past with ZoneAlarm was handled seperately. I don't want the updater portion running, as I do not want the update. When I blocked the updater, it also blocked the Messenger itself.
I'll get back to this some other time. Something more important just happened.

Now today, trying to do a Windows update, instead of the usual happening, I received an error message, and my computer was not scanned as it had been in the past. At first, I thought it might have been because I was using Avant browser, so I brought IE online and the same thing happened a second time.
Is there a particular setting I should tweak, that I've been unable to figure out yet?

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