Some ZoneAlarm users in the dark after Microsoft patch

Check Point Software Technologies, maker of ZoneAlarm, on Wednesday said it is working with Microsoft to resolve an issue with one of the patches within the software maker's July 2008 Patch Tuesday release.

At issue is the Microsoft Update KB951748 (MS08-037) from Microsoft, which addresses the flaw in DNS made public on Tuesday by security researcher Dan Kaminsky.

For ZoneAlarm customers who have automatic update selected for Windows Updates, and whose ZoneAlarm Internet security level is set to "high," they will experience a loss of Internet connectivity upon reboot.

ZoneAlarm users without automatic update may wish to wait to install the update until the matter is resolved.

For those who have already installed the patch, Check Point recommends users remove Microsoft Update KB951748 from their systems. Detailed instructions for doing this can be found here. Another option is to lower the ZoneAlarm Internet security setting to "medium," although Check Point doesn't recommend that.

[t26l]

I recommend that you remove ZoneAlarm instead. ZA's updates have a bad habit of messing up your machine all by themselves. I switched to Online Armor and ever looked back.

[The_Decider]

Lesson: wait a while to install any MS patch. It may not be MS fault in this case, but this is hardly new. Better Lesson: Don't use MS products, they take too long to acknowledge problems much less patch them, so having to wait even longer isn't a very good solution but the only viable one for those stuck with MS dog crap.

The best software firewall is Comodo.

[Vegaman_Dan]

As an Apple supporter, I find your comment stating that Microsoft takes too long to acknowledge problems much less patch them to be rather ... doublefaced seeing how Apple has known about the ARDagent flaw for quite a while now and has neither acknowledged this issue or issued a patch for it.

Care to explain this? Apple isn't talking, so perhaps you can explain why they Apple does exactly the same thing as Microsoft in this situation. Why the doublestandard? Why are you afraid of admitting the truth?

I find your lack of faith in Apple... sad.

[JasonCe]

This is a bug in ZoneAlarm. The security patch itself is good, no need to uninstall it.

It is a shame that CheckPoint goes as far as "recommending users to uninstall the security patch" and thereby putting their customers at risk, instead of fixing their own buggy software.

And of course M$-hater zealots will take this opportunity to blame Microsoft, even though they know that Microsoft has nothing to do with this problem.

[kmslogic]

"For ZoneAlarm customers who have automatic update selected for Windows Updates, and whose ZoneAlarm Internet security level is set to "high," they will experience a loss of Internet connectivity upon reboot." -- Isn't that more like 90-95% of Zonealarm users? I don't think "some" really says it with regard to the article title. (both settings are the defaults). The patch is not at fault, ZonaAlarm is (evidence: other security software vendor's products did not fail). I personally had switched from ZA to another product about a year ago and this event was good enough reason for my fiance to do the same.

[mrmimis06]

Glad I ran into this article. I experienced this all morning today and was driving myself nuts. Disconnected and reconnect my modem, than my router. Restarted my pc and still no luck. Finally decided to shut off zone alarm firewall and baam, I was finally able to get internet access. First article I run into on netvibes is this one. Just uninstalled the update. Hopefully it will remedy the situation on the next restart. Thanks CNET, you guys are the best.!!

[JasonCe]

Do not uninstall the security update. Instead, switch to Windows Firewall. It is better than ZoneAlarm anyway.

[Ed Aguila]

Ditto!!!

[occdoc7]

Check Point & Microsoft both at fault. Never any prior connectivity issues w/ Zone Alarm until now. The 2nd Mac looks better all the time.

[hu.nu]

Apparently Microsoft doesn't bother to test their patches with obscure products like ZoneAlarm. Nice goin' away gift, Bill.

[bonsaijim]

You know. All you have to do is think about what caused me to reboot my system....hmmm.....oh yeah, an update asked me to (for me it was twice becuase I was in the middle of something). Then BAM!! no internet upon reboot. I looked at my connectivity (good), I looked at ZoneAlarm to ensure it hadn't locked the internet from me (happenend before), and decideed that the latest HOTFIX might be the culpirt. Time: 5 minutes to re-connect the internet. It's really no big deal guys. I've had worse...much worse. I don't blame anyone. $#!+ happens. Look for a smokin' hot fix coming soon!!!

[dragonstar125]

well changes in operation system do have tendancy to sometimes make a program act up out of the blue like with zone alarm.. hope zone alarm has fix soon or ms does ....oh well this stuff can happen and yeah i did have zone alarm but switched to comondo gave up zone alarm pro grrrr lol

[Vegaman_Dan]

Blame Microsoft for releasing a patch that affects a third party company? Hmm... sounds familiar... can we say Apple? Can we say iPhone?

It's ridiculous to blame the OS maker for releasing a patch that affects a third party application. I certainly can't blame Apple or Microsoft in situations like these. There's a reason why third party applications exist in the first place.

Geez, get a life, trolls. Preferably your own.

[cdotspace]

Am I missing something here? I installed the MS update, couldn't connect to the Internet, disabled Zone Alarm. Then I went to the Zone Alarm web site who said that I could EITHER set my Internet zone to medium OR download and install a Zone Alarm update.

I installed the Zone Alarm update, set my Internet zone to high, still have the MS update installed and am no longer having any issues. It appears to me that ZA took care of the issue and pretty quickly.

[McAshadow]

I have been using ZA exclusively for 7 years(too many problems with stuff for sale), and never had a problem surfing until this latest patch! I have also never had a virus either! I installed this "update" from Microsoft yesterday and still could connect to the internet but could not connect to ANY website or get my mail from my ISP! So I restored my PC to my last good setting and got back up and surfing. I tried installing this update again today, but set my restore point first, and lo and behold; the same thing happened. One would think that with the disgrace that Vista is, MS would get their s**t together! I do believe that I will turn off automatic updates for a week or so.

[zclayton2]

First, do no harm.

[cerulean-]

Phew, I was so frustrated for not getting any internet connection after I got my MS updates. When I first discovered the problem, I tried restoring my Windows but no matter which earlier date I chose, my laptop refused to revert. After getting my laptop checked, I realised that it was ZA which was blocking my internet access; shutting the app down worked. I have been a user of the free ZA firewall for many many years and have no problem with it until today. We were all told to wait for an update from ZA but I really wonder if I will still stay with ZA. Coincidentally, MS updates gave me some problems too in the past. All and all, this really gave users like me a huge lesson: Always backup and set a restore point everytime before Windows update or any software updates (or wait a while before you get non-urgent software or Windows updates)..