help: zonealarm freaked out

i think i'm in deep shit

i was in dreamviews chat when all slowed down and internet explorer (yeah i know i search my own trouble using it but that's what i have) freaked out.
so i terminated it, and then noticed that the zonealarm icon had an x. i disconnected from internet, opened zonealarm (complete suite) and it said that there was a system error and it had to be restarted. all the parts (antivirus, firewall ecc) were off.

then all of them came back alone to normal (looked as).

i made the complete scan and found nothing, but all the logs (firewall log, antivirus log ecc) were empty - they showed only the operations made after the moment of the crash. i lost months of logs, but that's not what worries me.

i would badly want to know which BIG EVIL virus or worse has done it and is lurking freely in my pc now, unseen and unfound.

i SO would like to get rid of it without having to reinstall everything - i don't even HAVE everything and i'm so sad...:embarrassed:

sure, if my pc tomorrow won't restart, i'll have no way to read the replies:embarrassed:

If you can write CD's, then

Trinity Rescue Kit
ftp://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/trk/trinity...-build-299.iso

it's a linux live CD (bootable CD) designed to fix windows machines
Comes with one virus scanner on the CD - ClamAV (although you'll need to grab the latest virus definitions off the net)
with the option of downloading different virus scanners off the net, if you wish

write the CD, and reboot

It should all be fairly self-explanatory
Typing: virusscan -a clam
will download the latest definitions for the in-built scanner, and scan all local hard drives

if you get stuck, type
virusscan -h
to get the help documentation on virus scanning, including all possible options

Every time I've ever gotten the X is when it's downloaded an update that requires a restart to complete.

Anyway, reinstalling ZoneAlarm isn't too big a deal. You are using AVG as well, right?

Also, if your computer is older - or running on an older OS, such as Windows 98, NT, or ME - then it may not be able to handle the newest ZA and AVG updates. I ran into that problem on my laptop at work. It's running Windows ME and it won't work with the newest ZoneAlarm version so I'm stuck with what I have. However, the AVG does update as it should.

Just run in safe mode and use a webbased virus scanner. Or antivirus/antispyware if you have any. There most likely isn't a problem. ZA crashes sometimes back when I used it.

If you need an iso burning software to try Ynot's suggestion, try ImgBurn, it's free, a small download, and works with Vista if you are using it.

luckily not vista, xp

anyway, i strongly hope it's nothing, but fear not
anti virus and spyware found nothing, but it's no surprising, given they were the first to crash ...

i'm too paranoid and ignorant in this moment to do all those complicate things you suggest, so i suppose i'll just hope uselessly that it's nothing, then cry when it crashes forever, than format.
you are all very kind

SIGH :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by italianmonkey

zonealarm

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There's your problem.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tsen

There's your problem.

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You say that but ZoneAlarm and AVG have both been very good to me. I know the pair has saved my @ss a few times.

Trust me. If you need Zonealarm, you've got worse problems than what few security holes it patches. There are better firewalls out there, and even more importantly, Zonealarm will not catch anything but the most blatantly obvious security threats at the cost of a great deal of inconvenience. A smart user and an inconspicuous firewall is the way to go.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tsen

at the cost of a great deal of inconvenience.

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Unfortunately true. ZA really is quite annoying if you want to actually use it to catch anything.