MS Security Patch Blocks Net Access For ZoneAlarm Users 110
An anonymous reader writes "Users of Check Point ZoneAlarm security products, including the extremely popular, free-of-charge software firewall, have discovered that a Microsoft security update released on Tuesday has blocked their internet access. The firewall manufacturer is 'investigating the issue,' and so far the workaround seems to be to uninstall the recent DNS spoofing vulnerability fix MS08-037 (KB951748), and not reinstall it until Microsoft or Check Point have come up with updated versions of their products."
Re:And this is a bad thing how? (Score:5, Interesting)
I know you wrote it as a joke, but it gets me thinking on the proprietary software problem again (yeah yeah, I know, more anti-MS babbling). The risk of having your operating system suddenly lose internet access completely is inadmissible. Since Windows is a closed-source product, only the maker (Microsoft) knows how to fix vulnerabilities. And if they screw up, like in this case, we have to depend on them to fix the problem. Either you lose internet access, or still are vulnerable to the DNS exploit.
Another workaround (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Another workaround (Score:3, Interesting)
I've tried multiple firewalls over the years, including that one, and had a variety of issues ranging from general system stability problems to constant BSOD's. So much so I don't even bother anymore. I'm behind a router. I know it's not perfect, but having one less buggy, unstable program in the background makes life a lot nicer.
Off the top of my head I tried ZoneAlarm, both old and new versions, Tiny Personal Firewall, the prior TPF that had a different name, and several others.
Just not worth the aggravation.
Re:One program breaks and it's an M$ issue? Nah. (Score:3, Interesting)
...or instead of complaining to Microsoft, you can disable ZoneAlarm and enjoy having your connection work again.
Touché. I'd mod you up. Anyway, now that you mention it... the point of zonealarm is that the default firewall that comes with Windows is terribly insecure. It's interesting how a proprietary OS ends up spawning a lot of proprietary firewall and antivirus software.
My point? No point, it's just interesting to see how proprietary spawns proprietary... as if they were living beings.