Zone Alarm

[quaternions]

I just got rid of Zonealarm. It is a pile of junk. While utorrent was on it was periodically killing my whole internet connection rendering the computer unusable for anything else. It would download, but then it would stop for 5 mins before coming back. Also it kept crashing while utorrent was on, so if i left my computer i'd come back to find i'd had no firewall for x number of hours.

I'm now using Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall. Its free and works perfectly.

I think it would be a good idea if the mods made a sticky saying 'Beware of Zonealarm'

[weezie]

I too am having this problem (and yes, it seems to be isolated to utorrent). Thing is, up until recently I was having on only 1 of my computers and not the others. Recently. This week, my second machine started having the same ZA crash problem.

quaternions - thank you for being one of the few who offered an alternative solution rather than joining the finger pointing. I tried to dump ZA for Comodo but Comodo wasn't much better. Killing flies with a sledgehammer. I'll give Kerio a look.

It looks like this isn't a high priority debug for utorrent. At least, that's the impression I get. So with the client being acquired, I'd like to request that it does at least get added to the 'issues list' for future review/validation. There are a lot of people using ZA and utorrent. Thanks for reading...I hope this didn't come across as a rant.

And I agree with quaternions...if this is a 'known' issue, maybe the mods could put something in the FAQ about it; even if it is with the caveat that it hasn't be validated. You know "some users have experienced periodic/freqent ZA crashes while using uTorrent." It might help those (like me) searching for an answer. Maybe also offer a known work around. A firewall solution that mods/dev know works well with uTorrent.

Humbly,

weezie

[Firon]

The issue with firewalls has been looked at both by the old dev and the new one. There's literally nothing we can do because these firewalls are horribly broken.

[petergoode]

I have been using ZoneAlarm as well for about three years without difficulty...but I have now been encountering frequent system freezes, and no doubt it's due to my concomitant use of Azureus...Since I've been satisfied with ZA, I have been investigating the issue of whether some other bt client would avoid the problem, these posts unfortunately predict that the benefits of the small footprint of utorrent will not solve my problem...anyway, just my two cents for interested parties who are considering alternatives as well.

pg

[Ultima]

System freezes is another issue altogether... If you don't mind, and want us to try to troubleshoot the problem, you can always create a separate thread in the forum...

[streetstopper]

unfortunately, i also have been experiencing the same problem for quite some time...true vector crashing while running utorrent.

while ZA might be buggy, i never have had problems with it.

thanks guys for the opinion.

[jay.mack]

re: zonealarm Im having trouble with true vector 2, it says mem cant be read at location $XXXXXXXX and truvector is shutting down. it was happening in 1.61 but then it stoped, but after the last few weeks of upgrades its back and bigger than ever. it can go all day without a crash then do it 6 times in a row. somtimes it starts up again others i gota reboot.

hahaha there u go it just did it again 3 time in ten minutes.

i cant realy blame zone alarm as u torrent is the only program that causes this crash. i have found z.a to be very relaiable but this problem with utorrent is P'ing me off good style. maybe i'l try another cliant, if u guys cant fix ur bugs....

[DreadWingKnight]

If it were truly a uTorrent bug, the problem would not be restricted to interactions with zonealarm, would it?

Unfortunately, ZoneAlarm's problems are NOT restricted to its interactions with uTorrent. The problems are widespread across ALL p2p applications.

[Firon]

It's well known that ZA causes problems with P2P in general. There's nothing we can do about it, sadly.

[jay.mack]

cheers, i just hoped that it could be solved here. i just downgraded to 1.6.1 and no problems now, this is why i thaught it was 1.7.5 acting up. shame realy as 1.7.5 is a lot faster, i can get 230KBps with it but only about half the speed with 1.6.1

oh and dreadwing like i said u torrent is the only program im having issues with if it wasnt i wouldnt have asked if there was a problem with it now would i...

[Firon]

Just dump ZA and get a better firewall like Outpost or Comodo.

http://www.azureuswiki.com/index.php/Zone_Alarm#Update_on_using_Azureus_2.5.0.4_with_ZoneAlarm_6.5.737.000_Free_under_Windows_XP

It's not just us.

[Ultima]

ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite version 7.0.408.000

...

- Compatibility: Fixed compatibility issues with Project 2007, Bit Torrent, and Logitech Webcam.

...

If ZoneAlarm wasn't problematic with BitTorrent clients in general, then what was there for them to fix? If there were something wrong with the 1.7.x branch, but not the 1.6.x branch, then why did PrivateSniper post about this problem 10 months ago, when 1.6 was the latest version?

The evidence just doesn't fit. The only thing that has been persistent across the reports is that ZoneAlarm is known to fail. Go search the ZoneAlarm forums; if they don't prune old posts, you'll find other old threads about problems with TrueVector while running any BitTorrent client.

[Firon]

I would like to know from ZA users if this last version really did help.

[Ultima]

Yep; I asked the same thing a few days ago, but I guess that wasn't the best thread to post the question

[Snafu]

I don't think it is just ZA. I get warnings from Bullguard whenever I fire up Ut. Warnings are always my own IP address (even when I change to a totally different network). This has been happening since the last 2 upgrades and on 3 different computers running 98 & XP. I've even put my IP address into the 'trusted' list but I still get warnings that nasty things are happening - I think it's something to do with Ut holding your IP address as a banned machine (there's other posts around regarding this). It seems the Ut guys just try and blame everything else rather than try and pinpoint the problem.

Snafu

[Switeck]

µTorrent does loopback checks to see if it's firewalled...among other things.

That's normal for many file-sharing programs.

And it drives crappy firewall programs crazy.

[Firon]

Firewalls freaking about loopback connections is the stupidest thing ever. As if it'd protect you from anything.

[Ultima]

@Snafu: We don't think it is just µT. Your point? Are you also telling us that when a router starts dropping connection requests because it's overloaded, it's also µTorrent's fault -- and you'd completely ignore the fact that many routers just aren't designed (or were too badly designed) to handle lots of connections? The same can be said about software firewalls.

If you're wondering why my post has nothing to do with loopback connections, then do read the thread you're actually posting in from the beginning.

[jay.mack]

well i seem to have solved the problem with "truevector cant read memlocation". its not a full on crash like ur link suggests, its just a service shutdown. if truevector fails to restart it halts accsess to files saying make sure path exists and u have permission.

i turned off upnp port mapping and no problems as yet. im running 1.71 atm and im gona upgrade to 1.75 and see what happens. il post in a couple of days with the results. hope this helps sum1 else.

hmmm 15 hours . no crashes so far.

[Ultima]

Hm, perhaps you should report the problem to Checkpoint?

[jay.mack]

jeez i already did and both of u together are like sqabaling kids. its his fault, its her fault, i dont care who's fault it is, just come up with a working solution.

my firewall crashed 2 times yesterday, gona try comodo firewall ah wait i already did and guess what it dosnt port forward properly.

Im starting to think utorrent is a buggy app that needs updates, oh wait it did have 4 updates in 2 weeks and thats when the problems started.

please just stop trying to blame the other guy and get ur programmers to work on it. after all they made utorrent 1 of the best out there and i do wana keep using it. but if it aint fixed soon then i'l have no option but to look elswhere.

[Switeck]

With as many problems as has been posted on Zone Alarm's website concerning file-sharing programs and probably VoIP too...I think the ball's in their court.

I expect they'll drop it again too.

Too many bells-and-whistles does not make a better/cleaner program.

[Snafu]

Isn't the point that, as there were very (much) few of these problems in 1.6.1 and they have started to rear their heads in 1.7.1 onwards, that something has been done to uT to cause these symptoms. How can you blame other firewalls when the ONLY CHANGE has been upgrading uT? I think all we want to know is what is the change to uT that is NOW causing all these problems. I agree with jay.mack that there is some reticence in actually admitting that something has changed and that uT might be to blame or even someone checking it out as to the changes that occured in the upgrade. There are many threads going at the moment with similar problems although different descriptions are given - try reset bans - having your own IP banned has only SHOWN visibility to users since 1.7.1

[Switeck]

Other people had problems with Zone Alarm and µTorrent v1.6...you just are running a crappy firewall.

[Ultima]

@jay.mack: Post a screenshot of Preferences > BitTorrent.

having your own IP banned has only SHOWN visibility to users since 1.7.1

Absolutley incorrect; µTorrent banning its own IP has been happening for the longest time now, and that's just one of a bunch of threads on the subject for µTorrent pre-1.6.1. At any rate, ZA's stability problems are part of the discussion at hand in this thread, not how µTorrent keeps generating warnings in your non-ZA firewall. If you want to keep discussing the problem you're having, then answer DWK's question regarding exactly what error was shown in your original thread. And post a screenshot of Preferences > BitTorrent in that thread too while you're at it.