please help. i have zone alarm 2.6 in security under zones i have local set at medium, this is a default setting(i am not on a network) is this sufficient or do i need it on high. i tend to get alot more blocked alerts when it is on high. as internet exlorer is ticked as local and medium setting allows sharing, does that mean people can hack in. i tried shields up and probe test on medium setting and it came out 10/10 stealth.

Whoa! You threw a ton of questions out. Basically, you sound as if you're saying "I think I know what I'm doing, but probably not." Heh, lemme explain a little more about zones ZoneAlarm has 2 zones, and internet zone, and a trusted zone. The internet zone should be set on High (unless special situations come up). This way, ZoneAlarm will block every unrequested communication to your computer from the internet. A trusted zone is different. ZoneAlarm provides a setting for it, but if you haven't specified any IP addresses in your trusted zone, it's pretty much worthless as far as you're concerened. For example, say you're on a LAN...you want to share files and such on a LAN, but you still want to be protected from the internet. You setup a trusted zone, that contains the IP address range of your LAN. This basically tells ZoneAlarm "Ok, don't trust ANYONE on the internet, but you can sortof trust people on these IP addresses, because they're computers on my LAN." Of course, setting a trusted LAN zone to medium means that LAN computers have some access to computer, whereas internet computers have none. If you think you can trust you fellow LAN computers, go ahead. If you want to be anti-social and virutally secluded from the network, put your trusted zone on high. Brad Peterson

m, Here is a very good site that will explain everything about how to set up ZA. Doc B's ZoneAlarm Pages Tank863

Hello "m", just a suggestion !!! why don't you change your firewall ? ZoneAlarm is known to get sometimes somes bugs and freezes on computers. Especially with OS 95 and 98... Try SYGATE firewall, I never encountered any problem with that freeware... and you get an extra option normally given only on PRO version in ZA: the "whois" which tells you right away the name, the IP of the possible hacker trying to investigate your computer. SYGATE download: http://soho.sygate.com/free/default.php

Tank863... That referral to Doc B's Zone Alarm pages is the best I've seen on ZA... Thanx for sharing that... Steve