Genealogy Chat

I have some stuff which a so called expert installed for me, including Zone Alarm, for which I keep getting a message to say it needs updating do you want to update now I click yes and it disappears without updating . I also have AVG and the Microsoft anti spyware and a few others. Can you please tell me in plain english which ones I need to keep and can I uninstall Zone alarm and any others safely. I might have disappeared for a while but will be back promise thanks a lot

Not Judy here, but I certainly wouldn't advise uninstalling ZoneAlarm unless you are going to replace it immediately with another firewall. You definitely need a firewall of some description, to avoid hackers attacking your PC when you're connected to the internet. It's a good idea to keep ZoneAlarm (or whatever firewall program you are using) up to date with the current version - but this is not critical as long as the version you have is configured & working correctly. Maybe it's a job for your friendly expert next time he or she calls in! If you go to their website www.zonelabs(.)com you can download the latest version. Richard

I gave up with Zone Alarm after a couple of days as it was too fiddly for my liking. AVG is fine, set it to run automatically during the night as with Microsoft Anti spyware. The latter also has a firewall so enable this as well. I also have Avast installed as well as I find it's on-line capture of nasties is useful. Hovever its scan fails to find things that AVG does.

thanks for your replies I have tried to update Zone alarm but it wont work and its driving me mad keep getting the box saying update now and I click yes and off it goes without updating .I do have the microsoft thing but how do I know if it is working right thanks

Val, slightly wrong there. The microsoft firewall came as part of service pack two. Go to Start, Controll Panel, Security Centre to get to the settinggs. Next, If you have MS Antispyware installed, you should have a little icon like a dart board at the bottom right of your screen. Right click and open it to get at the settings. Click on Spyware Scan to get to the scheduler which will allow you to set it to run automatically.

I updated my Zone Alarm last week. It is not an update per se, but rather a full new version. Best thing to do is to uninstall the old and download the ZoneAlarm PRO free trial for 30 days, choosing to neglect to purchase the full version at the end of the 30 days. OK, you'll need to reconfigure which programmes have access to the internet but it's not a bad idea to do this anyway, so that you know which programmes are active. Jonathan

thanks to all your PC boffins out there you are extremely kind I have taken note of your comments and updated the Zonealarm thing at last but when I looked at my microsoft it said last scan ran july 7 so I did one quick but I still am not sure how to make it work automatically