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Firewall and LAN modem

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by cto 1 view

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I have a client that I installed ZoneAlarm for. They are on a LAN modem that is always on even though it is a dialup. It worked fine for 2 months then they indicated they could not connect to the net and they had a tech come out and the client said that they first replaced the modem then when that did not work they shut down the firewall and all was well. Now they are upset that I installed a firewall and want reimbursed. My question is - if it worked for months prior why would it be the culprit now and should I suggest that the firewall remain. Though they are on dialup now they plan to install broadband soon.

Questions? - e-mail me

6 replies

by isys

The root question is, what did Zone Alarm say was the reason they could not get to the Internet. Did this "tech" document anything? You should visit them and find out what happened. It might be something like an upgrade to Internet Explorer that wasn't on the authorized apps list.

by joseph moore

I agree that you need to collect more data on the incident. Could the client use their e-mail program to get e-mail, while they could not browse the Internet? Could they listen to streaming audio while the lockout was going on? Was all outbound/inbound Internet access stopped?
It could have been something as easy as someone hit the Stop button on ZA, shutting down all traffic.
Replacing the modem does not make a difference. Once you configure ZA to allow the web browser outbound access (and probably run As Server rights), then it does not matter in what way you connect: via LAN, modem1 or modem2. All outbound connections are the same for ZA. The actualy physical nature of the connection (Layer 1 of the OSI model) is irrelevant for ZA.Maybe the user even opened up ZA and disabled the web browser access (changed it from Local and Internet from having the green checkmark access rights to the red X rights).

So, I would blame user intervention. ZA is very stable, in my experience.

hope this helps

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