zone alarm question.

[sirius]

Hi, can anyone help on this?

Ive repositioned the modem at work from a client machine to the server. Its only a small office (five PC's networked with rj45's) and the server is the main beast we use files on from the other Pc's.

The modem is only a 56k dialup, the computer it was on is 7 years old and with the modem being USB, it caused havoc and would drop the connection every minute or so and was taking hours to sucessfully retrieve emails.

The computer it was on only had an antivirus software on (norton or symmantec I think), but there was no firewall on the computers at all -hence that we could remove a virus (or four, lol) after they had infested but there was nothing to prevent them coming in the first place.

Since reinstalling the modem and internet connection/email account on the Server, I downloaded a 15 day demo of Zone Alarm in a an attempt to convince the boss that its a good idea to have one and that he should buy one (any) for what it costs.

My immediate boss was on holiday today and is due in tomorrow whwre he will find his modem has magically repositioned itself! lol, but when i tried to save files onto the server, or browse the network, it wasnt letting anybody into the server unless ZA was shut off!!!!!!

I was hoping to have it all plain sailing tomorrow as hitches like that always muddy the progress of such things in our office.

Does anyone know what to do to enable the computers on the network in, yet be safe from internet attacks? I spent a fair while sussing out the internet and email side of things so ran out of time experimenting. Id like to be able to go in tommorrow, click a few buttons and make it look easy!! lol.

Shall I take it i just need to 'ping' or 'ipconfig' all the machines, jot down thier IP and 'allow' them in ZA? they are the standard ones I think 192.168.0.1 etc.....but if I allow those are they vulnerable from outsiders via the internet?.


ps the computers on the network are win98, and the server is Win2000 Professional (hence no XP firewall)

Hope you can help,

Cheers

Sirius.

[Chumley]

I might be wrong, but I don't think you can do it with ZA, you need the Pro version for a shared connection.

[sirius]

Ah, right.

Can anyone confirm?

I downloaded ZA cos I know my way around it (well, in comparison, lol).

Does anybody know any other 'free' (preferably free for business use) or cheap firewalls I can grab tonight and install tomorrow that will allow network connectivity? Or should I just download the 'full' version off the ZA website?, i think I just got the basic one today.

The email is used say 3 times a day average, connected for about 10-20 minutes a time. We dont have a proper email network like joe.bloggs@bloggs, pete.bloggs@bloggs etc, just one terminal/Pc with email functionality. The main thing is allowing the network in, but keeping the nasties out!


Ta

Sirius.

[blue jammer]

Tiny Personal Firewall, is superb, give me a few mins and I'll upload it, and PM you the link.

[sirius]

cheers bud

[johns_ar]

kerio fileserver/firewall is pretty smart, got mcafee built into it as well

didnt think i would be able to get it going cos i ferking hate firewalls but it was suprisingly easy

if u aint got sorted shout me on messenger laterz

[sirius]

Cheers bud. All new names are worthy of a look.


I got sorted out by Mr BlueJammer . Worked a treat.


Theres always other options though, and future issues so Ill bear that other one in mind.

Thanks

Sirius.

[markic]

jus testin summat coz i'm a dumb arse. dont mind me

[cam]

In zone alarm you should be able to set up the IP Addresses for each machine to allow them access to the server, If you havent put each IP address for each machine in the trusted zone then it will block them thinking its an attempt to gain unauth access.

Get the IP for each addy by typing ipconfig in the command app