Recommendations for a replacement to ZoneAlarm?

[dbminter]

Now I remember why Virtual Clone Drive was inappropriate. It does not support MDS files. MDS files are a critical component of ImgBurn when splitting files. I'll bet DVDFab's application was the same problem with it.

[dbminter]

Yep, same problem with DVDFab's application. Does not support MDS. As long as I need to split image files in ImgBurn, which I need to do, these applications won't work for me as I require MDS support.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

You could make ImgBurn export DVD files (plain text alternative to MDS) and use Virtual CloneDrive.

 

DVDFab's one may also support it, I don't remember.

[dbminter]

I tried creating a .DVD file from files made as .MDS but DVDFab would not mount it. Neither would Virtual Clone Drive. Said could not mount. I even mounted the MDS in Alcohol and read the Alcohol virtual drive to image files with ImgBurn with .DVD set to be created. It still wouldn't mount it.

[dbminter]

Well, I tried it again and it worked in Virtual Clone Drive this time. Go figure. DVDFab's virtual drive would not mount it. It says it cannot mount the .DVD file.

[dbminter]

I restored my factory default partition, made the necessary setups, uninstalls, and installs, and Comodo does NOT ask for allow or deny on the Dell XPS 8300 PC. So, it doesn't "work."

[dbminter]

Well, I'm done testing this shit. Too much juggling of partitions to get no results. The only solution: use ZoneAlarm 9. I'm tired of testing ZA 10 only to get it to sometimes work and sometimes not. ZA 10 is just plain fucked up and I won't test anymore until new versions come out, most likely skipping 10 entirely and going straight to ZA 11.

[eSkRo]

im puzzled as to why it doesnt work for you.

i showed u the pics,

it does work.

[dbminter]

Well, it's software, you know. They have errors that show up on some systems but not others. No one else seems to have the problem with ZoneAlarm 10 failing to let Firefox open. I once had an entire PC I had to return because it was so messed up in some unusual way that you could not have a shortcut on the Desktop that started with the letter S. And, since it appends Shortcut To shortcuts unless you change this setting, you can see why it had to go back.

 

 

Also, I hate to nitpick, but, showing me those pictures does not prove it works. You can't show me proof it works unless you get some kind of capture software to capture the software asking you for permission. Your pictures just show me where the option is and what it does.

[dbminter]

And, this wasn't entirely a waste of time. I replaced Alcohol 52% with Slysoft's virtual drive software. I never did like how deep Alcohol buried itself in the system. It caused problems in the past with older versions of ZoneAlarm, requiring workarounds.

[dbminter]

I did discover one drawback to using VirtualCloneDrive over Alcohol. Alcohol supports Nero's NRG proprietary format. VirtualCloneDrive does not. However, it's no biggie. If I ever need an NRG I have saved around for test purposes, I can use Nero to burn it to a disc then reimage it with ImgBurn to a format that VirtualCloneDrive supports after creating a .DVD file with ImgBurn because I choose to split my images for reasons I don't want to divulge.

[dbminter]

Also, ZoneAlarm free's last release seemed to fix the Firefox problem. I ended up replacing ZoneAlarm Firewall Free with ZoneAlarm Free Firewall + AntiVirus. The AV side behaves differently in version 10 versus version 9. In 9, Ignore Always always ignored. The same thing in version 10 does MOSTLY that; it ignore always except for things that "not-a-virus" hits like mIRC IRC clients or some FTP software like BulletProof. And, some things that are ignored always AREN'T ignored if you manually do a context menu search on an item. I TRIED pointing this out to the ZA forum, but, they just closed down my threads to effectively shut me up.

[dbminter]

Comodo STILL doesn't work! 

 

 

I installed the latest version, tried all settings, tested both ImgBurn's Check for updates and Firefox's attempts to access the Internet and Comodo NEVER asked for permission to let these applications access the Internet.  I need a firewall that will block incoming intrusions but also ask me to allow or deny applications from accessing the Internet.  And Comodo NEVER has been that application and never will be.