Wednesday, July 16, 2008

MS vs ZA vs My Patience

So many things that I can post about but right now, the easiest to talk about are computer issues. (Gotta thank Lora for letting me vent the other day.) You see, all these programs running on your computer have to know their place. Microsoft overstepped during a recent update... you know, the kind that force your computer to reboot in the middle of the night. Anyhow, the update killed the Internet connection for anyone using the Zone Alarm firewall.

Amazing how dependent one becomes on needing the Internet to research, troubleshoot and inform when it comes to computer issues. To put it more succinctly, it's like needing hands to put gloves on your hands. Thankfully, I was running Comodo firewall on the main computer leaving that one error-free.

Thankfully, it was so widespread that it got plenty of coverage and a fix was readied quite quickly. But it does make you think more about your software. Did several Zone Alarm users lose trust in the company during this episode and decide to change to another firewall product? If so, it would be quite sad that an outside company's update can hurt a competitor (as Microsoft has implemented a firewall in Vista.) I'm sure a conspiracy theorist out there has already figured that it is a plan to knock off one company at a time.

Interesting enough, the two computers we have running at home that use Zone Alarm have had mixed results. One took the remedy provided at the site quite easily while the other... wouldn't initiate it. I'm working on that second computer now (running a thorough analysis of the files on it) and hope to have it better than normal soon. It has also forced me to look into a new WYSIWYG Web design program (the one I use normally is on the messed up machine.) I'll explain more about that one shortly.

2 comments:

LoraLoo said...

Meh, you weren't all that bad with the venting. Anytime.

Sometimes it's really just a choice between the free stuff that works just fine but might need extra attention or the pay with your first born and have it (most of the time) seamless. I'm the lazy kind, I use the Norton Internet Security. It is so easy to use I never even have to deal with it, even with a hard drive format and the loss of your subscription file. I think if I didn't do this stuff for a living I'd be more inclined, like yourself, to explore other options.

Unknown said...

I know my laptop was having connection issues right after we updated the firmware on the router, of course in my random trouble shooting I disabled the firewall out of curiosity and it worked, it was rather odd, I went in and switched it from high stealth mode down to medium and my internet connection worked again.