Problem with ZoneAlarm Pro and SVCHOST

Hello all. I've seen quite a few posts here about problems with
ZoneAlarm and SVCHOST issues. However, none seem to match what I am
seeing. Also, the posts I found are not very recent and my problem
started a month or two ago. When I start up the machine, everything
works fine for a while and then after a few minutes of browsing, I
type in a new URL and it finally times out and says the page is not
available. Yet if I hit "back" and "refresh", the previous page
reloads. For this reason, I suspect it may be just DNS that is not
talking when there is a problem. Also, I use DU Meter 3.03 and so I
can watch the activity. When I type a new URL there is no network
activity.

Shutting down ZoneAlarm has no effect. However, if I kill the network
service instance of SVCHOST, everything works fine again. Also, if I
shut off ZoneAlarm after I log in the problem never occurs. I keep up
to date with the XP updates so I suspect that is why the problem
started two months ago, as I had not installed any new software. To be
sure, last weekend I completely rebuilt my system from scratch. Sure
enough, I still have the problem. I used ZoneAlarm Pro for two years
or so with no problems before.

Here is my configuration:

- Win XP Pro SP1
- DU Meter 3.03
- ZoneAlarm Pro 5.1 (latest update)
- Norton SystemWorks 2003 (only anti-virus and ghost are installed; no
internet-related stuff)
- DSL router using NAT
- 3COM network card

I hate to stop using ZoneAlarm as it makes me feel much safer but this
is a real pain. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.
Bill

Hi, Bill -

Sounds like a couple of slow DNS servers to me.

Try this -

Next time you have this problem, open a command prompt
window, type 'ipconfig /flushdns' (no quotes) and smack
the enter key.

If this solves your problem (and if your machine isn't a
member of a Win2k or Win2k3 domain), open the services
console and stop then disable the DNS Client service.
You can hit the services console several different ways,
but my favorite is to just type 'services.msc' into a Run
dialog box: Start -- Run -- 'services.msc' -- OK

What's apparently happening is your ISP's DNS servers are
a bit slow and the DNS Client service is removing them
from the list of available DNS servers - if they're *all*
a bit slow this can leave you with no DNS servers in the
list. Anyway, the DNS Client service is only required if
your machine is a member of a Win2k or Win2k3 domain.

Hope this helps -


-----Original Message-----
Hello all. I've seen quite a few posts here about
problems with
ZoneAlarm and SVCHOST issues. However, none seem to
match what I am
seeing. Also, the posts I found are not very recent and
my problem
started a month or two ago. When I start up the machine,
everything
works fine for a while and then after a few minutes of
browsing, I
type in a new URL and it finally times out and says the
page is not
available. Yet if I hit "back" and "refresh", the
previous page
reloads. For this reason, I suspect it may be just DNS
that is not
talking when there is a problem. Also, I use DU Meter
3.03 and so I
can watch the activity. When I type a new URL there is
no network
activity.

Shutting down ZoneAlarm has no effect. However, if I
kill the network
service instance of SVCHOST, everything works fine
again. Also, if I
shut off ZoneAlarm after I log in the problem never
occurs. I keep up
to date with the XP updates so I suspect that is why the
problem
started two months ago, as I had not installed any new
software. To be
sure, last weekend I completely rebuilt my system from
scratch. Sure
enough, I still have the problem. I used ZoneAlarm Pro
for two years
or so with no problems before.

Here is my configuration:

- Win XP Pro SP1
- DU Meter 3.03
- ZoneAlarm Pro 5.1 (latest update)
- Norton SystemWorks 2003 (only anti-virus and ghost are
installed; no
internet-related stuff)
- DSL router using NAT
- 3COM network card

I hate to stop using ZoneAlarm as it makes me feel much
safer but this
is a real pain. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.
Bill
.