Zone Alarm and Windows XP Home - Nightmare

I have a Base PC with windows XP Home. The IP address is 192.168.0.1 with a
subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. This machine has Zone Alarm Pro configured and
it starts as a trusted network showing the above configurations as
192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0. This machine connects to the internet the most.

I also have a laptop which plugs into the hub on the same network. I do not
have a fixed IP address for this machine (though I have tried one and I get
the same problems). I also have zone alarm Pro on this PC as I sometimes
connect to the internet using it. The problem is that on my network the PC's
refuse to talk to one another. I have actually got the two talking to each
other but the setups I used are always lost when one or the other reboots.

I normally bring the base PC up first and then the laptop. The laptop always
shows the cable as disconnected. I have tried stopping the Zone alarm on the
Base PC with no luck (the reason for this will be seen below).

It is not the cable, the network cards or TCP as it has worked in the past.

The other twist to the tale is that ......
I also connect my laptop to my partners network - she does not have Zone
Alarm on the base PC - and it connects every time without any problem.....So
what is it with two zone alarms that REFUSE to talk to one another! and the
fact that Norton Firewall allows me to connect first time - is it time to
ditch Zone Alarm for something that actually works.......

Help required desperately.....

Thanks in advance.

I did not read in your post anything about your zone alarm settings for
letting your machines talk to each other, you have to set it up proper for
all to talk to each other.

"Martin" wrote in message
...
I have a Base PC with windows XP Home. The IP address is 192.168.0.1 with
a
subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. This machine has Zone Alarm Pro configured
and
it starts as a trusted network showing the above configurations as
192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0. This machine connects to the internet the most.

I also have a laptop which plugs into the hub on the same network. I do
not
have a fixed IP address for this machine (though I have tried one and I
get
the same problems). I also have zone alarm Pro on this PC as I sometimes
connect to the internet using it. The problem is that on my network the
PC's
refuse to talk to one another. I have actually got the two talking to each
other but the setups I used are always lost when one or the other reboots.

I normally bring the base PC up first and then the laptop. The laptop
always
shows the cable as disconnected. I have tried stopping the Zone alarm on
the
Base PC with no luck (the reason for this will be seen below).

It is not the cable, the network cards or TCP as it has worked in the
past.

The other twist to the tale is that ......
I also connect my laptop to my partners network - she does not have Zone
Alarm on the base PC - and it connects every time without any
problem.....So
what is it with two zone alarms that REFUSE to talk to one another! and
the
fact that Norton Firewall allows me to connect first time - is it time to
ditch Zone Alarm for something that actually works.......

Help required desperately.....

Thanks in advance.

I did not read in your post anything about your zone alarm settings for
letting your machines talk to each other, you have to set it up proper for
all to talk to each other.

"Martin" wrote in message
...
I have a Base PC with windows XP Home. The IP address is 192.168.0.1 with
a
subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. This machine has Zone Alarm Pro configured
and
it starts as a trusted network showing the above configurations as
192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0. This machine connects to the internet the most.

I also have a laptop which plugs into the hub on the same network. I do
not
have a fixed IP address for this machine (though I have tried one and I
get
the same problems). I also have zone alarm Pro on this PC as I sometimes
connect to the internet using it. The problem is that on my network the
PC's
refuse to talk to one another. I have actually got the two talking to each
other but the setups I used are always lost when one or the other reboots.

I normally bring the base PC up first and then the laptop. The laptop
always
shows the cable as disconnected. I have tried stopping the Zone alarm on
the
Base PC with no luck (the reason for this will be seen below).

It is not the cable, the network cards or TCP as it has worked in the
past.

The other twist to the tale is that ......
I also connect my laptop to my partners network - she does not have Zone
Alarm on the base PC - and it connects every time without any
problem.....So
what is it with two zone alarms that REFUSE to talk to one another! and
the
fact that Norton Firewall allows me to connect first time - is it time to
ditch Zone Alarm for something that actually works.......

Help required desperately.....

Thanks in advance.

Martin wrote:
I have a Base PC with windows XP Home. The IP address is 192.168.0.1
with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. This machine has Zone Alarm Pro
configured and it starts as a trusted network showing the above
configurations as 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0. This machine connects to
the internet the most.

I also have a laptop which plugs into the hub on the same network. I
do not have a fixed IP address for this machine (though I have tried
one and I get the same problems). I also have zone alarm Pro on this
PC as I sometimes connect to the internet using it. The problem is
that on my network the PC's refuse to talk to one another. I have
actually got the two talking to each other but the setups I used are
always lost when one or the other reboots.

I normally bring the base PC up first and then the laptop. The laptop
always shows the cable as disconnected. I have tried stopping the
Zone alarm on the Base PC with no luck (the reason for this will be
seen below).

It is not the cable, the network cards or TCP as it has worked in the
past.

The other twist to the tale is that ......
I also connect my laptop to my partners network - she does not have
Zone Alarm on the base PC - and it connects every time without any
problem.....So what is it with two zone alarms that REFUSE to talk to
one another! and the fact that Norton Firewall allows me to connect
first time - is it time to ditch Zone Alarm for something that
actually works.......

Help required desperately.....

Thanks in advance.

Really confused about the network setup. As I read your description,
you have both computers connected to a hub. How is the main computer
connected to the DSL modem? Is Internet connection sharing being used
or not - you make no mention? Does the one computer connected to the
internet have two LAN cards?

Q

Martin wrote:
I have a Base PC with windows XP Home. The IP address is 192.168.0.1
with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. This machine has Zone Alarm Pro
configured and it starts as a trusted network showing the above
configurations as 192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0. This machine connects to
the internet the most.

I also have a laptop which plugs into the hub on the same network. I
do not have a fixed IP address for this machine (though I have tried
one and I get the same problems). I also have zone alarm Pro on this
PC as I sometimes connect to the internet using it. The problem is
that on my network the PC's refuse to talk to one another. I have
actually got the two talking to each other but the setups I used are
always lost when one or the other reboots.

I normally bring the base PC up first and then the laptop. The laptop
always shows the cable as disconnected. I have tried stopping the
Zone alarm on the Base PC with no luck (the reason for this will be
seen below).

It is not the cable, the network cards or TCP as it has worked in the
past.

The other twist to the tale is that ......
I also connect my laptop to my partners network - she does not have
Zone Alarm on the base PC - and it connects every time without any
problem.....So what is it with two zone alarms that REFUSE to talk to
one another! and the fact that Norton Firewall allows me to connect
first time - is it time to ditch Zone Alarm for something that
actually works.......

Help required desperately.....

Thanks in advance.

Really confused about the network setup. As I read your description,
you have both computers connected to a hub. How is the main computer
connected to the DSL modem? Is Internet connection sharing being used
or not - you make no mention? Does the one computer connected to the
internet have two LAN cards?

Q

Hi Q,

I have an ordinary modem on both machines and I sometimes connect to the
internet using both machines independently. This is only because I thought
that ICS is worse to set up than a network...LOL.

So no ICS on either machine (my partner however does have ICS if this
helps).

I only have 1 LAN card in each of the machines. I believe the problem is
with Zone Alarm and using DHCP....On my partners main PC (she does not have
ZA but has Norton firewall), the laptop is instructed to get its IP address
from the main PC. (there is no gateway at all configured on my laptop and it
just does it - connects first time - everything is shared). So I don't think
its the ZA on the laptop that is the problem.

I would have thought that the same system would work here but the
autoconfiguration ip addressing comes back with a stupid number
(169.254.134.38) and mask (255.255.0.0).

I have since played around with ZA on my main PC and by allowing DHCP and
NEtBios on the trusted zone and setting a subnet mask for the home network.
But it still does not want to play.....

Do I have to configure a default gateway on the laptop....and if I do then
WHY does it work when connected to other machines

Really confused about the network setup. As I read your description,
you have both computers connected to a hub. How is the main computer
connected to the DSL modem? Is Internet connection sharing being used
or not - you make no mention? Does the one computer connected to the
internet have two LAN cards?

Q

Hi Q,

I have an ordinary modem on both machines and I sometimes connect to the
internet using both machines independently. This is only because I thought
that ICS is worse to set up than a network...LOL.

So no ICS on either machine (my partner however does have ICS if this
helps).

I only have 1 LAN card in each of the machines. I believe the problem is
with Zone Alarm and using DHCP....On my partners main PC (she does not have
ZA but has Norton firewall), the laptop is instructed to get its IP address
from the main PC. (there is no gateway at all configured on my laptop and it
just does it - connects first time - everything is shared). So I don't think
its the ZA on the laptop that is the problem.

I would have thought that the same system would work here but the
autoconfiguration ip addressing comes back with a stupid number
(169.254.134.38) and mask (255.255.0.0).

I have since played around with ZA on my main PC and by allowing DHCP and
NEtBios on the trusted zone and setting a subnet mask for the home network.
But it still does not want to play.....

Do I have to configure a default gateway on the laptop....and if I do then
WHY does it work when connected to other machines

Really confused about the network setup. As I read your description,
you have both computers connected to a hub. How is the main computer
connected to the DSL modem? Is Internet connection sharing being used
or not - you make no mention? Does the one computer connected to the
internet have two LAN cards?

Q