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gzhha5
Former Member
Message 1 of 12

Firewall status wrong, computer at risk

Hi

I am running McAfee AntiVirus Plus together with the latest ZoneAlarm Pro firewall.

My copy of McAfee AntiVirus Plus updated itself automatically to the latest GUI a few days ago (btw I preferred the old style), and now always displays the following warning message:

Your computer is at risk!

Other Firewall: off

When clicking on "Other Firewall: off" it displays the message "You have installed ZoneAlarm Pro Firewall. Click here to install this feature from McAfee."

So it correctly detects my firewall, but still claims that my computer is at risk.

The ZoneAlarm firewall is up and running correctly and is automatically updated to the latest version, the subscribtion is valid for another 500 days.

It seems that McAfee AntiVirus Plus has a problem to detect the correct status of my firewall.

I tried to get rid of this warning message and pop-up by selecting "Don't show an alert when Firewall is off" in the "General Settings and Alerts / Protection Alerts" (including rebooting the machine after) but this did not help.

Thank you in advance for any help on this issue.

Mike

11 Replies
exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 2 of 12

Re: Firewall status wrong, computer at risk

Antivirus Plus includes a firewall and isn't designed to work with or recognize competing firewalls.    I don't think there'll ever be a solution for that as McAfee works best with all its components enabled.

Years ago they used to sell just the antivirus portion but no more.

Message was edited by: Ex_Brit on 11/05/10 9:54:18 EDT AM
gzhha5
Former Member
Message 3 of 12

Re: Firewall status wrong, computer at risk

Hi Ex_Brit

Thanks for your reply.

What confuses me is:

- Same configuration (same version of AntiVirus Plus together with same version of ZoneAlarm firewall) works perfectly on other machines without warning message.

- I did not install and enable the firewall option of AntiVirus Plus, so there should be no conflict.

- AntiVirus recognizes ZoneAlarm correctly (see attachment). So it just needs to stop the annoying warning messages and pop-ups and I would be happy.

If it is really the case that AntiVirus Plus is NOT designed to work together with competing firewalls (it was possible in earlier releases) it would mean that I need to change the virus scanner I use, that would be a no-go for me...

Regards

Mike

exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 4 of 12

Re: Firewall status wrong, computer at risk

I hate to say but if you want to use ZA It would have been best to use an antivirus that is simply just that and nothing more.

It obviously knows it's there but doesn't monitor its status.

I'll flag this but I doubt anyoone will have an answer.

exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 5 of 12

Re: Firewall status wrong, computer at risk

Moved to SecurityCenter 10 as more appropriate spot.

gzhha5
Former Member
Message 6 of 12

Re: Firewall status wrong, computer at risk

Well, I originally bought VirusScan Professional 8 (or an even earlier version) without firewall option, which was automatically upgraded to newer versions during the last couple of years until it became the current version "AntiVirus Plus".

So I basically had no choice to avoid the current version with it's built-in firewall.

Also there is no "smaller" version available that does not contain the firewall... So I have again no other choice if I don't want to change the product.

I will definitely not change the firewall as I am very happy with ZoneAlarm Pro for many years.

Maybe there is a solution to this issue...

Thanks and regards

Mike

exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 7 of 12

Re: Firewall status wrong, computer at risk

I see on Zonealarm's website it says compatible with all other security products so it should be OK.  I have flagged this for other moderators to take a look.

pfiagra
Former Member
Message 8 of 12

Re: Firewall status wrong, computer at risk

I have had the same experience although I am using the free Zone Alarm firewall. It also seems my laptop runs slower since the automatic "upgrade" from just plain virus scan.

I am 100% happy with the Zone Alarm firewall and don't want to change.

If anyone has a solution, please post. Or better yet, get McAfee to fix.

pfiagra
Former Member
Message 9 of 12

Re: Firewall status wrong, computer at risk

It appears that McAfee has fixed this as I no longer have this problem since the latest update.

exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 10 of 12

Re: Firewall status wrong, computer at risk

That's good, thanks for letting us know.

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