Dash Rendar Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Interesting reading. I lost count of how many users used to post up on my forum with Internet connection troubles, only to find it was down to Zone Alarm. Though some here say it used to be a cracking piece of software, as far as I can see, it seems to have done plenty of damage over at least the last five years or so! No other software firewall I've come across seems to have caused as many issues, though Norton flavours of security certainly come in a close second. P.S. When you set a static IP address you must use the same prefix. It is also better to NOT use one in the DHCP range so basically anything from 192.168.0.150-192.168.0.256 is best. You would have struggled to assign the IP address 192.168.0.256, or even 192.168.0.255. The former is simply invalid, and the latter would be the broadcast address of the subnet (assuming a 255.255.255.0 subnet mask). If anyone's interested, I've got a page explaining how the subnets and IP addresses work. It's pretty old, looks dated, but accurate. http://www.just2good.co.uk/ipAddress.php. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 You would have struggled to assign the IP address 192.168.0.256, or even 192.168.0.255. The former is simply invalid, and the latter would be the broadcast address of the subnet (assuming a 255.255.255.0 subnet mask). If anyone's interested, I've got a page explaining how the subnets and IP addresses work. It's pretty old, looks dated, but accurate. http://www.just2good.co.uk/ipAddress.php. Hehehehe, good spot, didn't even notice that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 That Smoothwall sounds like the Yoggie Gatekeeper gizmos. Basically a self-contained Linux box doing the security for you with little overheads. Any opinion on the Yoggie stuff? They are 'okay'... but still pricey compared to smoothie, and not as flexible. Smoothie does require a passing understand of linux though, if you extend it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Hehehehe, good spot, didn't even notice that... Me either Must have had 256k in my head lmao. Didn't know that about the subnet mask though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkR Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 I had TCPIP disconnect messages in the event viewer on my XP pc for ages. Always disconnecting me (but it is a really old laptop). Decided to try Windows 7. Awesome. Fast as XP but more stable and no more disconnects. I thought I had a hardware issue but turns out it was either XP or the drivers (but tried numerous drivers) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marbleapple Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 I saw this thread and got all excited. Over the last week mine had also started saying the internet connection had ben lost (but it hadn't on refresh) and all the smilies on this forum have ceased appearing. I wondered if it was after an update or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorin Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 That Smoothwall sounds like the Yoggie Gatekeeper gizmos. Basically a self-contained Linux box doing the security for you with little overheads. Any opinion on the Yoggie stuff? My opinion on both is that for a regular home user they're not needed. The built in firewall stuff in windows combined with NAT on the router is all you need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustGav Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 My opinion on both is that for a regular home user they're not needed. The built in firewall stuff in windows combined with NAT on the router is all you need. If you have kids, I disagree The reason I use smoothwall is because of the phrase-filtering capability. The ability to block pages that contain naughty words and phrases is a big must these days for kids on the internet. There is no way you can supervise kids 24/7 on the net, try sitting over the shoulder of a 15yr old. For instance we don't allow Bebo and other social networking sites as a rule in my house. With a standard router a simple bebo proxy would allow that through, layer-7 grabs it as it has the bebo phrase and stops it. It also prevents nasty words and other such MSN messenger badness from coming through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Poor kid, no porn? Thats what the internet was invented for Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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