ZoneAlarm firewall causes major problems

[Yashed To]

Hello everybody!

I got my copy today and installed it without problems. But after customizing a new world, the game would just shut down and my PC rebooted.

I contacted the German support of Take2 - and the cause of this problem was my ZoneAlarm firewall. According to the support a lot of games have problems with the 6.x versions of this firewall. Shutting down alone won't help. You have to uninstall it completely!

After I uninstalled it and rebooted the PC (controlled, this time!) Civ 4 ran without problems. So I installed a 5.x version of ZoneAlarm - same problem, game crashed again. But with the 5.x versions it seems to be sufficient to shut it down before playing.
Not a great solution for Multiplayer mode via Internet, but better than nothing.

I would be interested if anyone uses a 4.x or 3.x version of Zonelarm and add his or hers experiences.

At least, finally I can play it. Yay!!!

[Paranoid Eyes]

Good investigating, I'll bet you save a lot of headaches. Now go have fun!

[BeefBayford]

Glad to see you got your problems sorted Yashed Happy Gaming, just think of us poor Brits who have over a week to wait

[Lord Shadow]

Lucky you.

Anyway, get a different firewall. I've heard ZoneAlarm isn't very good (besides having this problem with some games).

[vorius]

Use Sygate instead of ZoneAlarm

[Kazper]

Well games aren't the only things that don't like ZoneAlarm. It's a pretty crappy program, which is the reason it was booted off my computer back in version 2.x days, and will never ever be on it again...

But thanks for the heads up - I might well have friends who will ask my help, who will suffer from this issue

[Makahlua]

Nerts. I have version 6, but it's played well with other thing so far.... will let you know later (hurry up, UPS!!)

[Luv_Muffin]

Can you not add Civ IV to your program list?
Program Control/Programs/Trust level (check)?
Is it only causing grief in MP? It's always them firewalls!
What if you turn it off when playing Civ4, and turn on your windows Firewall instead?

Not sounding good. (ZA 6.0 user as well)

[JakeCourtney]

Maybe a patch can fix this.

[KingSponge]

I don't get it. How could ZA cause problems with Civ4? DId you give the Civ4 EXE permission on ZA? I've been using ZA for years and it's been great with a few minor problems with the game browsers in certain games that don't give up focus to ZA when it's asking for permission... Other than that it's been fine.

[StringFellow]

Checkout AVG for an antivirus/firewall alternative. They have a 30 trial version and have excellent technical support. www.grisoft.com

-S

[Yashed To]

Nope, I didn't even try to go online. Civ4 didn't try to access the Internet, thus I couldn't even add it to the ZA list.
And, as I described, shutting down alone wouldn't be enough.

I forgot which other games the T2 support mentioned, but the problems occuring exactly described my experiences before I even told them which problems I exactly had.
Either it's a shutdown and reboot or the PC won't react anymore.

If there are other users who can use ZA without problems when playing Civ 4, I'm glad to hear this.

[oldStatesman]

Outpost Firewall is great...much better than ZoneAlarm. But it is not quite as user friendly.

[Schisgall]

I am a new windows user... how I uninstall it completely? Plese take me through step by step. Desparate to play

[Flak]

There is something very strange about this. Why would Zone Alarm interfere with any program not trying to connect to the internet?

[DrStrnglv]

There may be a conflict with StarForce copy protection and ZoneAlarm. I do not know whether Civ4 has SF or not. To see if you have SF on your computer (installed by Civ4 or another program),

"open Device Manager, click on "view" and then "show hidden devices" to see [your] new uninvited house guests." (Screenshot: http://www.broadbandreports.com/r0/d.../starforce.jpg)

(from Broadband Reports: http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/48427)

If SF is causing the problem, you may solve the conflict by updating your SF drivers from the following location:

http://www.star-force.com/protection/users/

A little more info from another game and its Starforce - ZoneAlarm conflicts (http://forums.midway.com/Tech_Issues...21782697/?14):

"the fix involves UN-installing any personal firewall software that your PC might have (Zonealarm, etc).
I have tried this and it does work allowing you to adjust the game parameters and save through the "options" menus. You can then RE-install the firewall software and play the game with the new settings and try to live with not being to access the menus further."

"Update;

Midway has discovered that the problem was being caused by compatability issues between some personal firewalls and the 'Starforce' copy protection. There is an updated 'Starforce' file that should correct the issue people are having with the "esc" key and saving the game.

I have personally tested this and it solved all of these issues on my PC.

Here is the link to the message from Midway Support:
http://www.fuzeqna.com/midway/r.asp?xkbid=361 "

I hope this helps.

[Flak]

I don't think Civ IV is using Star Force though. SecureROM is what I've heard they're using. I wonder if that would be causing some issues with Zonealarm?

[KingSponge]

Just installed Civ4 and runs with ZA 5.5.094 without any problems. I also have Starforce (recently installed by UFO: Aftershock).