Question about ZoneAlarm

[Ultraworld]

Hi,

Finally got ZoneAlarm.
The Program Control shows these programs which have acces to the outside world:
- Generic Host Process for Win32 services
- Internet Explorer
- Services and controller app
- Windows Explorer
- Winamp

So my question is: how do I know wether I am safe?
eg. What is generic host for win32 services? I thought the blaster virus used such a piece of software?
the same for Services and controller app.
Virusses might use these 2 "programs" to infect my computer.
That way my firewall would become useless of course

cheers

Ultraworld

 

[dannyevilcat]

Last night I pulled a Jeratain and reformatted everything, and when I got back up I had to go through my ZA settings again. I was wondering what Generic Host Process for Win32 was too. At first I just blocked it, but then I wasn't able to browse pages.
You don't need to allow generic host for win32 services access as a server, but it does need access to the internet.

Apparently, this is the answer ZA gave to this question:
"Generic Host Process for Win32 is the Microsoft Windows component your browser uses to perform DNS lookups"

 

[Turner]

Zone alarm is excellent in giving information on processes. There should be a way to look up what each process is. When you get the pop up asking if you want to allow acces, you can click on more help, and it will take you to their website and give you information on what the process is trying to gain access to the internet.

Really, ZA is one of the best pieces of s/w out there. I can't imagine life without it.