Hi all,

I am requesting help in figuring out why Zone Alarm and BOINC sometimes do not work together. To get to the bottom of this, I have put one of my PCs to run Zone Alarm as the firewall.

First I tried the Free version 6.5 and ran that for a couple of days without any problems. Now I am running the ZA Pro 6.1 version (with registration) and still getting nowhere.

So I need your help.
If you are running Zone Alarm as your firewall and you had problems in the past or have problems still at this moment, please post in this thread.

Mention:
- Your Zone Alarm version number
- Is it the Free version or registered?
- Did you allow Boinc.exe, Boincmgr.exe and Boinc.scr to be trusted in the internet zone (firewall setup)?
- Did you allow Boinc.exe to be server? (!!)
- Which operating system do you run on?
- What is your connection to the internet?
- When do you have the problems at most? (e.g. after a BOINC update?)

I have posted this same question on the BOINC forums. And request of everyone who knows of people with problems with ZA and BOINC at other projects to point to this thread or to the other on the BOINC forums.

BOINC forums thread: this one.

H.

H.,

I wish I could be of some help here, I run ZA on both my boxes and never had a problem.

One box runs ZA Pro, the other ZA Free (both fully up to date). Both run the XP Pro OS and have given BOINC full access rights.

I'll watch this thread and help anywhere I can.

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D.

i run zone alarm free and I have had not any problems with it boinc software versions. I only have it in the trusted internet zone and not set up in the server,/trusted zone
I run xp pro with all the updates

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Sapiens dominabitur astris.
The wise shall exercise dominion over the stars.

I'm running an older copy of ZAP, too lazy to look it up. I'm tired and maybe I overlooked something in your post, but there are three programs that need access for Boinc/Seti in ZA. Boinc client, boinc manager, and setiathome enhanced. I don't use the screen saver mode. I have full permissions granted for all three though I don't think its necessary. But then I'm in back of a router and ZA isn't really needed either..p

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BOINC.exe needs access outbound on port 80, and needs to act as a server on port 31416 (and if your BOINC is of the correct vintage 1043 as well). This server needs to be on either your host only, or on your LAN. Only a very few people need to (or want to) open 31416 and 1043 to the entire internet.

BOINCMgr.exe, BOINCCmd.exe, and BOINC.scr(?) need outbound access on port 31416 (and possibly on 1043). These do not need to act as servers. The outbound access is only to either the local machine or the LAN.

Whether the access is needed for the LAN or just the local machine depends on whether you are controlling multiple computers from one central computer, or whether you are controlling each computer by sitting at that computer.

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BOINC WIKI

Hi H
I use ZAP 6.5 reg. on all my computers with no problems
settings
all Boinc exe's and scr's allowed in trusted zone
have ADSL connection and all computers on a Lan
Boinc exe is allowed as a server
WinXP Pro all
when updating boinc will need to give permission again through zone again

Hope this helps

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i use ZAP and if you put your ISP number into the Firewall section as 'Trusted' it will usually work fine - though everytime you re-boot your system - you have to re-enable your windowz firewall . . .

hope this is helpful

richard

Had an issue under ME where new WU's in screensaver mode would crap out with compute errors shortly after download. Believe it was ZA Free (5.5?). Cleared up after fresh reinstall of BOINC and ZA.

Well, I am running E-trust Firewall 5.1.03.004, which I believe is the sucessor to the Zone Alarm system or the same thing. It is registered but was free through Road Runner membership. Previously I had a paid Subscription to Ez-Trust Antivirus, but let it lapse when the free subscription became available.
I recently had to reinstall BOINC and the Ez-Trust suite on another computer when my harddrive died. The Boinc that installed was version 5.4.9 which was a newer version than I had been previously running. All BOINC elemets are set as trusted servers with full access and pass lock, yet when Boinc manager attempts to send results to BERKELEY, I get a computional error reported both on the task and in my Berkeley results file.
I am running Windows 98 Plus (a half version between the orginal 98 and 98SE) on a Dell with a 400MHz Celeron Processor and 128M Ram, I am also running AnalogX Cache Booster and Analogiz MaxMem.
Hope this helps as I have had six tasks in the last week that Have failed to report properly.

William B. Cheney, III
Wcheney@sc.rr.com

Hi,

I'm having problems between BOINC and ZA. It was working ok as my screensaver and then yesterday it started to show the "BOINC is idle" message. I've tried uninstallin-reintsalling the Boinc program (that worked before with the updated version of BOINC) but didn't help. I haven't updated anything recently, so, I have no idea what's going on

Here are my settings.

Mention:
- Your Zone Alarm version number 6.5722.000

- Is it the Free version or registered? Free

- Did you allow Boinc.exe, Boincmgr.exe and Boinc.scr to be trusted in the internet zone (firewall setup)?

Yes I did, well actually, is not in the FIREWALL, but in the PROGRAM CONTROL. I have no idea how to add it in the FIREWALL section. It has this Add option, but if you click there it asks for an IP address, IP range, subnet or a HOST. So the only way to add a program to the trusted zone is through the program control menu.

- Did you allow Boinc.exe to be server? (!!)
How do you that??

- Which operating system do you run on?
windows 2000

- What is your connection to the internet?
Either ethernet or modem (home/work respectively)

- When do you have the problems at most? (e.g. after a BOINC update?)

It just started, I haven't updated anything, I just got the message when it went to screensaver mode...


Thanks for your help
Sincerely,
edgar

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All, thank you so far. Keep them coming.

Edgar, some of the options I gave are not available in the Free version. Sorry, I should have said that in my original post.

As to how to get around your problem, I do not know. It is a known problem though and hopefully it will be fixed in 5.6

Hi Horatio,

So, does that mean that either I have to wait for the version or buy the ZA software??

Does the SETI analisis run even if is not my screensaver? because I was thinking that if it runs, ok, I've lost my screensaver, but I'm still doing something...

Thanks
Edgar

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Does the SETI analisis run even if is not my screensaver?

That is the best way to run it, as the graphics slow the processing down.
Just set it to "Run Always". When any other programmes start, SETI (or any other project you may have) will stop processing & restart once the other application has finished.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Hi Grant,

I think I didn't explain myself. What I'm asking is whether the analysis will work without having the screensaver on and considering that I have the ZA running. When the screensaver is on i get the message saying is idle, if the screensaver is off, in case it doesn't work because of the ZA software, will I get any warning? Or everything will look normal when it actually isn't?

While I get the answer, I'll try what you suggested

Thanks
edgar

Does the SETI analisis run even if is not my screensaver?
That is the best way to run it, as the graphics slow the processing down.
Just set it to "Run Always". When any other programmes start, SETI (or any other project you may have) will stop processing & restart once the other application has finished.

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if the screensaver is off, in case it doesn't work because of the ZA software, will I get any warning? Or everything will look normal when it actually isn't?

I can't see why it should cause problems, as long as Zone Alarm isn't blocking communication between the client & the manager.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Hi again,

I don't know whether is blocking communication with the server, all what I got before was the "boinc is idle" message instead of the graphics screen. Does that mean it was blocked? or it just means that the screen server doesn't work, but the other things are fine?
I assume that this time (I have the screensaver off) if there's a problem I can check the program ans see whether it has sent/received data right?

Thanks,
edgar

if the screensaver is off, in case it doesn't work because of the ZA software, will I get any warning? Or everything will look normal when it actually isn't?

I can't see why it should cause problems, as long as Zone Alarm isn't blocking communication between the client & the manager.

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Hi all,

I am running ZA 5.5.114.000 (part of eTrust Internet Security Suite) and it is registered.

BOINC Client, BOINC CLI, BOINC Manager and BOINC screensaver all have ticks across the board (Trusted and Internet zones). The OS is Win XP Pro SP2 and run connection to the Internet through a LAN and a DSL router.

My PC is P4 1.8GHz, 512Mb ram and the WU's run at least 24 hours for a WU. It used to take 5-8 hours.

The only problem I had was that ZA didn't connect to localhost. When I allowed the apps to have access in both Internet and Trusted zones, Wu's strated to process.

The only thing I've noticed is that because the apps were specified in ZA, ZA itself regulates SETI's work progress. And it sucks.

If anyone knows how to fix this, I'd love to know.

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Hi all,

I am requesting help in figuring out why Zone Alarm and BOINC sometimes do not work together. To get to the bottom of this, I have put one of my PCs to run Zone Alarm as the firewall.

Mention:
- Your Zone Alarm version number 6.5.722.000
- Is it the Free version or registered? Registered
- Did you allow Boinc.exe, Boincmgr.exe and Boinc.scr to be trusted in the internet zone (firewall setup)? No
- Did you allow Boinc.exe to be server? (!!) Yes
- Which operating system do you run on? XP Pro SP2
- What is your connection to the internet? dsl
- When do you have the problems at most? (e.g. after a BOINC update?) Never had a problem

I have posted this same question on the BOINC forums. And request of everyone who knows of people with problems with ZA and BOINC at other projects to point to this thread or to the other on the BOINC forums.

BOINC forums thread: this one.

H.

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HI H.,

I run ZA free 6.5.731 and I have a concern.

It has run fine with BOINC 5.4.9 (SETI@HOME) for some time but in the last few days I have noticed that it shows BOINC is busy on the network almost all the time. It flashes TX and RX about once a second, and seems to never shutoff unless I exit BOINC, even when the BOINC manager shows no current activity.

I run Win2K through cable modem and router.

Is this normal?

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Is this normal?

This is normal. Boinc.exe and Boincmgr.exe "talk" to each other every second on local TCP port 31416. Zone Alarm sees this as "internet" activity. It isn't.

You can install BOINC as a service on Windows 2000/XP systems, then when BOINC has started, exit Boinc Manager. The crunching will continue, but the activity lights will stay silent, as there's nothing to see. Until you start Boinc Manager to check up on things, of course. ;-)

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