antispamsniper.com

[Noklu]

I have been demo-ing The Bat! and have been very impressed. Needing a spam blocker, I am also demo-ing ASS. I am VERY impressed with the ability to sort spam. I seem to have run into a firewall problem. I am using ZoneAlarm Security Suite (current version). When I istalled the bat, it worked fine. When I added ASS and then go to check mail, the program just sits there (i.e. more than 10 mins will go by, still no mail). I suspected there might be a firewall issue so I started poking around the settings (this is unusual for Zone Alarm, it typically tells me when there is a problem). Under Firewall>Zones I noticed something called a "Loopback Adapter" It is set to "trust", when I change it to "Block" and then check my mail, the bat immediately delivers the mail, and ASS sorts out the spam. When I set this on "trust" it is blocked again. If I go to preferences and remove ASS, I get my mail (obviously with spam). I have done some research so I understand a bit about the loopback adapter, but I need it to use IE and a couple of other programs. Any thoughts on how to clear this up?

[vetaltm]

It seems like a kind of problem in ZoneAlarm settings. The plug-in makes a connection to itself (process name TheBat.exe) on port 40000 (or 40001-40100 if 40000 is in use). The endpont binds to loopback adapter by default, and if it is trusted, then the connections must be allowed. Try to create a rule for TheBat.exe, allowing TCP connections to ports 40000-40100 in trusted zone. I'm not sure about the settings for ZoneAlarm zones, but if the rules may override them, then the specified rule should help.

[klaus]

Noklu,

I am a developer for a different kind of software but 60% - 70% of all support cases we have to deal with are caused by so-called Internet Security Suites. I don't want to tell here and now what I think about them but some of them are WAY OVERKILL and some of them have a lot of problems built-in resulting in poor performance of other, installed programs or sometimes even no performance at all. The set-up is mostly too complicated for the average computer user and requires too much fine-tuning. Creating component specific rules involving ports, protocols, inbound, outbound traffic, etc. is not something everybody is familiar with. In almost all cases, problems of our customers disappeared after they installed a Firewall and an Antivirus program. There is TOP freeware around and at least as efficient or even better than any Security Suite.

[Noklu]

Problem solved. I did check zone alarm for The Bat!. There was an entry and it was listed as a "trusted" program. I also noticed there was an entry in zone alarm for the Sniper, but even after adjusting the settings it would not work. So I completely uninstalled it, cleaned the registry and did a re-boot. After all that, I re-installed, the first time I accessed my e-mail I got the typical popup from zonealarm (a program is try to access...), I checked "always allow". And now it works fine! I must say, I am VERY impressed withe ability of the Sniper to stop spam.. I have found my new e-mail and spam blocker.