STOCK QUOTES     More market data...

Q&A / Patrick Marshall
ZoneAlarm elaborates on SP2

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

In a recent column, a reader asked whether he could rely upon his anti-virus program and his ZoneAlarm firewall to protect his computer and choose not to install the recent security update to Windows XP, Service Pack 2.

I replied that ZoneAlarm is a "very basic software firewall, and it offers little protection against sophisticated hacking."

An official of ZoneAlarm contacted me, saying that ZoneAlarm indeed is "our most basic firewall product." He stressed, however, that ZoneAlarm's capabilities go beyond those offered in the XP firewall that's part of SP2.

"One of the most notable features it offers is outbound filtering, a k a application or program control," he said. The feature, designed to prevent Trojan horses or spyware from "calling home," is not available in XP SP2," he said.

The ZoneAlarm official was concerned that readers might get the impression that, once they've installed XP Service Pack 2, third-party firewalls aren't necessary.

This issue is so important that it's best to reiterate.

I have never advised readers to forgo firewalls. And the column in question did not advise readers that they could rest easy with XP's firewall. I've said repeatedly that this is just about the most basic firewall there is.

What the column said was that readers should not forgo the XP SP2 update just because they're running ZoneAlarm or any other firewall product.

The SP2 update is an important one, and the changes in the XP firewall itself are the least of the reasons to upgrade.
 
I strongly advise readers using Windows XP to upgrade to Service Pack 2. At the same time, I strongly advise them to use a good firewall product.

Q. I have Window's XP Home Edition and use Outlook Express for e-mail and for my address book. How do I back up OE?

— Chris Morrell

A. With Outlook Express you'll have to do the backup for e-mail and the address book in separate steps.

To back up e-mail, you simply copy the mail files to a backup folder, preferably on removable media, such as a flash drive or a CD.

To back up your address book, mail account file or news account file, you export them to a file using the Export tool found under the File menu.

Q. I purchased an Inspiron 600M laptop from Dell Computer's refurbished stock back in April and generally have been happy with its performance.

I'm running Windows XP Professional and would like to install the new Service Pack 2.

When I took the first step of updating the BIOS, I discovered that I'm running Latitude D600 BIOS. This seems like a misrepresentation to me, is it? How should I proceed?

— Reda Tipton

A. Sounds to me like someone put the wrong motherboard into your laptop when it was being refurbished. Dell assures me that it is an error if the BIOS doesn't match your laptop model. The BIOS on your laptop should be an Inspiron BIOS and not a Latitude BIOS. You'll want to contact Dell technical support. By the way, be aware that Dell has an online support site: support.dell.com.

Questions for Patrick Marshall may be sent by e-mail to pmarshall@seattletimes.com or pgmarshall@pgmarshall.net, or by mail at Q&A/Technology, The Seattle Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists.