Pinecone, I have known people who just use the built-in Windows firewall, however the downside is it does not monitor outbound traffic. I would like to think that most, but not all, people would agree that a third party firewall that monitors both inbound and outbound traffic is the best way to go. Regardless of how careful some consider themselves to be on the internet there is always that chance of getting infected by malware one way or the other that may try to 'call home' with your personal information. http://netsecurity.about.com/od/firewalls/a/aa081804b.htm "Is there any way to know for sure what I am changing?? " As Luis stated Zone Alarm will present you with a pop-up window letting you know that an application or program wants to access the internet. It will give you the option of 'Yes' or 'No' and list the application that wants access, such as 'Internet Explorer' or whatever programs you have. There is also a 'More info' button in the alert. If the program is one you recognize and use all the time, you can click 'Yes' and select the box 'Remember this info_______' to keep from being bothered with the same request all the time. If it is a program you don't recognize I would click 'No', but not necessarily select 'Remember this info'. If the request keeps coming up and you don't recognize the program and the 'More info' button does not give you the info you need you may want to 'google' and see what it says. There are some 'Windows applications' that need internet access on occasion. Witz

OK, the popup is gone but what are you now using for a firewall? If you use Vista is has a satisfactory firewall but if you use XP then the MS firewall only stops incoming and does nothing to stop things already on your computer phoning home.

I would try one of 3 options there perhaps. Someone else may come up with a simpler fix if you care to wait a while, you are in no danger. Reboot and try again. Or open Windows Explorer, find and delete the log file mentioned and try the install again. Failing that I would download the whole Zonealarm program (being sure to stay on the free version). Then remove your internet connection, use the Add/Remove to get rid the current Zonealarm and install the downloaded program. Here is a link that might be useful: Free Zonealarm download site

I used to have zone alarm but when I installed Windows 7 I decided not to reinstall it. Usually when a product upgrades itself it automatically gets rid of the old installation, this being the case with ZA if I remember correctly. Installation for firewall/antivirus software is pretty straightforward. Usually the default settings are the best choices for the average user. As for the drive situation it kinda depends on what operating system you are running to determine the easiest solution. Windows 7 has a new thing called libraries that makes it easy to link folders from different drives into one place. In older versions of Windows or Linux or Mac OS's I would suggest moving all non program files taking space on your C drive to your E drive. This frees up space for any programs that need to be installed on the C drive. I am new to this forum so I am not quite sure why your posts run off the page. It might be an issue with your screen resolution being too small for the web page to fit all in one screen or maybe a browser setting.