I've had this firewall for a few months now and have come to hate it. I'm at the point now where I would rather pay 4-5 times more for a RELIABLE FIREWALL than have to continue putting up with this useless thing.

I am constantly being blocked from sites because the firewall is either restarting, or because connection to SOFAWARES server is lost and the web filtering then blocks everything until a connection to SOFAWARES server can be re-established.

The reports that are generated weekly and sent to me are completely useless. How on earth could you possibly make use of them. All it does for me is confirm that they are using this device to track users online activity - that you cannot opt out of - and who know what that information is being used for or who it is being sold to since nothing is disclosed or disclaimed in any of their literature in this regard.

The logs are useless because every time the unit reboots itself they are cleared out - so there is no history - there is nothing to even indicate WHY the unit rebooted. There's no evidence this is due to software updates. I contacted technical support about this a while ago and I was told that the reboot is "by design" with no further explanation. It wasn't worth my time to have even contacted them.

Between the reboots and the loss of connection to THEIR server, I am constantly having to wait on this device to get it's act together so I can get something done. Add to that the fact that half my downloads fail due to a 'glitch' in the product whereby it blocks despite the preference settings (I was told by technical support this would be fixed in the next release - after HOURS of online putzing around with them to figure this out) - I am often having to TURN OFF web filtering or the virus scan in order to get something done - despite the preference settings.

I have absolutely no interest in wasting my time with technical support to resolve these issues anymore - the money for the unit is spent now. I'm just posting in case there is anyone else considering this purchase. Trust me SAVE YOUR MONEY. There is not a chance in heck that I will extend my use of this product beyond the free subscription period and it is the last firewall I buy from these guys. They may have it together with their software product but they haven't for their hardware products.

Actually it's not too bad. I really like the ability to write rules.

For your web filtering - Choose the categories you want to block and allow. Also - at the bottom of the category screen is a check box to either BLOCK or ALLOW internet traffic if the connection to the service center is lost. I always allow traffic.

That will correct the majority of your problem. Overall blocking malware and ad sites are a good thing.

I also use opendns.com to block even more URL and I use a Hosts file to block more. Overall - with 3 layers of defense against malware sites - I have some pretty clean systems in the house.

Interesting, I have not had any of the problems you are listing, what firmware is currently installed on your equipment? Have you done any troubleshooting on your INTERNET connection to see if that maybe an issue?

If the equipment was actually that bad I would expect to see more posts about the problems you have mentioned.

Yep, for the most part, I'll have to agree with the original poster. This Z100g is more of a pain everyday I have it.

I don't know why I can't use it as a firewall in and out of my house and have everything inside the house open. Sometimes I can connect to another pc in my house, sometimes I can't. Sometimes I can remote to another pc in my house, sometimes I can't.

My guess is that most people that get this thing don't know about this forum to vent and end up putting the z100g on a shelf and never use it again. And yes, that monthly report they sent me is useless. It says almost the exact same numbers every month. I get unsolicited spam that has more useful info in it!

It's no wonder this thing is not used by more people. It's too hard to get anything done. They give you 30 days to try it out but it takes more than 30 days to figure out if it's yourself causing the problem or the router so by the time you figure out that the router is a total pain, it's too late, you're stuck with it.

Sometimes DHCP works, sometimes it doesn't. It has a "feature" to save your config so I do but then if I make a change and restore that config to reverse the change, nothing changes. What is the import/export thing supposed to do if not put settings back to the saved config??

I'm sure if you're more of a network guru than I am, this thing could be made to work the way I want it to, but that's not the audience this thing is being sold to.

I don't know of any "customer satisfaction" survey type thing that they do. If they would poll their customer and find out their complaints, they might be able to make this product better for the general public.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Rick,

Again, I have to say I am not having any of the problems that are being mentioned, except that sometimes I have to many nodes and not enough licenses to handle the requests. Of course that just means I need to upgrade from 5 nodes via the system.

The report I get does a good job of letting me know what types of attacks are hitting the box and where they are coming from as well as what is going on inside the network based on what types of rules you create and enable / or how you use the smartdefense config.

I'm an IT consultant and this device does a good job using the unified threat management methodology for a great price point, it is doing a great job for me again without all the difficulties that I'm hearing. I can connect to anything inside my network whether it's a printer or a media server or a share on another box.

I have not tried to restore a config so I can't answer to that but I will give it a try and see.

Don't know what to say. I'm also a professional computer geek but networking is not my specialty. All I want to do is have a firewall protecting my the network inside my house. I have no need to protect myself from other computers in my own house. That doesn't sound like a big deal to me but somehow it is. Sometimes I can map a drive, sometimes I can't, sometimes I can remote to a pc, sometimes I can't, etc, etc, annoying etc. I'm constantly rebooting one pc or another and a simple reboot fixes the problem. I know I've changed nothing, I know I connected to that pc an hour ago, I know I've change nothing in the last hour but this time, I can't connect and by simply reboot (and changing *nothing*), it's fixed. And sometimes I can connect with a DNS name, sometimes I can't. Sometimes I have to use the IP address instead of the computer name. There's no consistency so I can't troubleshoot. I don't know how you've avoided all these problems but you should count yourself lucky! I'd really like to have this thing working to have the security, but there's no way it should be this frustrating.

Rick:

In partial defense of the Z100G (I feel like I have to say something good about the little thing because I really do like mine so much ;-)

I've had mine for over a year now and like it a lot. I have also had a daily search going on eBay to see if I could pick up a second one "used" for another project. The "search" on eBay has been running for 6 months, and only ONE unit has been offered so I guess that most folks either like them, ... or they get so pissed off they take them out in the driveway and use them as a wheel chock ;-)

Ok ... seriously ... addressing your issues:

1) as other person said, make sure you have 5 or less active devices. You can check from screen: REPORTS --> MY COMPUTERS
A green item is burning one of your 5 licenses.
I have found for example that my son's iTouch is "chatty" enough that it is ALWAYS burning a connection even when the bloody thing is in sleep mode... It appears it has to be hard OFF to make it shut up and stop hitting the internet and thus using one of my 5 licenses...

2) For your sanity, set SECURITY --> FIREWALL --> to MEDIUM
At least IMHO that is fine and makes life easier.

3) When you say you can not see other computers on your network. One thing I found that I actually now like, but pissed me off till I figured it out was: The WIRED LAN is, by default, firewalled from the WIRELESS LAN. This is so that if hackers do break in to your wi-fi they still can not get to your wired devices. If you want this to happen you will have to alter the router's default config.

If your problem is with wired-to-wired computers I really think something else is screwy as the Z100G does not dink with this that I know of ... I would unplug the Z100G from the internet (for security) then disable all firewalling on your WIRED PCs and start troubleshooting...

My $0.02 for a Monday AM....

Jim

I have a chatty Ethernet hard drive that took a license because it keeps wanting to check the time. I put a rule in that prevents it from accessing the Internet. The rule simply says that the device is blocked from "Any" service. Problem solved.

And my $0.02 is that it is a fine product - especially with the 8.0 firmware.

quote:

Originally posted by JimW:
Rick:

In partial defense of the Z100G (I feel like I have to say something good about the little thing because I really do like mine so much ;-)

I've had mine for over a year now and like it a lot. I have also had a daily search going on eBay to see if I could pick up a second one "used" for another project. The "search" on eBay has been running for 6 months, and only ONE unit has been offered so I guess that most folks either like them, ... or they get so pissed off they take them out in the driveway and use them as a wheel chock ;-)

Ok ... seriously ... addressing your issues:

1) as other person said, make sure you have 5 or less active devices. You can check from screen: REPORTS --> MY COMPUTERS
A green item is burning one of your 5 licenses.
I have found for example that my son's iTouch is "chatty" enough that it is ALWAYS burning a connection even when the bloody thing is in sleep mode... It appears it has to be hard OFF to make it shut up and stop hitting the internet and thus using one of my 5 licenses...

2) For your sanity, set SECURITY --> FIREWALL --> to MEDIUM
At least IMHO that is fine and makes life easier.

3) When you say you can not see other computers on your network. One thing I found that I actually now like, but pissed me off till I figured it out was: The WIRED LAN is, by default, firewalled from the WIRELESS LAN. This is so that if hackers do break in to your wi-fi they still can not get to your wired devices. If you want this to happen you will have to alter the router's default config.

If your problem is with wired-to-wired computers I really think something else is screwy as the Z100G does not dink with this that I know of ... I would unplug the Z100G from the internet (for security) then disable all firewalling on your WIRED PCs and start troubleshooting...

My $0.02 for a Monday AM....

Jim

Hi Jim,
I actually do like the product or at least the idea of the product. It's just super frustrating trying to get things done sometimes.

1). Only 3 computers in the house and no other "connected" devices. The 3 computers are the only things that show up as using a license. No problem here.

2). That's the way mine's set.

3). LAN is not firewall to wLAN here. I don't know why but sometimes I can connect to other pc's and sometimes I can't.

I also run ZASS on 2 of the pc's so that adds greatly to the complication aspect of the whole thing too.

I appreciate the replies. I'm very frustrated with this thing but I don't "hate this product" as it says in the subject. I'm sure it's just configuration problems but finding those settings is frustrating to the point of giving up and going back to my Linksys.

Thanks again!
Rick

quote:

Originally posted by KBR:
I have a chatty Ethernet hard drive that took a license because it keeps wanting to check the time. I put a rule in that prevents it from accessing the Internet. The rule simply says that the device is blocked from "Any" service. Problem solved.

And my $0.02 is that it is a fine product - especially with the 8.0 firmware.

Thanks KBR. I've heard that the new firmware is better but I can't get it so I'm still using the frustrating firmware.

quote:

Originally posted by Stan:
Actually it's not too bad. I really like the ability to write rules.

For your web filtering - Choose the categories you want to block and allow. Also - at the bottom of the category screen is a check box to either BLOCK or ALLOW internet traffic if the connection to the service center is lost. I always allow traffic.

That will correct the majority of your problem. Overall blocking malware and ad sites are a good thing.

I also use opendns.com to block even more URL and I use a Hosts file to block more. Overall - with 3 layers of defense against malware sites - I have some pretty clean systems in the house.

Please can you elaborate/describe in some detail in how you set up opendns.com and /or the host list of other URLs.
Thanks

quote:

Originally posted by Rick:

3) When you say you can not see other computers on your network. One thing I found that I actually now like, but pissed me off till I figured it out was: The WIRED LAN is, by default, firewalled from the WIRELESS LAN. This is so that if hackers do break in to your wi-fi they still can not get to your wired devices. If you **DO NOT** want this to happen you will have to alter the router's default config.
Jim

Hi Jim,
I actually do like the product or at least the idea of the product. It's just super frustrating trying to get things done sometimes.

1). Only 3 computers in the house and no other "connected" devices. The 3 computers are the only things that show up as using a license. No problem here.

2). That's the way mine's set.

3). LAN is not firewall to wLAN here. I don't know why but sometimes I can connect to other pc's and sometimes I can't.

I also run ZASS on 2 of the pc's so that adds greatly to the complication aspect of the whole thing too.

I appreciate the replies. I'm very frustrated with this thing but I don't "hate this product" as it says in the subject. I'm sure it's just configuration problems but finding those settings is frustrating to the point of giving up and going back to my Linksys.

Thanks again!
Rick[/QUOTE]

Hi Rick!
#3 should have said if you do NOT want WLAN firewalled from LAN you will have to modify config. so if the problem is with WIRED <---> WIRELESS please check the rules.

For troubleshooting, would start with the simplest case and move up from there:

1) unplug Z100G from the internet just to keep your stuff safe from hackers while you dink around.

2) put all PCs on the WIRED segment

3) turn off all firewalling (like ZoneAlarm) on the PCs

4) Get 'em talking like this then start "escalating" the protection levels and monitor to see if anything breaks it.

Here are a couple of good resources:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q134304/

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/support/winnetprobs.htm

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Tro...-Networks-Part1.html

My best,
Jim

quote:

Originally posted by JimW:
Hi Rick!
#3 should have said if you do NOT want WLAN firewalled from LAN you will have to modify config. so if the problem is with WIRED <---> WIRELESS please check the rules.

For troubleshooting, would start with the simplest case and move up from there:

1) unplug Z100G from the internet just to keep your stuff safe from hackers while you dink around.

2) put all PCs on the WIRED segment

3) turn off all firewalling (like ZoneAlarm) on the PCs

4) Get 'em talking like this then start "escalating" the protection levels and monitor to see if anything breaks it.



My best,
Jim

Hi Jim,
I've tried all the stuff you've mentioned. It's just not consistent though. Sometimes I can connect, sometimes I can't. Sometimes I have to shut off ZoneAlarm firewall on the pc, sometimes I don't. It's frustrating.
Thanks for the help.
Rick

Gee great :-/

You could TRY substituting a hub or a switch or another brand router for the Z100G, but it does not sound like to me that whatever the problem is has anything to do with the Z100G .... the Z100G is really (not supposed to) be involved in communications from 1 WIRED PC on the network to another WIRED PC on the network........ AFAIK

Jim

quote:

Originally posted by JimW:
Gee great :-/

You could TRY substituting a hub or a switch or another brand router for the Z100G, but it does not sound like to me that whatever the problem is has anything to do with the Z100G .... the Z100G is really (not supposed to) be involved in communications from 1 WIRED PC on the network to another WIRED PC on the network........ AFAIK

Jim

Hi Jim,
Yeah, I've tried that too. I still have my trusty Linksys here. I was going to give it away but I've kept it in case I finally get frustrated enough to switch back. I have taken my Z100G offline and put my Linksys back online and with everything else unchanged, my network works excellent, albeit with no security. I'm sure it's a setting(s) somewhere in the Z100G but it's just a matter of finding it. And now that I've been troubleshooting for so long, I've lost track of what I've done and what I haven't done. I didn't write anything down because I had no idea this was going to be such a chore. So now I suppose I have to reset it back to defaults and start all over again and keep track of what I do. I'm not sure if I'm into doing that. All I want is to have everything inside my house wide open and have a firewall in and out of the house. I don't know why that would be so difficult!
Rick

" I don't know why that would be so difficult!"

That's my favorite line... alas it happens to me all the time.

You could wait about 1-2 weeks get the 8.xx firmware update then do a full reset to factory settings and start over from there!

If you just plug the Z100G into a port on the Linksys it "should" pick up the update when it is made public.


Jim

I have been watching this thread and must reply. I am no expert so don't blast me if I do not help. I have two Z100G's, one at home and one at work. The one at work I use the wireless for programing vehicle computers with the GM MDI. When I set it up, it ask if I wanted to use the firewall between computers on the network. I checked no and it set up a default bridge. Best I can tell the problem you are having is the firewall between computers. I had 8.0.24 firmware and has been recently updated to 8.0.33. I guess my advise would be that if you have the old 7.x.xx, open a problem ticket and request the new firmware and do not waste you time until you get it.

quote:

Originally posted by JimW:
" I don't know why that would be so difficult!"

That's my favorite line... alas it happens to me all the time.

You could wait about 1-2 weeks get the 8.xx firmware update then do a full reset to factory settings and start over from there!

If you just plug the Z100G into a port on the Linksys it "should" pick up the update when it is made public.


Jim

Yeah, that's what I've kind of resigned to. I'm stuck with this thing now so I'll just put up with it til the new firmware is release and hope it fixes my problems.
Rick

quote:

Originally posted by Confused X 2:
I have been watching this thread and must reply. I am no expert so don't blast me if I do not help. I have two Z100G's, one at home and one at work. The one at work I use the wireless for programing vehicle computers with the GM MDI. When I set it up, it ask if I wanted to use the firewall between computers on the network. I checked no and it set up a default bridge. Best I can tell the problem you are having is the firewall between computers. I had 8.0.24 firmware and has been recently updated to 8.0.33. I guess my advise would be that if you have the old 7.x.xx, open a problem ticket and request the new firmware and do not waste you time until you get it.

I actually think the problem is that I have ZoneAlarm Security Suite AND the Z100g and some setting on one or the other is conflicting with a setting on one or the other. I have a bridge setup between lan and wlan and no firewall between the two.

Just a thought. I had fought a problem with ZA Suite for a good year. Customer service was probley ready to kill me I used them so much. Bottom line I ran Gates memory check and found to address that were intermintent. New memory problem resolved!