ZoneAlarm Alerts

[Nitesco]

My game just crashed while playing DDO and upon reboot and relaunch of DDO I was asked by ZoneAlarm to allow various 'suspicious' DDO related programs to communicate with the internet. I accepted the first few but then I got one saying something like 'dndclient is attempting activity in relation to monitoring user activity' with a warning about possible keystroke logging and other nasty stuff, which I declined.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with ZoneAlarm?

Is this a false alarm due to ZA not recognising the program or should I be worried?

[Nitesco]

This is still happening and it's worrying. I have tried blocking this request and it doesn't seem to make a difference to the whether the game will work. ZoneAlarm is a popular free anti-virus and firewall, surely more people have come across this popup? Each time I load DDO, or following an update, a number of DDO related programs require manual management, based on the default settings of ZoneAlarm's firewall.

Here is a description of it again, word for word:

'SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOR

dndclient is attempting to monitor user activities on this
computer. If allowed it may try to track or log keystrokes (user input), mouse movements/clicks,
web sites visited, and other user behaviors'

I can't tell whether blocking it has had any adverse affects. I have been suffering from incredible lag during the past few days. My latency monitoring icon often goes into the orange and when I mouse over it, I find that I am getting pings of 500+, which is unplayable.

I am wondering whether blocking this apparently suspicious program is causing some conflict resulting in extra network traffic. Can anyone with expertise or experience in this area shed any light on what the problem might be?

[LeslieWest_GuitarGod]

I can't tell whether blocking it has had any adverse affects. I have been suffering from incredible lag during the past few days. My latency monitoring icon often goes into the orange and when I mouse over it, I find that I am getting pings of 500+, which is unplayable.

I am wondering whether blocking this apparently suspicious program is causing some conflict resulting in extra network traffic. Can anyone with expertise or experience in this area shed any light on what the problem might be?

If you are lagging that badly, I'd first test your ISP to ensure you are getting the bandwidth you are paying for. http://www.speedtest.net/ is nifty little website for doing just that.

Flav's advice actually wasnt too shabby. Nothing wrong running spyware/antivirus scans, and I'd even add a registry scan to it. Auslogics offers some awesome free software to do just these things.
http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/registry-cleaner/
http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/

Id also check you graphic driver and directx to make sure your software is up to date.

Check the temp on your vid card as well.. make sure you arent overheating.

Well I'd try these things .. can't hurt.

* One thing for certain, no need to block the programs I listed earlier, in fact I recommend against it.

[Nitesco]

Also, why is there so much hard disk activity every time I move my mouse or click on something in-game?

The incessant chugging and churning sounds coming out of my hard disk every time I go to do something in-game is unlike any other program I use. There seems to be a relationship between moving, clicking or doing anything in the game and a choppy, laggy, slowing down of everything that happens on-screen and the constant hard disk activity. It's almost a constant buzzing and clicking of my hard disk, I dread to think what state of fragmentation the game files are in.

Is this normal?

[Flavilandile]

Well DDOclient has to track key input and mouse mouvement and report them to the server to be able to interract with the rest of the world and the other players.

*rolleyes*

Antivirus programs are nothing better than paying virus...
If you really want to use these softwares, then you have to understand how they work and how the softwares they monitor works.

DDOClient, TurbineLauncher, TurbineInvoker at least should be in a full exception list with full allowed access towards external network. ( TCP and UDP )

And yes, as Antivirus software are in fact paying virii you will have to manually update that exception list everytime one of the above exe change due to a patch.

As for the rest, you probably need to defragment your disk, clean it ( a disk almost full will fragment more ).
Last knowing your computer ( processor, RAM, ... ) might help too.

[Nitesco]

Well DDOclient has to track key input and mouse mouvement and report them to the server to be able to interract with the rest of the world and the other players.

*rolleyes*

Antivirus programs are nothing better than paying virus...
If you really want to use these softwares, then you have to understand how they work and how the softwares they monitor works.

DDOClient, TurbineLauncher, TurbineInvoker at least should be in a full exception list with full allowed access towards external network. ( TCP and UDP )

And yes, as Antivirus software are in fact paying virii you will have to manually update that exception list everytime one of the above exe change due to a patch.

As for the rest, you probably need to defragment your disk, clean it ( a disk almost full will fragment more ).
Last knowing your computer ( processor, RAM, ... ) might help too.

If I was blocking this attempt to connect and the game was working fine anyway, what is your point? Do you think me blocking that attempt, if it had to do with recieving input from controllers, would allow the game to work anyway, but be laggy? How does that make sense?

[LeslieWest_GuitarGod]

Sounds like you need to set your exceptions.

Look for these files:

• "TurbineLauncher.exe"
• "TurbineInvoker.exe"
• "dndclient.exe"
• "dndlauncher.exe" (may be required for older installations)

Make sure that you grant them permission to access the internet. Also newer zone alarm (since 10.* I believe) has a new "remember" feature associated with permissions. If you dont select it, it will revert back. Lots of ZA users forget to do this or simply didnt know about it.

[Hephaistor]

Problem with zone alarm and similar programs: The tons of warnings those programmes generate are only helpful if you understand what they actually mean. This seems not to be the case here. Set all the exceptions the other posters mentioned or just say "Yes Sir!" to everything DDO wants you to do Allowing and declining processes by chance won’t help you much.

[Nitesco]

Thanks for the info.

[Arkat]

Zone Alarm sucks. So do the various "Security Suites" like Norton 360 and especially the AVG suite.

Keep it simple. Uninstall all those and just use Microsoft Security Essentials (Google it).

It's simple, it's lightweight, and it just works.

[Nitesco]

Zone Alarm sucks. So do the various "Security Suites" like Norton 360 and especially the AVG suite.

Keep it simple. Uninstall all those and just use Microsoft Security Essentials (Google it).

It's simple, it's lightweight, and it just works.

I had that but because there is no firewall in it, I had to install ZA free. Then recently ZA made their anti-virus free too so rather than have 2 different products I disabled WSA in favor of ZA.

Also, every alert I've gotten from ZA has been the generic 'this application wants to access the internet'. The one that I created this thread about was very specific about the 'suspicious' nature of the 'dndclient'.

[Impaqt]

I had that but because there is no firewall in it, I had to install ZA free. Then recently ZA made their anti-virus free too so rather than have 2 different products I disabled WSA in favor of ZA.

Also, every alert I've gotten from ZA has been the generic 'this application wants to access the internet'. The one that I created this thread about was very specific about the 'suspicious' nature of the 'dndclient'.

O.o

Windows already has a firewall.

[Nitesco]

O.o

Windows already has a firewall.

I have never trusted it.

[Impaqt]

I have never trusted it.

You dont even seem to know what they do..... How can you not trust it?

Are you using a Router? That has a firewall in it as well.

Do you have a lot of internet enemies? Incredibly sensitive documents on your pc? Firewalls block INCOMING traffic. The vast majority of people have zero need for anything more than whats already built into windows.

[Missing_Minds]

O.o
Windows already has a firewall.

Raise your hand if you trust it, and it alone? *does not raise hand*
And I still don't trust it.

Prior to that, I used a commercial firewall like Norton.

frankly, unless you were using enterprise level, you were paying for piece of mind bloatware that was going to slow your machine down. I ditched Norton about version... 4 or so.

[Impaqt]

Raise your hand if you trust it, and it alone? *does not raise hand*
And I still don't trust it.

Well, since I run a Router, I already have a basic Hardware firewall. That, in conjunction with Windows Firewall is more than enough for me.

[Impaqt]

malware doesnt need to bypass or get through firewalls in most cases..... and if someone is specifically targeting you.. well.. You shouldnt be using any "free" firewall at all. You should be using hardware firewalls.

[Arkat]

O.o

Windows already has a firewall.

You dont even seem to know what they do..... How can you not trust it?

Are you using a Router? That has a firewall in it as well.

Do you have a lot of internet enemies? Incredibly sensitive documents on your pc? Firewalls block INCOMING traffic. The vast majority of people have zero need for anything more than whats already built into windows.

malware doesnt need to bypass or get through firewalls in most cases..... and if someone is specifically targeting you.. well.. You shouldnt be using any "free" firewall at all. You should be using hardware firewalls.

Agree with ALL these statements...wholeheartedly.

[MsEricka]

Zonealarm has always been one of the WORST programs users can use since the late 90's. It's badly written, overzealous, intrusive and often incorrect.

Uninstall and find almost anything else.

[falcate]

If ZoneAlerm says DDO can't be trusted, then by all means don't use DDO.