GW Freeze Problems, Zonealarm

I have been playing Gw for over a year now, but lately, my comp has been acting real strange.

I got a 3.4 gzh HT processor, 6800 GT graphics card, 1 gb ram, like 400-500 gb of hardrive space, etc.

All this stuff worked great for around 8-9 months for GW, but after that, my comp started to freeze in-game constantly when i played GW, especially when i left outpost areas, but not just the program, but the comp, and i had to reboot.

I noticed that my prob started when i installed Zonealarm firewall and Spysweeper on my comp.

All other games work great on comp, just not guildwars.

Does anyone else have probs with Zonealarm or Spysweeper and GW? Whut can I do to fix my prob? If anyone has an answer to my questions plz help me out. It wud be greatly appreciated.

Thx

Added: I just read the sticky about driver updates, and I think i do have one of the buggy drivers. Im gonna download the older drives and see whut happens, but if anyone else has an opinion on my problem, plz help out.

Thx Scotty, but i need to keep zonealarm atm sadly...lol. Hopefully its something else. I gave GW full access to my comp, ultimate trust ratios, so i think the problem lies somewhere else, at least i hope it does. lol.

I've found zonealarm messes with alot of programs. Get rid of it and install a physical router / firewall for security purposes.

I also have some freezes, and I also run ZoneAlarm. However, I'm not convinced ZA is the culprit. I'm increasingly suspicious that it is a video driver issue (Nvidia), but I've tried older versions with no luck. Only GW has this problem.

And, btw, I also have a physical router/firewall - but need the software firewall to catch OUTGOING problems.

QFT

also I to noticed GW freezing a few times lately. Not that it happens often, but it never did before. So I suspect that is a problem with the game itself.

Using any software application for firewalls will slow system performance. Products that run in your background, as in Zonealarm, will at times make games unplayable. If you are also using the built-in Windows firewall in combination with Zonealarm, then games could be totally unplayable.

If you desire to improve your system performance, I would recommend using a dedicated network device for your firewall solution and disable the Windows firewall (including Zonealarm). Most residences have multiple computers, so obtaining a network firewall would be a beneficial investment.

you can use your router for that the same way unless you are concerned about local network behind the same router AND there is a switch/hub between you and router.

Dump spysweeper and zonealarm to some higher quality replacments such as spybot and jetico.

most test shootouts put zonealarm at the top.

NOTE I HAVE HAD ZERO PROBLEMS WITH ZONEALARM

have used it since the beta weekends with no problems and my pc is way slower than what you have

I've used ZA Pro for years now, never had a problem at all.

It's just so much easier to configure than my stand-alone Smoothwall box.

Ugh, Zone Alarm is my worst enemy. =P

After a while, Zone Alarm was kinda messin up my computer. One day the icon of Zone Alarm dissapeared and every single program I tried to access to, it kept repeating that I'm unable to gain access to it since Zone Alarm didn't trust it . After a few restarts, it reappeared.=D

You should configure Zonealarm so GW is a trusted program and try and find out witch port GW uses and open it in Zonalarm.

And you should not run Windows Firewall with Zonealarm, they tend to conflict .

I can't wait for Zonealarm to realeas the 64 bit version

Yeah, your problem is the Zone Alarms program. On my old computer I installed that piece of shit and had to completely uninstall EVERYTHING because it dicked it up. That program is evil and should be shot.

edit: Pardon my french; I really, really despise that program!

Got ZA and have no problems playing.

thx guys for responses. Im not sure whut prob is atm, still trying to figure out. I downloaded old 71.89 driver update, cant tell yet if its completely solved the problem, but it works a lil better i think. Does anyone use a driver update newer then 71.89s that work well??? thx

I use the 91.31s from the Nvidia website.

I have had 0 problems with them and my 6800XT(unlocked).

i run zonealarm + windows firewall with no problems..i even make it ask for access

No issues with ZA here... I just make sure that Guild Wars is on the list of trusted applications.

Zone Alarm is probably the least compatible software firewall there is. Its ability to cause mystery errors is legendary, rivalled only by Norton.

However, I think the OP is right, and that there is a problem with the nvidia drivers & gw - if you check you'll find half a dozen posts with people getting freezes (me included), and not all of them run zone alarm (e.g. I don't).

EDIT: and fwiw, software firewalls and routers have different uses. A router will protect your computer from being hacked, but it does not protect you from having trojans on your machine dialling out - a software firewall will detect the trojan dialling out, but isn't all that good at stopping intrusion attempts.

Hence: use both.