StarWind 2.6.1 and 2.4.3 locking-up my Win2003 server system

Tim · Sun Jul 31, 2005 9:09 pm

Well I just don't believe it. Taking off ZoneAlarm seems to have fixed the problem.

I still don't fully understand what's going on because I have ZoneAlarm on all my systems and this is the only one that gave trouble.

The other 2 systems are Win XP Pro SP1 so maybe there is something there, I dunno.

Sorry for wasting your time.

P.S Is the 2.6.3 (20050730) version final or beta?

Val (staff) · Sun Jul 31, 2005 9:18 pm

Tim wrote:Well I just don't believe it. Taking off ZoneAlarm seems to have fixed the problem.

I still don't fully understand what's going on because I have ZoneAlarm on all my systems and this is the only one that gave trouble.

The other 2 systems are Win XP Pro SP1 so maybe there is something there, I dunno.

Sorry for wasting your time. :oops:

Tim,

My congratulations! :)

AFAIK ZoneAlarm is known for its "issues".
Now I'm sure the system freezes were produced by ZoneAlarm that did something wrong.

We always try to help our customers to solve their problems and issues with our software. So it's OK. :)

Tim · Sun Jul 31, 2005 9:40 pm

Is the 2.6.3 (20050730) version final or beta?

Val (staff) · Sun Jul 31, 2005 10:02 pm

Tim wrote:Is the 2.6.3 (20050730) version final or beta?

It's a Release Candidate version.

StarWind 2.6.3 will be released this week.

Sun Jul 31, 2005 10:36 pm

ZoneAlarm is so-called "NDIS hooking" driver. Instead of inserting itself into NDIS network stack it patches NDIS core driver entries ("Canst thou not come in by usual way as decent people do" (c) ... ) So when it works - it works. When it does not - nobady can do anything

Valery is 100% correct - it's not the first and not the third time or not whatever

the time we're told about ZA problems. Damn them all!

Tim · Mon Aug 01, 2005 6:32 pm

Ok, so ZoneAlram is bad.

I don't want to use to built in firewall because it has a bad effect on Gigabit thoughput.

As you seem in the know about these things, what replacement firewall would you recommend?

I am currently looking at Kerio 4 Free edition.

Mon Aug 01, 2005 6:35 pm

Sorry, we don't run any except hardware ones

Maybe Valery would recommend anything?

Val (staff) · Mon Aug 01, 2005 9:51 pm

Tim, I'd just try the theory and check whether the performance degradation is too much comparing the cases where the Windows firewall is ON and OFF.
There is a chance that your hardware will work without problems with the firewall swtched ON, as the article says about some specific configurations that experience problems...

I doubt any third-party firewall (especially a free one) will work much better than the MS firewall...

From the other hand it's a good idea to protect your 1GbE storage network with external hardware firewall or a gateway machine and don't use any firewalls on the storage server machine...

Tim · Mon Aug 01, 2005 10:13 pm

Thanks, i'll do some testing to see if there is any performance hit with the built-in firewall.

My connection to the internet is though a NAT/SPI router.
This then uplinks to the Gigabit switch.
All the machines are connected to the switch.

Tue Aug 02, 2005 12:26 am

Using cross-overs would cut off the latency. So if possible - avoid using switches (even high-performance ones), just create manual point-to-point GbE connections. There's nothing faster then just a piece of fiber or copper

Tim wrote:Thanks, i'll do some testing to see if there is any performance hit with the built-in firewall.

My connection to the internet is though a NAT/SPI router.
This then uplinks to the Gigabit switch.
All the machines are connected to the switch.