Commonexe

[Boto]

I know very little about the innards of computers, so can anyone help? I have recently changed to AVG, and Zonealarm and have been getting popups stating that so and so is trying to connect to the Internet. When a popup appeared for (y)commonexe I clicked on 'remember this setting' but also 'deny'. Will this cause problems and if so can I cahange the setting?

[4candles]

Hi Boto, I don't know what (y)commonexe is, so not sure if it's A Good Thing or A Bad Thing.

However, you've done the right thing by erring on the side of caution. If it causes a problem, right click on the ZA icon in the notification area at the bottom right of the screen, and select 'Restore Zone Alarm Control Centre'. Select 'Program Control' on the left of the screen, then the 'Programs' tab top right. You'll see each program has a green tick (allow), a red cross (deny) or a blue question mark (ask). A left click on the symbol will give you the option to change it.

[ACtheTROLL]

4 is on the money .....
however you need a bit of "fettling"

let's ignore AVG (best thing for it - many of the real security experts do also).

Zone alarm may be out of fashon at the moment ... but it's a good solid firewall well suited to novice users ....
HOWEVER

there is a rule or two that might help you
this all applies from a new install...
the "remember" option is just what it says ....
so if you've just started internet explorer for the first time ... it will say it's trying to access blah blah blah and the network .... do you want to let it?
if the blah is obviously a file for explorer (ie iexplorer.exe) ...
or whatever prog you've just installed or started up - answer yes with the remember ticked.

if the window comes up spontaneously ... for no apparent reason .... answer "deny" (but don't remember)
then you can either see what happens ... if anything complains ...... or stops working
or take the time to google the file and see what it is (carefully ... lots of legit progs are listed on some sites as bad)

virus scanners, spyware scanners , windows, google etc etc all "phone home" from time to time. And you certainly want at least some to do so.

in this case for instance
Description
ycommon.exe is a process belonging to the Yahoo Browser. This program is a non-essential process, but should not be terminated unless suspected to be causing problems.

[Boto]

Thanks so much both of you.