[pchelpers] Re: LSA wants to accept connections from internet

Hi Mandi

>         LSA shell (export version) wants to accept connections from the
>         internet.
> 
>         (the address is below, I did a whois on it.)
> 
>         The ZoneAlarm pop up recommended I deny it. But when I clicked on
> more information (in the ZoneAlarm pop up), I got a page from ZoneAlarm
> saying ...

It's usually best to follow any suggestion your firewall makes about any 
program trying to engage in an inbound or outbound connection. If the 
firewall does not make any suggestion or, *very* rarely, two 
contradictory ones, it's always best to deny permission unless the 
firewall is asking about a legitimate program that you just started and 
with which you need to access the Internet.

In other words, if you just started your browser, email program, etc. 
for the first time after installing the firewall or after updating the 
email program, you can answer the firewall's question by saying "yes" 
and by adding a check mark in "don't ask me again" or "make a rule based 
on this" or the equivalent. On the other hand, if you start *Windows* 
Explorer (not Internet Explorer), for example, and your firewall asks if 
you should allow an inbound or outbound connection, you should answer 
"no". And if your firewall asks you about a program called XYZ, or 
2@&%B.exe, or LSA and you didn't start any program by that name, you 
should definitely not give it any inbound or outbound Internet access, 
and you should scan your computer for trojans and other malware trying 
to "call home".

In addition, some firewalls automatically also give server rights 
(inbound connection rights) to all programs (to which you granted 
outgoing rights) even though very few need this. You should always deny 
server rights to all programs unless you are really sure the program 
needs these. If some program that requires Internet access in either 
direction is not working correctly after you said No, simply go into the 
firewall's settings and give the program access rights, usually by 
rightclicking the entry. Sometimes it's easier to delete the entry to 
get a new question from the firewall and the chance to answer Yes this 
time.

The main reason for the contradiction in the ZoneAlarm recommendations 
for LSA is that ZA is such a big company that it has different people 
writing different parts of help files and that ZA is famous for being a 
fairly chaotic company and product, including lack of people 
coordinating things, which results in major annoyances in help files and 
major chaos when trying to uninstall the program.

LSA apparently only needs Internet access either way if you are using 
ICS Internet connection sharing.



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