lowering firewall

[ahopeter]

i heard it is possible to lower firewall protection and allow in certain programs to get in... is this true? and how can i go about doing this? thanks
win xp w/ zone alarms firewall.

[scuzzy]

If you go into ZoneAlarm's settings, you'll see that you have various levels of protection that you can set. Also, you can click the programs tabs to allow specific programs various rights. You can adjust programs which previously requested access, as well as add new ones to the list.

[ahopeter]

i addded the program that i wanted using the method that you told me, everything seemed fine but im still unable to let that program access the net without turning off the firewall.  help?!?

[Whizbang]

Go to Program Control under Programs and set the access permissions for any program you need to Trusted Zone, but only the ones you need.

[ahopeter]

all the fields were changed to allow but it still doesnt work without the firewall disable?  

should i turn the items back to disable for now?

[Whizbang]

Under Program Control, Program Wizard, set the status to "No" under the question, "Do you want ZA to preconfigure access permissions?  That will generate a popup on every program that tries to access Internet and give you the opportunity to set/deny permission for each one as access is attempted.

[ahopeter]

i did exactly what you said to do, but when i go back to ZA it is automatically reset to the "yes" option.... this is very frustrating.