You're right - Zonealarm probably wouldn't have stopped it if it was in an email. At least it's doing the right thing questioning a program that's trying to connect to the net. Too right, if you don't know what it is, you don't want to let it do that!

If you aren't using Outlook, Outlook Express or Internet explorer that's a good start, which leaves a slight mystery as to how it got in, but I don't know how good Zonealarm is, nor how your installation is configured.

No fireall is completely bullet proof, and a software firewall on the machine you are using is particularly vulnerable.

I'm on broadband now with a router that does firewalling and NAT. Before that, on dialup, I used IPCop on a spare PC that was too old for anything else. Having an extra box in the way certainly makes it harder for hackers and malware to get in.

Anahata