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Sonic.net Accelerator & Firewalls

Do you have Personal Firewall software installed?

If you find the instructions below to be incorrect for your version please let us know and we will update the information.

• Zone Alarm by Zone Labs
• Norton Personal Firewall 2003
• Norton Internet Security
• McAfee Personal Firewall

Zone Alarm

Note: There is a known incompatibility problem between the Sonic.net Accelerator and Zone Alarm 6. There is no known workaround available to make these two products work properly with each other at this time.

1. In your Windows desktop, click on Start>Programs> Zone Labs.
2. Select "Zone Alarm Pro". The ZA icon appears in your system tray near the clock.
3. Right-click on the ZA icon and choose "restore". This will bring up the Zone Alarm Control Panel.
4. On the right hand side, click on "Programs". You will now see a list of program names. You want to scroll down the list until you see "PropelAC.exe" in the list.
5. To allow access to the Sonic.net Accelerator program, click on each question mark in the row next to PropelAC.exe and choose "allow" from the menu. Once you have changed them all to "allow", you should have green check marks in place of the question marks.
6. Close the ZA control Panel.
7. Start Sonic.net Accelerator if it is not running. Go to Start> Programs> Sonic.net Accelerator and choose "Start Sonic.net Accelerator". You will now see the Sonic.net Accelerator Icon appear near your system clock.

Norton Personal Firewall 2003

When you first install and run Sonic.net Accelerator, you will receive several security warnings. One warning in particular will have the title, "Program Control" along with "Medium risk - PropelAC.exe is attempting to access the Internet. What would you like to do?" Below this, it will give you the default setting of "Block" in a pull down menu. To allow access to Sonic.net Accelerator, you must change this to "Permit" and then click "OK". This message will come up a few more times and you need to perform the exact same steps on each one.

If for some reason, you have blocked "Access to Sonic.net Accelerator" and are not able to surf the Internet after installing Sonic.net Accelerator, you will need to manually configure access to Sonic.net Accelerator. To do this, perform the following steps:

1. Right click on the Norton Personal Firewall Icon in your system tray near the clock.
2. From the menu, click on "Norton Personal Firewall". This will open the Norton Security Center.
3. Click on "Personal Firewall".
4. On the right hand side of the window, click on "Configure".
5. Click on the "Program Control" tab.
6. Scroll down the list of programs and select "PropelAC.exe".
7. Click on "Block All" in the pull down menu and change it to "Permit All"
8. Click on "OK".
9. Start Sonic.net Accelerator if it is not running. Go to Start> Programs> Sonic.net Accelerator and choose "Start Sonic.net Accelerator". You will now see the Sonic.net Accelerator Icon appear near your system clock.

Norton Internet Security 2003

When you first install and run Sonic.net Accelerator and you have Norton Internet Security 2003 installed, you will receive several security warnings. One warning in particular will have the title, "Program Control" along with "Medium risk - PropelAC.exe is attempting to access the Internet. What would you like to do?" Below this, it will give you the default setting of "Block" in a pull down menu. To allow access to Sonic.net Accelerator, you must change this to "Permit" and then click on the "OK" button. This message will come up a few more times and you need to perform the exact same steps on each one.

If for some reason, you have blocked "Access to Sonic.net Accelerator" and are not able to surf the Internet after installing Sonic.net Accelerator, you will need to manually configure access to Sonic.net Accelerator. To do this, perform the following steps:

1. Right click on the Norton Internet Security icon in your system tray near the clock.
2. From the menu, click on "Norton Internet Security". This will show you the Norton Security Center.
3. Click on "Personal Firewall".
4. On the right hand side of the window, click on "Configure".
5. Click on the "Program Control" tab.
6. Scroll down the list of programs and select "PropelAC.exe".
7. Click on "Block All" in the pull down menu and change it to "Permit All".
8. Click on "OK".
9. Start Sonic.net Accelerator if it is not running. Go to Start> Programs> Sonic.net Accelerator and choose "Start Sonic.net Accelerator". You will now see the Propel Icon appear near your system clock.

McAfee Personal Firewall Plus

When you first download and install Sonic.net Accelerator, you will get a security warning from McAfee Personal Firewall in a red window entitled, "Application wants to Access the Internet". "The program PropelAC.exe is requesting to access the Internet. Do you want to allow it?" In the section below, the option, "I want to ..." gives the choices of:

• "Grant Access"
• "Block All Access". 

Select "Grant Access". If you choose "Block All Access" you will not see the Sonic.net Accelerator icon appear and your cursor will display an hourglass flashing on and off. You will still be able to connect to the Internet and access menus; however, you will be unable to browse any web sites. You will need to manually configure access to Sonic.net Accelerator. To do this, perform the following steps:

1. Right click on the McAfee Security Center icon and choose "Personal Firewall" from the menu.
2. Choose "View Applications" from the sub-menu.
3. In the list of applications, select "PropelAC.exe".
4. Under "Change Permission to..." Click on "Allow Full Access".
5. Close the McAfee Security Center window.
6. Important! Restart Sonic.net Accelerator. Go to Start> Programs> Sonic.net Accelerator and choose "Start Sonic.net Accelerator". 
7. Now try browsing to a few different web sites and you should be successful. Once you are able to browse the Internet using MS Internet Explorer, go to the Start> Programs> Sonic.net Accelerator and choose "Start Sonic.net Accelerator". You will now see the Sonic.net Accelerator icon near your system clock. Try browsing to different web sites and you should see the arrows moving back and forth on the Sonic.net Acceleration icon indicating acceleration.