ICQ messaging program

[wumply]

This morning, for some reason that I do not know the why of yet, I could not get online--until I exited Zone Alarm.

However, while ZA was active, I was able to send an ICQ message to my son, and when he got home from work, he confirmed that he got the message. He was offline when I sent it but he did get it. At the time I sent it, I was not obviously connected to him computer-to-computer. But even if ICQ's servers stored the message and then delivered it to him when he came online, how was it that it got sent when I could not connect to my ISP (get online)? It would have had to go online, right?

[wumply]

When by 10/23/04 no one had answered this question, I poked around on the internet and came up with this. Port 5190 was open. Port 5190 TCP to login.icq.com allows a 2-way connection to the port for icq.com (and for lots of addresses, not just one).

It looks as if Z-A had somehow blocked other ports which appears to have been why I could not get online with other sites. When I shut Z-A down I could get online to any site without problem. I gathered too that Z-A "created a rule" - a concept I do not currently understand - but which could have been made inoperative.