Help needed with Zone Alarm upgrade

[JohnE]

A couple of weeks ago I upgraded my copy of Zone Alarm to the latest version (3.1.395). Since the upgrade my PC is now regularly accessing the internet (i.e. dialling up) without my permission. This starts to happen as soon as I boot my PC and if I try to cancel a dial up, the thing just waits for about 20 seconds, then tries again. This can go on for hours until eventually I'm forced into submission and I have to let it continue.

I have tried scanning for viruses (there aren't any) and I've carried out numerous other tests. I'm 100% confident that the Zone Alarm "upgrade" is responsible for the problem. I emailed Zone Labs (twice) but got no reply. Does anyone else know anything about this problem? Also, is it safe to ditch the upgrade and go back to the previous version? Many thanks.