Welcome to the forums! And remember, with a dial-up connection, things will go rather slow, too! But if you follow the advice of those above, many of your visitors will be able to do what you want.
Very strange! I did a bunch of research today and ended up at the place I should have started at...ZA's web site. They have a user forum there (not as good as TCH's I might add! ) and have a very LARGE number of entries on problems with ver 6+. If possible, you might want to revert to version 5 and then head over to review their web site.
I ended up re-installing version 5 and have not had any more issues. Chalk up another one for "Lesson Learned the Hard Way"...review the software's website before installing updates.
Just curious...is anyone accessing a VPN and have Zone Alarm on their system? If so, are you having any problems accessing your VPN with Zone Alarm's latest update (version 6.0.631.003)?
You might also want to search on the phpBB site. I believe they have a User Guide, FAQ, tutorials, and a Knowledge Base. (It really is a piece of cake!)
Just out of curiousity (because I haven't looked in a laptop for a long time), is there a fuse somewhere in either the laptop itself or the power supply? (Hate to toss out a machince for a simple fix!) But I'd tend to agree with your deductions on getting zapped.