2 ideas, one put that firewall back up and open specific ports detailed in the reame file. And two, make sure you're using DirectX 9.0b

Yes, never drop the firewall unless you like being a target. There is also the possibility you have one of the newer modems that have some gateway features, like a built in firewall. Sometimes in firewalls, both hardware and software, there is the ability to not to respond to pings. Since I have a server I enable response to pings on my firewall specifically so you can see ping times on the global server list. It's an option because certain hacker attacks use mass pings to one IP address, overwhelming any legitimate traffic your gateway would struggle to handle.

It is OK if your ping time on the global server list is ???? At least the server is on the list! But then you say they cannot connect? I would hazard a guess that you have most of the DirectX stuff running (most!) and possibly your INCOMING port is blocked. If you are not stipulating a specific port, flserver needs ports 2302-2304 open for INCOMING traffic. It is possible that it is being blocked by other server software, the modem if it has firewall capabilities or the ISP (unlikely). Try using other ports with the /P command to determine if the last option is the culprit. Otherwise if you are not using a learning or uPnP firewall (WinXP's firewall is) then it maybe be some firewall somewhere.

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Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server
See server rules and server news for more info.