Zone Alarm, and some similar to it (!) will do freaky things, even if you've allowed Freelancer access. Just turn the firewall off. Who do you think is interested in your save games?

Edited by - netik on 8/23/2004 5:49:33 AM

thnx but i think my dad will kill me if i turn it off ?!!


For every action there is an opposite and equal rection

There are three things you can do.
1) Convince your family that Freelancer is of vital importance to national security.

2) Get a new firewall.

3) Turn it off anyway.

It's your choice.

It appears you have ZoneAlarm, yes? If so then ZA is one of the few firewalls that block OUTGOING ports as well as INCOMING. What the FL client does is when you start it and do MP it uses over a half a dozen OUTGOING ports. (For those doing comparisons, FL server uses as many OUTGOING ports but also uses one INCOMING port) Not a problem except every time you start FL it uses some different ports! ZA can learn and remember which OUTGOING ports were used but changing the ports mean a reconfiguration in ZA of FL use of those ports. It can be quite tedious answering the popup while waiting for the FL global server list to fill.

Some answers to this:
- Follow netik's suggestion and get a new firewall. Hardware firewalls are best as their OS is proprietory and this is the only GOOD reason to have a proprietory OS, for security reasons.
- Use WinXP's firewall. Weak no doubt but better than nothing. It's a INCOMING firewall only (most are). One feature it has that more and more firewalls are incorporating is called uPnP which is basically an automatic setup for INCOMING ports when a program requests it. So it doesn't require the manual setting up of a virtual server (I visualize and call it a tunnel) in the firewall itself.

_____________
Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server
Server community website & forum: EarendilsPlace.net (server rules)

this same exact thing happened to me last night. after browsing the zone alarm forums i found out that if you download version 4.5 you can connect. thats what i had to do :\

Interesting! I had ZoneAlarm Pro w/h Web Filtering v4.5.594, and that still causes a lot of problems. I like ZA's ability to block outgoing ports, but it can be a pest too.

I have the same problem too, but nothing seems to fix it! I've tried disabling ZoneAlarm, which did nothing, and i tested DirectPlay and it said it worked fine. I'm using a wireless router, so would that cause any problems? Oh, and i've never installed any mods or changed anything in the game.

Starman Omega, are you just using FL as a client through your wireless gateway and trying to access the FL global server list too? Just trying to identify your "I have the same problem too..." statement.

In the past just disabling ZA didn't turn off the firewall which was their vsmon.exe file. I would often still find it running in Task Manager. Either ensure ZA doesn't start upon a reboot and then reboot OR end the vsmon.exe process in the Task Manager. I would go the first way as it is "cleaner" even if it takes more time.

_____________
Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server
Server community website & forum: EarendilsPlace.net (server rules)