Hi everyone,

I have a question regarding firewalls. We are developing a legitimate program at the company i am working for. We are sending out cds and the users install it on their computers. Then, they have to register it online and update their account information and/or download new updates once a month.

The problem is, if they have a firewall software or an anti-virus software (mostly norton or mcafee) the data that our server sends is being blocked. so they can neither register nor download the updates, which creates a big hassle for both us and them, since they call us and we have to tell them to disable those software temporarily. but most of them don't even know what a firewall is.

Anyway, is there any way to fix this problem? something that we can do during the installation process for instance? Or simply, if there is a firewall, there is no way our server can send the data to their computers? Thank you very much in advance.

I have a personal and professional stake in computer security. A company I recently worked for as a tier 2 technician frequently had clients from an unnamed ISP (verizon...oops!) who had been instructing client to either deactivate firewall software (or in some cases with Windows XP to remove Service Pack 2 entirely). As a result I spent an average 2 hours per client removing various hijackers, keyloggers, worms, trojans and bots from their computers.

Eventually I grew tired of this and began recording the names of companies who did this, calling THEIR technicians and advising them that the client would call THEM (the technician personally) for assistance MANUALLY configuring the firewall to work with whatever software was having the problem.

DON'T BE ONE OF THESE PEOPLE. I do not slam the company in front of the client. But I give them very specific instructions on what to request from the third party...and the instruction to let me know if they need my help further. (Trust me, I can be a pain! ).

Therefore, manually configure their firewalls, or have your installation program do so. Your software is acting "suspicious" from the POV of the firewall and AV software. Microsoft Anti-spyware (beta) should be giving your users problems, since it sees unidentifiable, "unauthorized" access being attempted.

Good Luck.



****************************************
Excellence Breeds! Go Hard or Go Home.

Let Penguins rule the earth.
Break some windows today.

: I have a question regarding firewalls. We are developing a legitimate program at the company i am working for. We are sending out cds and the users install it on their computers. Then, they have to register it online and update their account information and/or download new updates once a month.
:
: The problem is, if they have a firewall software or an anti-virus software (mostly norton or mcafee) the data that our server sends is being blocked. so they can neither register nor download the updates, which creates a big hassle for both us and them, since they call us and we have to tell them to disable those software temporarily. but most of them don't even know what a firewall is.
:
: Anyway, is there any way to fix this problem? something that we can do during the installation process for instance? Or simply, if there is a firewall, there is no way our server can send the data to their computers? Thank you very much in advance.
:

As I understood you use your own non-standard home made protocols to register software installations and send updates. You should put an end to this. E.g. you can use HTTP to register the software and FTP to download updates. To make sure, give your users ability to do these things using conventional software instead of your own: register by filling some HTML registration form on your site with conventional web browser, download updates via FTP etc.

This is a good idea. Keep it simple.

****************************************
Excellence Breeds! Go Hard or Go Home.

Let Penguins rule the earth.
Break some windows today.