ID:46888
 
Keywords: firewall, tutorial
Many of you guys are still young, I can respect that, and as such, many of you have over-protective parents who think the entire internet is just one big virus heaven, well that maybe so, but there's no need to go overboard.

Zone Alarm is a very wide-spread and commonly used computer Firewall. It is designed to stop malicous users from gaining access to your computer. Unfortunately, it also restricts your computer programs (such as MSN Messenger and BYOND) from accessing the internet.

If your computer has only just recently had Zone Alarm installed, chances are, it'll be easy for you to configure it to allow BYOND. If however, your computer has had Zone Alarm installed for a while, then you might need to go further down the line.

Zone Alarm was just recently Installed:

If Zone Alarm was just recently installed, chances are when you run BYOND, you'll get little alert prompts asking you for permission to run these programs. If that is the case then this will be as easy as one, two and three.

Double click your byond.exe (blue atom symbol) and Zone Alarm will hopefully provide you with this little alert. Screenshot

When you attempt to join a game from your pager, with any luck, you'll also receive this little alert. Screenshot

The same will happen with DreamDaemon.

As the screen shots show, check the "Remember this setting" checkbox, and click Allow.

That's it. If you've done that, Zone Alarm shouldn't hinder your attempt to use BYOND.

Zone Alarm has been installed for a while:

If Zone Alarm has been installed for a while, chances are, whoever installed it got sick of programs asking for permission. So they would have disabled that. Well, we'll see about that!

First things first, to make Zone Alarm ask for permission, open up it's control panel by doubly clicking it's icon in the system tray. Screenshot

The Zone Alarm control panel is a little daunting at first. It took me a few minutes to get the hang of it.

First thing we want to do is go to Program Control on the left menu. Screenshot

From there, we want to do two things. The first of which is to make Zone Alarm ask us for permission. To do that, we click on the Advanced button. Screenshot

A little alert window will popup with a few options on it. Check the "Ask for permission" check boxes and click Apply, then Ok. Screenshot

Now we're back at our Program Control Menu. If you checked the earlier screen shot, you'd have noticed there was also a red rectangle around the "Programs" tab. We're going there now.

Click the Programs tab and you'll be faced with something not to dissimilar to this screenshot. Screenshot

The Question Marks mean Zone Alarm will now ask for permission. The Green Ticks mean Zone Alarm will allow the program to run as normal, and The Red Crosses mean the program has been blocked.

Find your BYOND programs and left click on one of the X's. You'll be prompted with three choices. Naturally, we want to click Allow. Screenshot

When you're finished, BYOND's three internet using programs "BYOND.exe", "DreamSeeker.exe" and "DreamDaemon.exe" should all have little green ticks next to them. Screenshot

Now it's a matter of just minimising Zone Alarm, exiting all BYOND applications and restarting your pager. Happy Playing!

(Note, as with the Windows Firewall tutorial, there is no guarantee that this is the only issue that's keeping your BYOND apps from working. This is in no way the perfect fix.)
Good job, Tib. I'll update the firewall page.
Nice. But you guys spend so much time typing and taking Screenshots, you really want to make BYOND better. i might also look into this.
H1ppy: Truth is, I feel we don't do it enough. I think I'm going to write up a BYOND Help post design document to help others write better guides, not that we don't already write good ones, I feel the formatting varies too much from person to person.
Don't be shy, we all know you don't like my "Screenshot" links. =D

I'm still going to write up detailed methods of making BYOND work through any firewall I'm asked to do so.

Though I hate to say, Norton Security Centre is next on my list. Navigating, installed, configuring and uninstalling is going to be such a headache =(
Tiberath wrote:
Though I hate to say, Norton Security Centre is next on my list. Navigating, installed, configuring and uninstalling is going to be such a headache =(

Poor Tibbey, having to deal with the horror that is known as Norton... you think it's related to Cthulhu? :(
Tib: Don't do it! I can't willingly let someone install Norton!

Actually, I recommend setting up a virtual machine. VirtualBox is a good software to do the job. The great thing about VirtualBox is that you can always backup your harddrive image, so you don't have to uninstall Norton, just replace the harddrive file with the one before installing Norton.

Heck, you could have a version of Windows with every firewall that offers a 30 day trial, which all can be ran at a moment's notice.
I've done the virtual machine thing before, it didn't suite me.

I do however have a laptop that doesn't get every day use and can be formatted at a moments notice. It's ideal for this kind of thing. =)

Besides, Norton is a common security device on a lot of computers and it's known to cause issues for BYOND. If I manage to help even one person conquer it before I die, I'll die a happy man. =D
I have norton and BYOND is perfectly fine. Tho it did have a pop up when I first open'd BYOND.exe and it said "Norton Needs You're Permission To Continure" or something. And I click, Always Allow BYOND.exe and clicked allow. Problem solved... I think. Not sure but it never denied my access to BYOND.
Zone Alarm does the same thing, but people still have troubles with it. Parents stop it from asking and whatnot. It's all a pain in the behind if you ask me.

I don't use any of the firewalls I have or will be explaining. Most of the time, I've never seen them before I write the article.
IT DOESNT WORK
Thebest1234 wrote:
IT DOESNT WORK

(Note, as with the Windows Firewall tutorial, there is no guarantee that this is the only issue that's keeping your BYOND apps from working. This is in no way the perfect fix.)
i have comodo internet security
One thing you'll find in common with all these configure firewall tutorials: they are all mostly the same.

The only things that really change is the phrasing and the images. You can follow the basic instructions and still come to the same conclusion.
contact feature wasnt working so i figured an admin might read this Dademonboy went on DBZ Eternal Abyss and was posing as a byond admin take care of it please =]