Specifically norton antivirus software, though I imagine others would cause me similar problems. I'm using straight socket-based systems, with my own wrapper classes and all of that, and I've intertangled it with quite a bit of code, so if i don't have to, i'd prefer not to have to change to a different pre-made networking library. But norton's firewall is giving me problems. Or at least I think it is norton, as it works on every computer I've tried it on, except for the two that are running nortons antivirus. If they try to accept connections, it pops a message up on the screen saying that a port so-and-so is causing problems, and has caused my software to hang. It also seems to be causing problems with messages leaving, but isn't prompting anything to this effect. Works wonders on anything that doesn't have norton : /... any advice? anyone have issues with antivirus also? anyone know how to punch norton in the face on my way through the port? Is it not antivirus software at all.. and simply showing this problem due to something else that is different about these two machines?

Have you tried disabling Norton on the machines causing the issue? If it works with Norton off, then yeah, you've got a norton issue. If not, then you got a Machine issue.

Is it Norton Internet Security, or plain Norton AV?

lol I've had so many problems with norton antivirus in the based I just totally said screw it. the antivirus was way more of a pain in the ass then it was to just not run one and format when I did get one.

It appears to be the whole package norton. I didn't install it, so I'm not sure [it is on a friends computer, i'm trying my network software on anything i can get my hands on, so i can test for loads and whatnot]. I just got it to work, sort of, had to manually unblock a port, and still it causes problems : /. Probobly not a way to configure your software such that norton will just ignore you completely [that would be a security risk on their part]. But still, don't want every user who wants to host something to have to tell norton to let things pass through that port.

PS. the people who use these machines, are paranoid [as are likely all of nortons customers], and won't let me anywhere near nortons' off-switch.

Hello,

I also have a problem with Norton's firewall. I was going to make a post seeking help at some point, but maybe it can be answered here as well. I am using Winsock 2.2 with TCP running in a single-thread game.

The problem I have is that Norton blocks the execution of the thread. If I am in window-mode I can Alt-Tab and get the focus to the pop-up box. Once I allow the port I can connect as normal. However, if I am in full-screen, the game is locked since the thread is blocked by Norton without a way to switch to it. The Windows firewall is smarter and does not block the thread.

Are you able to connect once you allow the port? If not, what value are you using? My router has problems with certain port values so I use high numbers to prevent any conflicts.

If anyone knows a way around the lockup (without going to multi-thread), please let me know :)

EDIT : I should also mention I use non-blocking sockets. I dont have a problem with the lock-up while connecting to a server. My problem is starting the server, which I think gets blocked during the bind.

Thanks.
-Mike

I believe the problem is that Norton hooks WinSock in some way, and when connect() or listen() (perhaps accept()) is called, it checks to see if the port it's connecting to is allowed. If it's not, then it pops up a message box to ask the user what to do.
Usually it isn't so much of a problem, since a lot of people use blocking sockets (multithreaded), and the main thread just thinks that the socket is taking a long time.

If that is the case (Add some logging around connect(), listen() and/or accept()) to check, then the only way around it is to tell users to unblock that port, or to go multithreaded.

That IS the problem, it's that little norton pop-up window to allow port-so-and-so, which causes full screen programs to hang durring blocking calls.

Outgoing is no problem, and by extention, reading from a socket that has already connected to something is no problem [connect() is fine]

listen() or accept() hang , and since accept doesn't report any error messages unless it actually fails [which it doesn't fail, it just keeps waiting, norton blocks stuff coming in through on the port that it listens to], it just sits there. with the popup explaining the port-block sitting in the background.