Firewalls control and secure communications between your computer and the Internet (both to and from). There are two types of firewalls - hardware and software. These devices are put in place to prevent computers on the Internet from maliciously accessing your computer. Firewalls also have the capability to prevent programs on a computer from communicating outbound via the Internet. A firewall could prevent eBlaster from communicating its information via the Internet, so configuration changes may be necessary if a firewall is installed on the computer where you have installed eBlaster.
Software firewalls are installed directly on a computer to protect all Internet communications to and from the computer.
There are many manufacturers of software firewalls. In general, these programs control all software programs running on the computer from accessing the Internet. They do this by setting up a list of specific programs they consider to be trusted. Trusted programs are allowed to access the Internet. All other programs, i.e. not trusted, will be blocked from Internet access.
In order to have eBlaster working on a computer with a software firewall, eBlaster must appear to be trusted by the firewall. When eBlaster is running in the background and transmits Activity Reports, it appears to be MS Explorer, whose program name is explorer.exe. In general, MS Explorer is a trusted application because it is an integral part of Microsoft Windows, but you may need to specifically tell the firewall to allow MS Explorer (explorer.exe) to access the Internet. This insures that eBlaster can access the Internet. For specific instructions on configuring the most popular software firewalls with eBlaster, refer to the eBlaster online Knowledge Base.
Windows XP comes with a built-in firewall. It is somewhat limited in that it only blocks Internet communications that are trying to come into the computer. It does NOT block any outgoing communications.
Because there is no effect on outbound communications, eBlaster will not have any problems and no configuration changes will need to be made.
Since companies do not control the Internet itself, hardware firewalls are commonly used on a company network to guard all computers on the network from sending or receiving information via the Internet. See Hardware Firewalls for more information.
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Note If you are installing eBlaster on a networked computer that is protected by a firewall, it is likely the SpectorSoft Server communications configuration will not operate properly. |