Installation problems

[MyTurn2Raise]

Alright all...I'm a bit weak on my computer skills
Here's my situation:

It appears as though my computer is having big trouble installing software that needs to communicate with/ download a few files from outside sources (forgive me if my non-computer terminology blows).

At first, I thought it was a problem with Absolute Poker
see this post (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=4157129&an=0&page=0#Post 4157129)


But today, I had to download a few things and 2 did not work. Adobe photoshop installation froze/spun its tires when it tried to communicate to the outside world. So did my AIM installation. Installations that just use the files on the computer or CD are going just fine.

I ran spysweeper twice and scanned with norton anti-virus...found nothing.

Regular downloads of files and browsing the internet work fine...this problem only occurs during installs.

Any ideas what is up?

[smoore]

at first glance, I'd say a firewall is in the way.

[MyTurn2Raise]

bingo... It didn't work before when I tried it, but after unistall/clean/install. Absolute worked when Norton was disabled. I went through and specifically altered the rules for Absolute (main client), but it still refuses to work when Norton is on. Any ideas?

[MyTurn2Raise]

alright...absolute works when I drop the personal firewall on Norton to the lowest setting

Is this putting me too much at risk?

My connection is a cable modem to wireless router
wi/fi connection to the router

Opinions?

Like I said, I don't know jack but can follow directions well.

[SamJack]

since you have a router, your router is serving as the firewall anyway... Opinions may very, but, I don't see a reason why you would need to run a software based firewall on your system at all.

SamJack

[MyTurn2Raise]

Thanks for the help...I only had a firewall on at all because I connect wirelessly to the router and I thought there was some risk involved there. I could very well be wrong.

[jba]

in what ways did you alter the rules for absolute?

i think it tries to connect on a few specific ports and those are probably being blocked -- I got this port info from the absolute website

(there is some risk in having your comp open to wifi with no firewall)

[MyTurn2Raise]

I moved the personal firewall setting on Norton Internet Security down to low from medium and all works well now.