Let's be clear here.
Gaming is, probably, the hardest thing to do over the internet.
Anything that affects the unfettered, free, and frequent flow of data from user A to user B in a timely manner affects the gaming experience!!!.
Some things (internet outages, traffic, ie,
LAG) are outside of our control. Other things (like a firewall checking each packet to decide if it's an attack, and eventually blocking them), are within the user's control.
Experience has proven that the affects of a properly-tuned firewall's check isn't enough to interefere with the data-stream enough to affect the game. People
have played 100% stable games while protected by a software firewall. I know, I used to have
no problems when I had a copy of Zone Alarm that I could tell to open the SFC ports for, just like I have
no problems playing through a properly-opened router. And I've played missions with people who's firewalls were still allowing the data to flow freely.
Experience in my ISP job also tought me that the
simplest way to reset a non-configuable software firewall is to uninstall it, reboot, and reinstall it.
When I get a chance, hopefully tonight or tomorrow night (5/3 and 5/4), I can get a chance to put this to test. I'd like a software firewall-using volunteer to reinstall their firewall and join me on the Forge, for draft stability testing. Let's see
exactly how much of our stability vs. firewall issue is the firewall itself, and how much is "improper maintenance"...
