Fire wall Question

[General Bolt]

I just got DSL and tried my 1st TCP/IP game over the weekend. Mt opponent couldn't hookup. I turned off my firewall and he still couldn't hook up. He hosted and I hooked up. BAM! we were able to play.

In the middle of the game, I get this popup saying "Firewall is off. It could mean big time problems".

After the game, I turned the firewall back on and ran all the requisite checkers: anti-Virus, ad-aware, spy-bot. All was clean.

Now here's my questions:

When is a fire wall really necessary?

Was I just lucky during the game?

[Schrullenhaft]

I assume that there may be two firewalls here. There is the one built into Windows XP (which is the one that gave you the 'warning' message) and then there is one that is probably built into your DSL modem/router. It's possibly configured to allow you to initiate port openings (i.e. - you hooking up to your friend hosting), but it may be blocking any non-standard ports from outside.

You may want to check your DSL documentation on configuring your modem/router's firewall (assuming it does have one). Within this you'll want to open up TCP Port 7023 for CM (bidirectionally; inbound and outbound).

For Windows XP go to the Control Panel > Windows Firewall control panel > Exceptions tab > click on the "Add Port" button and give it a 'name' of CM (or whatever) and a 'port number' of 7023 and make sure that the 'TCP' radio button is selected. With this added it should allow any traffic through for CM.