"Error joining session" in network game of scrabble.

[Michael Chappell]

Hi all,

I have a small home network of three Windows XP Home edition PCs which are
connected via a Linksys wireless router to the internet via broadband. To
make it easier I have named the computers thus:

'Neo' is a desktop attached to the router by a cable.
'Trinity' is a wireless laptop connected via wireless to the router.
'Morpheus' is a brand new desktop that I have just connected to the network
via a cable.

In all other respects, the machines can see each other and the internet and
I have no problems with any other program except Infogames Scrabble v2.

When I have loaded scrabble on Trinity and am hosting the game, the other
player on 'Neo' can see the session and can connect to the session and
there is no problem with playing the game. The same happens when hosting on
'Neo' and joining on 'Trinity'.

The problem is with the new machine, Morpheus. On Morpheus, I can load the
game and can see the sessions on the other machines but when I try and join
them I get the 'error joining session' message and cannot join. If I try
and host on Morpheus then the sessions can be seen on the other machines
but they get the same error when trying to join the session.

Morpheus is a new machine that replaced an old machine where I had Scrabble
loaded and there were no problems.

Any insight will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Michael

 

[Paul Smith]

Hello, my first guess would be a firewall blocking the connection.

As it's a new machine it could well of come bundled with something like
Norton firewall, Zone Alarm is another popular one have a look to see if
anything like that is installed and it would probably be best to turn it off
to test as you're behind a router this should be safe.

Another option could be the XP SP2 firewall - this should prompt you to
allow connections, unless it was set to "don't allow exceptions". In which
case you'll need to go to Control Panel -> Windows Firewall, and uncheck the
exceptions box. If that's still no help try turning it off completely to
test it.

Post back and let us know if that's helping.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove 'nospam.' to reply by e-mail*

 

[Michael Chappell]

Hello, my first guess would be a firewall blocking the connection.

As it's a new machine it could well of come bundled with something like
Norton firewall, Zone Alarm is another popular one have a look to see if
anything like that is installed and it would probably be best to turn it
off to test as you're behind a router this should be safe.

I thought that this was the case but I have turned off the firewall, which
is Norton, completely and the problem still occurs.

Another option could be the XP SP2 firewall - this should prompt you to
allow connections, unless it was set to "don't allow exceptions". In
which case you'll need to go to Control Panel -> Windows Firewall, and
uncheck the exceptions box. If that's still no help try turning it off
completely to test it.

SP2's firewall has been disabled on that particular machine due to the fact
that I'm using the Norton firewall.