Software problem

[Guest]

A friend of mine has bought himself a new computer (HP Media centre, lots of
RAM memory and hard disk space). He has connected it to the NTL Broadband
service using a stand alone cable modem (NTL 200, I think) which he connected
to the computer using Ethernet.
Now, he can browse the Internet using IE, he can access his email via NTL’s
Webmail, and he can play media content on the Windows Media Player which is
attached to IE, but when he tries to access his email using Outlook Express
(which has been configured using NTL settings), or when he tries to access
media content using the media player in its stand alone form, these
applications give an error message as if he was not connected to the
Internet. Also, when we open the Network Connections panel, the Broadband
connection icon is greyed out (and shows as Disconnected), and the LAN and
Network Card show OK and connected. We did a tracert to smtp.ntlworld.com,
pop.ntlworld.com, and bbc.co.uk, and the results are OK, so we guess that the
connection is fine, but somehow some of the software does not recognise this.
Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Malke]

A friend of mine has bought himself a new computer (HP Media centre,
lots of RAM memory and hard disk space). He has connected it to the
NTL Broadband service using a stand alone cable modem (NTL 200, I
think) which he connected to the computer using Ethernet.
Now, he can browse the Internet using IE, he can access his email via
NTL?s Webmail, and he can play media content on the Windows Media
Player which is attached to IE, but when he tries to access his email
using Outlook Express (which has been configured using NTL settings),
or when he tries to access media content using the media player in its
stand alone form, these applications give an error message as if he
was not connected to the Internet. Also, when we open the Network
Connections panel, the Broadband connection icon is greyed out (and
shows as Disconnected), and the LAN and Network Card show OK and
connected. We did a tracert to smtp.ntlworld.com, pop.ntlworld.com,
and bbc.co.uk, and the results are OK, so we guess that the connection
is fine, but somehow some of the software does not recognise this. Any
ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Does he have a firewall that could possibly be blocking those apps?

Malke

 

[Guest]

Yes, he has Norton Personal Firewall installed. I will try to see if altering
the Firewall settings makes any difference.

 

[Guest]

Well, I managed to gain access (temporarily) to the Firewall settings and
granted access to Windows Media Player and Outlook Express and they both work
now!! Unfortunately the Firewall software keeps denying us access to options
(on and off) so there must be something wrong with it, but we are happy that
those two apps are now working. Thanks a lot for the advice!

 

[Malke]

Well, I managed to gain access (temporarily) to the Firewall settings
and granted access to Windows Media Player and Outlook Express and
they both work now!! Unfortunately the Firewall software keeps denying
us access to options (on and off) so there must be something wrong
with it, but we are happy that those two apps are now working. Thanks
a lot for the advice!

Glad you worked it out. Perhaps you need to look at the Firewall for
user settings. Perhaps it needs you to log in as Supervisor or
something.

Cheers,

Malke