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If you are running Vista (any flavor, Home, Business, Ultimate) and have an popular antivirus program installed, you are likely to have problems connecting to Allegiance. This is NOT the direct fault of the antivirus, but the firewall that comes as a part of the antivirus suite. Some of the AV suites allow you to install only portions of their software while others force you to install their firewall (by not giving you any options during the install process).

This thread should help us keep current the status of each popular AV client on Vista and how well it will function with Allegiance and tips on how to make it work.


McAfee, Symantec and AVG in their latest versions all have unsolvable problems with Allegiance when used on Vista. The latest versions of each of these have a built-in firewall that, even when disabled, still filters packets needed by Allegiance. It should be noted that earlier versions (prior to 8.0) of AVG worked fine. It is the 8.0 upgrade of AVG that forces the install of the firewall component.

Avast (the free Home Edition, latest version) works when a custom install is used and the firewall module is NOT INSTALLED. Reminder, you cannot disable the firewall in your AV and expect to play Allegiance. You must UNINSTALL, REBOOT, and the INSTALL using the CUSTOM settings and make sure to UNCHECK the firewall piece when prompted.

Please do not use this thread to ask questions, but if you have the correct procedure to install an AV product on Vista and have it work, please post it here.

Thanks for the input, Sai.

I've already started up a thread in the helpline moderators' forum (which, of course, you can't see) where we're collecting the info on specific AV software, versions, and OS platforms. The work continues.

I'll leave it up to Immz to decide whether to incorporate your comments into that thread, with the ultimate goal to be a stickied article on the "Current Affairs of Alleg and AV software".

Feel free to delete if not needed. Just posted since we seem to be getting a larger number of these issues and there wasn't a "stickied" post for this already.

The unmanaged client version of the corporate version of Symantec Antivirus does currently work with Allegiance on Vista (commonly used at universities).

Perhaps we should include input on imaging software as well.For instance,I can image my XP computer using the dos version of GHOST.Has anyone tried to image Vista with dos version of GHOST? And if anyone has imaged Vista with anything else..what was it and how well did it work.

This may be necessary as AV firewalls are VERY important these days with things like AV2009 and such that stealth install.

No AV bundled firewall I know of stops malware. They just take up memory, space and make you rip your hair out trying to make normal proggies work while everyone and their granddad has the easiest time infiltrating into your computer through the "firewall".

@Sai : While we appreciate you putting this up, your solution isn't really a solution. We're asking people to uninstall Norton et al with their useless firewalls, which is a good thing. But we're still asking them to uninstall software people paid for, even if free solutions are 100x better. Not exactly a solution that. We talked about your research on IRC. Maybe something solid can come from it and we can create a real solution. Until then, no stickie cookie for you

NP. . We'll keep at it. Just need someone who understands the alleg net code and we can get a fix underway.

Hey, worked for me. Now I can play Allegiance online. So thanks.

Please include any software that has a firewall that uses SSPD (iirc) protocol's even when not active

Kaspersky IS will rape alleg

ImmortalZ wrote:QUOTE (ImmortalZ @ Feb 16 2009, 08:03 PM) No AV bundled firewall I know of stops malware. They just take up memory, space and make you rip your hair out trying to make normal proggies work while everyone and their granddad has the easiest time infiltrating into your computer through the "firewall".

100% Agree

amsunaakage wrote:QUOTE (amsunaakage @ Nov 9 2008, 11:52 AM ) dont depend on an Antivirus doing what an AntiSpyware does , ( 3 in 1 tools are never reliable)