chermany4ever Posted March 3 Author Posted March 3 14 minutes ago, NotHereToPlayGames said: the whole group to hear, "La chica es mui bonita". They will talk in ENGLISH for the remainder of the night Good strategy. Here when talking to English speakers they want to speak Spanish so everyone understands and no one gets left out of the conversation. But the Spanish they speak is awful lol. Just the other day I had to read the drummer from The Doors praising Bad Bunny on Facebook. The world went down the drain, man.
chermany4ever Posted March 4 Author Posted March 4 4 hours ago, NotHereToPlayGames said: your FDM will work if you *disable/UNINSTALL* Sphinx. To coin another phrase, "Whoala! Problem Solved!" Back to the topic now. Was just thinking about this when you mentioned it. Did one last test before going to bed and it didn't work. Only disabled the firewall. Not going to uninstall it. It works fine with all other programs. Uninstalling it'll be leaving the floodgates open which doesn't seem advisable. Think would be more sensible to try and figure out what's wrong with FDM.
NotHereToPlayGames Posted March 4 Posted March 4 (edited) Well, I hope I didn't "react" too quickly. But I *deleted* my XP x86 SP2 VM (I technically have no use for it and don't have the time to slim it to my liking). So this is in my normal self-slimmed XP x86 SP3 VM. And when I searched for your version of Sphinx, I found a different version and ran with it. Good news - it did exactly what you cited, FDM could NOT download when Sphinx was installed !!! For me, it was the "default" SYSTEM and SVCHOST rules that Sphinx set. DELETE the SYSTEM and SVCHOST rules and FDM now works! I didn't screencap "before", and I'm going from memory that the rules were called "system" and "svchost". But at any rate, DELETE THOSE RULES and FDM works. Granted, I may have only needed to delete ONE and not BOTH. And Sphinx (in my opinion) SUCKS compared to the Comodo Firewall (older version) that I used to use. Edited March 4 by NotHereToPlayGames 1
we3fan Posted March 4 Posted March 4 On 3/3/2026 at 4:04 PM, NotHereToPlayGames said: And xp-AntiSpy is the "easiest" route to achieve that on new installs. Yes it sure looks like an easy way to do that. I don't have much experience with this program. You suggest to install it, or portable works fine also? Which Profile and Mode do you use? 22 hours ago, chermany4ever said: It seems FDM can't reach the web. I see, yes a lot of things to consider, not easy to pinpoint what could be the problem. I haven't used xp-AntiSpy much, but it seems to be a good essential program. 1
NotHereToPlayGames Posted March 4 Posted March 4 6 minutes ago, we3fan said: You suggest to install it, or portable works fine also? I technically don't do either. It's not "installed" but it's not truly "portable" either because I save my profile in the registry. Step #1) My XP installations simply get the .exe and the .chm "copy-pasted" / "extracted" into a folder. Step #2) I import the profile I use via an archived .reg file (herein renamed as MSFN). Step #3) I run the .exe, load the profile, and Apply Settings. Reboot (not sure if required, just good practice after these types of changes). This is the profile that I use: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\xp-AntiSpy\Profiles\MSFN] "1"=dword:00000001 "2"=dword:00000001 "3"=dword:00000001 "4"=dword:00000001 "6"=dword:00000001 "7"=dword:00000001 "8"=dword:00000001 "9"=dword:00000001 "10"=dword:00000001 "11"=dword:00000001 "12"=dword:00000001 "17"=dword:00000001 "18"=dword:00000001 "19"=dword:00000001 "20"=dword:00000001 "21"=dword:00000001 "22"=dword:00000001 "23"=dword:00000000 "24"=dword:00000001 "25"=dword:00000001 "27"=dword:00000001 "28"=dword:00000001 "29"=dword:00000001 "30"=dword:00000000 "31"=dword:00000001 "32"=dword:00000001 "34"=dword:00000001 "35"=dword:00000001 "36"=dword:00000001 "37"=dword:00000001 "39"=dword:00000000 "40"=dword:00000000 "41"=dword:00000000 "42"=dword:00000001 "43"=dword:00000001 "44"=dword:00000001 "45"=dword:00000001 "47"=dword:00000001 "49"=dword:00000001 "50"=dword:00000000 "51"=dword:00000001 "52"=dword:00000001 "53"=dword:00000001 "54"=dword:00000000 "55"=dword:00000001 "56"=dword:00000001 "57"=dword:00000001 "59"=dword:00000001 "60"=dword:00000000 "61"=dword:00000001 "62"=dword:00000001 "63"=dword:00000001 "64"=dword:00000001 "67"=dword:00000001 "68"=dword:00000001 "71"=dword:00000000 "73"=dword:00000001 "48"=dword:00000000 "74"=dword:00000001 "46"=dword:00000001 "75"=dword:00000000 "76"=dword:00000001 "77"=dword:00000001 "78"=dword:00000001 "79"=dword:00000001 "80"=dword:00000001 "81"=dword:00000001 "82"=dword:00000001 "83"=dword:00000000 "84"=dword:00000000 "85"=dword:00000001 "86"=dword:00000001 "87"=dword:00000001 "89"=dword:00000001 "90"=dword:00000001 "91"=dword:00000000 "92"=dword:00000000 "96"=dword:00000001 "97"=dword:00000000 "98"=dword:00000000 "99"=dword:00000001 "100"=dword:00000000 "101"=dword:00000000 "102"=dword:00000000 1
NotHereToPlayGames Posted March 4 Posted March 4 (edited) Screencaps of the profile that I use: Edited March 4 by NotHereToPlayGames 1
NotHereToPlayGames Posted March 4 Posted March 4 16 hours ago, chermany4ever said: Think would be more sensible to try and figure out what's wrong with FDM. Herein is where your issue lies. You're thinking the problem is with FDM where it is technically with Sphinx. I tried with three other software firewalls. FDM worked with each and every one of them, "by default". It's only with Sphinx that FDM doesn't work "by default". But it can be made to work with Sphinx if you DELETE two of the firewall rules. 1
chermany4ever Posted March 5 Author Posted March 5 (edited) 10 hours ago, NotHereToPlayGames said: You're thinking the problem is with FDM where it is technically with Sphinx. Perfect. Understood. Hats off to you, NHTPG. 16 hours ago, NotHereToPlayGames said: DELETE the SYSTEM and SVCHOST rules and FDM now works! Did the same here but this version of Sphinx tells me that only the Plus Edition allows "System" apps access management. Won't let me edit those rules and if I delete them they reappear. FDM still blocked. This means I'll have to decide whether to change the firewall or discard FDM. Still have several download managers to try. Want to see which one gives me the best experience. Such outdated versions. They all seem to have some bug or missing some feature. Not that I've stopped loving FDM. Need to try them all and decide. 16 hours ago, NotHereToPlayGames said: Sphinx (in my opinion) SUCKS compared to the Comodo Firewall (older version) that I used to use I remember back in the day many people recommended Comodo Firewall. They said it was very good, so I tried it. While I liked it, I remember my machine became slow. Was like it started carrying a load I hadn't noticed before. So I uninstalled it but was incredibly difficult to uninstall and when I finally managed to it completely wrecked my system. At that time I wasn't using hdd images and I remember I had to format, reinstall, and customize EVERYTHING from scrap. So I hated it! lol I like my system to be snappy fast and responsive. If no other download manager surpasses FDM think I'll try an older version of TinyWall or one of those other simple and lightweight firewalls that had a good reputation back then. I'll let you know. Edited March 5 by chermany4ever
NotHereToPlayGames Posted March 5 Posted March 5 20 minutes ago, chermany4ever said: Did the same here but this version of Sphinx tells me that only the Plus Edition allows "System" apps access management. Won't let me edit those rules and if I delete them they reappear. FDM still blocked. Same here. Plus Edition messages and wouldn't let me EDIT but did let me DELETE. And since my XP is locked down and NOTHING at the OS-level tried to connect after deleting, they did not reappear. They "probably" would have reappeared at reboot, but I didn't get that far, my goal was just to get FDM to download. 1
NotHereToPlayGames Posted March 5 Posted March 5 23 minutes ago, chermany4ever said: While I liked it, I remember my machine became slow. Probably tried too NEW of a version.
chermany4ever Posted March 5 Author Posted March 5 (edited) 41 minutes ago, NotHereToPlayGames said: Probably tried too NEW of a version Couldn't say. It was so long ago. If you remember any lightweight version of Comodo Firewall please let me know and I'll try it if I decide to stick with FDM. Edited March 5 by chermany4ever
NotHereToPlayGames Posted March 5 Posted March 5 Any of the 2.4 versions. You can't go back as far as the 2.3 versions because they require a phone-home activation. The version I used to use is Comodo Firewall Pro 2.4.18.184. I could not find a download link without doing too much digging, but here is source (scroll all the way to the bottom) for 2.4.16.174 and 2.4.17.183. https://www.afterdawn.com/software/security/firewalls/comodo_personal_firewall.cfm#all_versions 1
NotHereToPlayGames Posted March 5 Posted March 5 (edited) re: "lightweight" I'm showing Sphinx 6.1.9.53 (I've tried three different downloads for 7.5.100.200 but they all show 6.1.9.53 in Help/About) to use around 3 MB RAM. And Comodo 2.4.x to use around 11.4 (v2.4.16.174) to 13.5 (v2.4.17.183) MB RAM. But Sphinx is a LIMITED version that throws NAGS about not being able to do this or that without upgrading to Plus Edition !!! While Comodo 2.4.x is a REAL *FULLY FUNCTIONING* non-limited version that PUTS YOU IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT. Not to sound rude or whatever, but you can stick with lightweight and LIMITED or run something that actually WORKS but uses a little more RAM. Edited March 5 by NotHereToPlayGames 1
we3fan Posted March 5 Posted March 5 22 hours ago, NotHereToPlayGames said: This is the profile that I use: Thanks ArcticFoxie, much appreciated.
chermany4ever Posted March 5 Author Posted March 5 11 hours ago, NotHereToPlayGames said: Any of the 2.4 versions. Thanks. 11 hours ago, NotHereToPlayGames said: Sphinx is a LIMITED version that throws NAGS about not being able to do this or that without upgrading to Plus Edition Not contradicting you, just as I told you, had a bad experience with Comodo and it's the first time Sphinx has caused a very particular problem. Been using it for 4 years now and everything was normal. Does its thing, not intrusive, super light. Anyway, now I have couple more programs to test! Reality is I need to go "fishing" and also start collecting firewood 'cause winter is coming. I'll let you know as I progress. Thanks again, I'm humbled. 1
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