Well i’ve only recently begun to use CPF and so far its been an overall ok experience. I do however have 1 particular beef. When playing games (network or over the internet), especially in older games that run at lower Resolutions. At the point in the game where it tries to connect to the network/internet it usually FREEZES up altogether and its because of the allow/deny access pop-up from CPF. In the case with a game such as Starcraft, when you try to alt-tab out of the app, the resolution is horridly small and the color is set to 16bit. Also the machine slows down dramatically and its usually impossible to get to the allow/deny window to define the required action. THe desktop space as a whole becomes inaccessible and I am forced to end the game using the task manager. SUbsequent to this occurence I tried to set the application (the game exe) to allow, but that still does not solve the problem. In the end I was left no other route than to disable application monitoring (and by extension extension monitoring) whilst playing network games. I suppose there is some workaround, however it is not easily found. Newer games seem to be fine, however I will determine the extent of this as I attempt to play more games with the firewall enabled with full functionality. Also, as soon as the game is forcebly exited the pop up to allow/deny disappears and I am STILL unable to allow it for the next time it occurs.
Hi W1ntry and welcome to the forums,
Have you read the FAQ in this forum? If you have not, you can access it through here:
https://forums.comodo.com/index.php/topic,894.0.html.
If I am not mistaken, you have to define a trusted zone in the CPF to allow online gaming through a network. I recalling reading it somewhere in this forum. Gaming online is somewhat different from gaming through a network.
Yours truly,
DoomScythe
Thanx for the welcome Doomscythe (your handle is familiar, are we on another forum together?). Well the thing is I have defined (at least for the LAN) a trusted zone (in network monitor) to allow all IP traffic from an designated IP range. I have allow it for both In/Out and everything else works fine. Network shares, ping, etc. Games however have issues with the Application monitor I figure.
Also I have tried to add the .exe files for said games into the application monitor with an ‘allow’ action. This too has not solved my problem. I will look through the FAQs sometime later when I have a chance to see if anyone else has had similar problems and has a work around. Thanx for the heads up all the same.
Oh ok. Sorry, if you have tried that, then I don’t know what is wrong. I guess you will have to wait for someone more knowledgable to help you. Just hang in around here or read the FAQ. I am sure someone will reply you very soon.
Yours truly,
DoomScythe
Hi,
Try to use Alt-TAB key combination to see the CPF popup windows and reply them while the game is in full screen mode. It should be asking something and full screen is preventing you to see the popups. Lets us know if you cant use alt-tab key combination.
Egemen
What I have got in the habit of doing is define the rules in advance (manually) before playing a new game (or new to CPF). I find that most LAN games will use the same rule(s), as most internet based games will… so I pattern the manual rules(s) I create on existing rules I found in the Application rule list from games that were friendly enough to allow for the Alt-Tab and my answering of the popups.
I don’t mind doing it, it validates my learning/understanding, and it works! (:NRD)
(L)
Guys I thank you for the advice, but if you read through my original posts, you’ll see i’ve tried all of that. I alt tab out to horrible resolutions and an inaccesible desktop. I predefined application monitoring rules with the game exes and the network rules to allow traffic to the other machines in question, no go. I know its a matter of getting to the pop up, but I can’t. THats my problem.
Sometimes multiple EXE’s need rules set for games. On occassion some exe’s are just launchers/updaters, where another EXE actually runs the game.
One popup that is difficult to manually setup is when a game uses something like DirectInput. CPF intercepts this as a “DirectInput is watching your keyboard strokes” type message, which in the end defines a component rule. Knowing what 3rd party interaction needs to be allowed is a much more difficult kettle of fish… this may be closer to what is actually stopping you if you’ve already defined the application rules.
There are many posts and Wish List entries for either:
- easier access to the popup, or
- special game modes
I’m sure something will come down the pipe soon. 
P.S. One trick that I used (having dual monitors) was to move the popup to the second screen (which means you’d need it to pop before launching your game once)… then the multi-monitor rule in WinXP would keep the popup on the 2nd monitor (until next reboot). Not elegant, but I always saw my popups.
Thanks for the heads up. I have an unelegent workaround too (which is to disable the application monitor) however that is fine for LAN games. I wouldn’t dare do that with Internet games though so I still have some problems there. Interesting at dual monitor and I can see how that works, unfortunately I don’t have 2 monitors and even if I did I don’t have the real estate on my desk. I do look forward to something in the pipe though so i’ll keep my fingers crossed.