Expert: John W. Watson - 1/23/2005

Question
I hope you can help.  I've tried everything I can think of, without success.

I simply cannot get resident programs on my computer to communicate with their particular ‘parent' programs via the internet.  For example, Norton cannot connect to LiveUpdate, Windows Media Player cannot connect so as to provide licenses for newly downloaded tunes, and TaxCut cannot connect to provide updates.  My email and Explorer run just fine, and can both send and receive perfectly.  Just stand-alone resident programs can't talk across the net.

I am running Windows XP, using Explorer as my browser.  I've installed Service Pak 2, but have disabled the firewall.  I have disabled my isp's accelerator.  I run Norton Anti-virus 2005, which, as I understand it, has no firewall.  I tried installing Netscape 7.1, but it could not connect either, so I uninstalled it.

I'm at my wits' end.  Can you help, please?

Jim McGue  
jmcgue@highstream.net  

Answer
Jim-

It sounds like more of a computer network problem than a software problem.  Before I do anything, I just want to make sure I understand the following:

-If you check your network connections, they all are sending and recieving packets
-Your Internet Explorer is running fine
-You can send and receieve email

What does the Live Update say when you try to use it?