FAQs

Please read the following sections on how to get the most out of aresvista and aresvista.

Before reviewing the sections on firewalls and Windows XP please make sure you are connected to the Internet. You can check your Internet connection by means of your web browser or email client.

Ares Connection Problems

CNodes are under attack

The CNodes that Ares uses for the initial connection to the network are often under attack. We have developed an advanced technique to automatically generate an updated list of cnodes to use for the initial connection.

If you are having a problem connecting and you downloaded Ares before July 6, 2008 (or have another brand of Ares) you can either:

download the latest version of Ares Vista now.

or, you can get an updated CNodes.dat file and place it on your computer for Ares Vista (or other brand of Ares) to use.

First, close Ares. Then, download the CNodes.dat file and place it on your C drive (or wherever you installed Ares), with this folder and filename -
C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Ares Vista\Data\CNodes.dat

Firewalls

To keep out hackers and spyware many users protect their computer by installing a firewall to limit access to their Internet connection to just a few trusted applications.

When a software firewall (e.g. ZoneAlarm, McAfee Desktop Firewall, Norton Personal Firewall, …) is active on your computer it will pop up a warning each time Ares tries to send or receive data over the Internet.

If you deny Ares access to the Internet you will not be able to connect to the file sharing network or search or download media files.

To avoid any connection problems caused by your firewall please accept all requests by Ares to access the Internet. If you make a mistake you can always visit the program control section of your firewall to make a change in the permission rules.

Windows XP

Windows XP users may experience a number of connection problems after installing Service Pack 2 (SP2).

Because SP2 for Windows XP limits the number of available connections it is also possible that most of your downloads stay forever in the ‘pending’ state due to a lack of incoming connections.

To solve connection problems and problems with downloading after installing SP2 for Windows XP please upgrade your system with the following patches.

Microsoft has released a patch to improve P2P connectivity on systems running Windows XP SP2. More information on downloading and installing this patch can be found at the official Microsoft web site.

After installing the Microsoft patch, it is necessary to increase the number of available TCP connections to 50.

Increasing the number of available TCP connections can be achieved by downloading and installing a third party patch as detailed below.

• download and unzip the third party patch
• run the patch by double-clicking the file EvID4226Patch.exe
• press the c key to change the limit of connections
• type 50 and press enter
• press the y key to confirm the changes
• press the y key to allow the patching
• when Windows pops up a dialog to prompt you to restore the original file, click the Cancel button
• confirm your choice in the next Windows popup dialog by clicking the Yes button
• press any key to close the patch window