ok; any suggestions for a firewall? preferably freeware?

Ah!!! DMZ host = bad idea. It's not about letting things through your IP, it's about opening your port; http://www.portforward.com/
lots of info about how to set up port forwarding on any brand/model of router.

EPIC FRUSTRATION. Clearly, I should not have ignored the rest of the Void forum's suggestions to remove Norton. It must be the one to blame... even though I cannot find any mention of it blocking FL in the security logs...

There's only one thing I can think of that you've missed. You may need to disable IPv4.
To do that go to:
- Control Panel
- Network and Sharing Center
- across from connection, click on 'view status'
- at the bottom of the pop up box, click on properties (you may be prompted for permission; click ...

Thanks for the link, but I did follow that guide; the strange thing is, I have Norton 360 allowing FL through the firewall, and I managed to get on to the server on Saturday afternoon for a short time before I had to go, but now I can't get back on, and I can't figure out why...

Going to reinstall ...

I tried that. Didn't work... talk about frustrating...
I don't know why I can't get on, seeing as I managed to once yesterday...

*edit: installed the quickfix patch. no change, it seems.
installing a video driver update.
(IPv6 is disabled)

*edit 2: video driver installed.

No, I haven't, though I didn't need to for that one time I already logged on. I'll try that.

ok, it's not a problem about sharing the internet connection. back to square one...

Having the same problem again; possibly due to another computer on my LAN using the internet at the same time.
Is that a possible reason for not being able to get on?

I've managed to get on with Norton 360 Premier Edition (*edit: once). (This guide is similar but not quite identical to the normal Norton 360)

To allow FL through the firewall:
1) in the main N360 page, click on settings at the top, a new box will pop up
2) on the left hand side, click on firewall ...

Thanks very much, it works, I'm on!

Well, I tried that anyway, but it didn't help... It's not a problem with graphics, it's with connecting to the server...

Just downloaded the void mod, followed all the vista instructions. When I try to connect to the Void server, I always get the "I'm sorry, but a connection could not be established..." message.
I have done the following:
- vanilla install of FL
- ran the MSXML3 thing off the FL disc
- install of FLMM ...