DirectX or Firewall Issue

LAST EDITED ON Apr-15-03 AT 02:35 AM (EDT)

Hello all. I installed DirectX 9.0a yesturday and a firewall today. Hadn't had any time to run the sim till now. The typical stuttering the sim usually shows seems to have gotten worse. Could it be the newer DirectX or the firewall. Doesn't the firewalls only run when applied and on line? I have noticed a bit more slowdown at times while surfing the net since adding a firewall. (I expected that). Now for the DirextX part. I had DirectX9.0 before updating to the 9.0a. I am useing 43.45 drivers for my Ti4600 card. My fps has always been real good. If it is the DirectX 9.0a, can I apply the older 9.0 right over the newer version?
Any kind of thoughts on this would be real great.
I am running XP Home....
Thanks
nscaler

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RE: DirectX or Firewall Issue., derekmorton, Apr-15-03, 02:44 AM, (1) RE: DirectX or Firewall Issue., nscaler73, Apr-15-03, 02:51 AM, (2) RE: DirectX or Firewall Issue., Claude350, Apr-15-03, 10:59 AM, (3) RE: DirectX or Firewall Issue., nscaler73, Apr-15-03, 11:13 AM, (4) RE: DirectX or Firewall Issue., Claude350, Apr-15-03, 02:27 PM, (5) RE: DirectX or Firewall Issue., DTA, Apr-15-03, 06:14 PM, (6) RE: DirectX or Firewall Issue., nscaler73, Apr-15-03, 10:50 PM, (7) Get yourself a broadband router., Robber Baron, Apr-16-03, 01:14 AM, (8) RE: Get yourself a broadband router., derekmorton, Apr-16-03, 06:02 AM, (9) RE: Get yourself a broadband router., nscaler73, Apr-16-03, 11:13 AM, (10) RE: Get yourself a broadband router., DTA, Apr-16-03, 12:09 PM, (11) RE: Get yourself a broadband router., AJW, Apr-16-03, 12:25 PM, (12) RE: Get yourself a broadband router., nscaler73, Apr-16-03, 10:04 PM, (13)

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Hi Rich,I would disable the firewall while Train simming as a general rule, some of them can be cpu hogs.I don't see how dx9 or dx9a could have slowed down MSTS as it is only dx8 commands being used and they are being executed by the 4600 directly.Derek

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I am glad to hear that. I really did not want to mess with the DirectX versions. As for the firewall, it is disabled through msconfig, along with everything else. Maybe it is just a bad day for simming. LOL
Rich

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Ususally if you have programs running in the background when playing MSTS it could cause your machine to slow down or the graphics to stutter.I normally shut down everything that's not needed when I'm running MSTS.It's a memory hog..DX-9a is suppose to give you better performance.I'd disable all non-essential programs before bothering DX-9a.

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Yes I agree on closing everything and I do. After running msconfig, I click Ctrl-Alt-Delete and under the Applications window, there is not one single thing in there running. I will leave DirectX alone as well as my firewall. Having a firewall is like having extra insurance against all the beasts out there. I did defrag the same nite after installing DX. I have heard cases of slower performance on the sim after a defrag. I have never noticed this on my machine but anything is possible.
Rich

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Unless you're constantly connected to the internet I'd disable the firewall while running the sim.You can always restart the firewall protection.

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One of the problems with commercial firewalls (zonealarm pro, in my case), is that if you ISP address is changed fairly often, the firewall comes up with a message " a new network has been detected" or something similar. It is very easy to say no to accepting it, and bingo, you have no access to the internet, unless you uninstall the firewall. The only time this happened to me, it took 12 hours to get online again, and has made me think twice about firewalls in general, and zonealarm in particular. I keep a firewall running, but zonealarm has lost my business.David

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I am having good luck with Sygate firewall. Once I got the feel of things it works good. Another great utility I got the other day is Spybot- Search and Destroy for spyware.
Rich

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Get yourself a broadband router...like a SMC 7004VBR or equivalent and put it upstream of your PC. That way you don't have to run a firewall right on your PC. I like SMC because their firewall comes with stateful packet inspection.Oh and dump XP Home, that crippled piece of crap! If you must run XP, get Professional.

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>Oh and dump XP Home, that crippled piece of crap! If you
>must run XP, get Professional. The only difference is security and filesystem.
Why do you need these at home?Derek

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I don't know much on XP Pro but I like XP Home. I have had real good luck with it and it is way more stable than Win98. I will keep XP Home, thank you.
Rich

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I agree. XPhome has been a revelation despite some of the cute little graphics. David

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Re: Zone Alarm Pro firewall software. I have it installed on my PC and have no problem with it. I think it does a fine job. However, it uses 12% of resources; therefore, when I run MSTS I temporarily disable it. It is not necessary to do it through MSCONFIG. On the lower right corner of the screen is the ZA logo. Right clicking it brings up a window in which you can easily disable it.Anthony
Clearwater, Florida

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OK guys hear was the problem. As I said before I go to the Startup group under MSCONFIG and disable all. While in there today, I went to the Services tab. In there I disabled Sygate. I noticed after shutting all the startup groups off and restarting, Sygate was still running, in the services anyway. After disabling Sygate both in startup and in services, train sim is alive and well.
I am once again, a happy hogger!
Rich

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