I am doing some testing on a couple of machines. One of them has an old version of WRQ @Guard which does firewall, script and ad blocking. It appears I have the TZO wide open but syncing still fails. I disable @Guard it works great. It is easy enough to disable while syncing but I am trying to understand what might be blocking the sync and how to configure it later. Any suggestions? - Steve

OK, this may be way off track here, but I had a problem downloading to the remote. The problem was solved by unclicking all the boxes in the LAN settings under the Connections tab within Tools/Internet Options in Internet Explorer.

Hmmm, that is interesting. But I have been able to show it is @Guard. Which by the way is now incorporated into McAfee's Virus and Firewall product so this may impact other users. I turn of @Guard and The PC connect to the Harmony with no problems.

- Steve

I don't think the problem is specific to your firewall product. I'm using Norton Internet Security 2003. I can only connect to their website to configure my remote control if I disable my firewall.

The Intrigue (Harmony Remote) people must have changed something on their web site that's not compatible with standard Windows firewall software.

On January 11th and before, I had no such problem when my firewall was activated. They must have changed something between then and now.

I'll see if I can get more details from my log files.

Pete

Here is the error I received from Norton Internet Security:

Details: Attempted Intrusion "URL_Directory_Traversal" from your machine against harmonyremote.tzo.com(205.150.117.45) was detected and blocked
Intruder: localhost(2337)
Risk Level: High
Protocol: TCP
Attacked IP: harmonyremote.tzo.com(205.150.117.45)
Attacked Port: http(80)

Now I have to figure out what the heck it means!

Pete

Well, I received a response from Customer Support.

They said that the solution to the problem is to disable the firewall and antivirus software on my computer.

Yeah, right! :-)

Pete

Pete,

I'm not familiar with Norton Internet Security, but most firewall programs have the option to enter IP addresses (ex: harmonyremote.tzo.com(205.150.117.45)) as trusted sites that are allowed to pass the firewall.

Mike
www.SurfRemoteControl.com

Thanks for the idea, Mike. What I'll probably end up doing, then, is giving them "Trusted" access to my computer only during the times when I'm updating my Harmony remote.

This means that anyone who hacks into harmonyremote.tzo.com will have complete read/write access to my computer's files during these times.

Considering that hackers try to break into my computer several times a day from other sites (I have a cable connection), this concerns me and I'm disappointed that Intrigue brushed off the issue.

Rather than throw my $300 remote control in the garbage, though, I will proceed with this and hope that enough of their customers encounter this issue that it gets resolved in a more secure and convenient fashion.

Thanks again for giving me this solution,

Pete

First of all, opening your firewall to a specific address does not imply that someone could simply read files on your computer, it the rest is properly setup.

Second, you might only have to open a single port. It seems that your firewall is complaining about a specific port (2337). If opening that port for harmony would solve that problem, I wouldn't be such a security risk, since nothing else runs on that port.

Third, you can think of getting a better firewall or play with your setup. The connection originates on your machine, therefore, the firewall software should be smart enough to allow that connection to work both ways. I'm using firewall and it works just fine. I didn't do any special setup for harmony to work. I'm sure I'm not the only person who does that either.

P.S. The error message you're getting is kind of weird. It alsmost seems like it's trying to protect Harmony web site from you, not the other way around. Maybe you should call Norton support.

I agree that I should investigate my firewall software in more detail for workarounds. You also helped me to realize that the reason this just recently started to happen might be because Symantec recently added new security checks in the last update I downloaded from them.

Thanks,

Pete

Even though I'm a Mac user, I know enough that one of the best firewalls around is free.

Zone Labs' Zone Alarm. Just navigate along to the 'free download'.

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com

Yes but if Harmony used standard ports like 80, we wouldn't have to worry about punching holes in firewalls. Harmony could do a lot to help end users here but not having such a restrictive configuration as to recomemnd, ONLY USE INTERNET EXPLORER, NO FIREWALLS, NO VIRUS PROTECTION. That isn't a good way to try it introduce or integrate your product into a home or office environment.

We are seeing more and more of these Harmony's going into corporate sites. Yet after several weeks of work, they are getting tossed because of niggly problems like firewalls, mapping problems and no return phone calls or emails from tech support.

This is a very cool product, I have recommenede it to a number of people but universally they come back and say, great product in theory Steve, too bad we have to disable our firewall or can't get a hold of tech support to resolve a problem.

Harmony could really do alot if they would open up their system to be more flexible to more browser, make it easier ofr users to customize macros and buttons, not requiring disabling of firewalls to configure the device and participate more on these forums to try and resolve some problems.

I am willing to try and help support folks, but Harmony needs to be working on some of these support problems as well.

Cheers!

- Steve

Greetings Harmony users!

We would like to try to shed some light on the Harmony Remote and firewall usage. In the design of our product, we have endeavoured to use internet standards to try to accomodate the largest group of customers possible. We use standard port 80 like any other web site, and simple file downloads to remain as vendor and browser independent as possible. We encourage our customers to use firewalls and virus protection wherever they feel it is necessary.

Most users running firewalls have no problems using the Harmony Client Software. However, some firewalls' default behaviour is to prevent an application running on your PC from contacting the Internet (this is what the Harmony Device Tutor does when it sends infrared information up to www.harmonyremote.tzo.com). For example, ZoneLabs ZoneAlarm firewall software will ask "Do you want to allow the EasyZapperDeviceTutor to access the Internet?" - we recommend that you answer yes!

As far as a firewall is concerned, the Harmony Client Software should appear exactly the same as a web browser that sends and receives data via port 80. We are (of course!) unable to make any changes to your firewall setup, so we encourage you to consult your firewall's User Manual in order to enable the EasyZapperDeviceTutor, EasyZapperUpload, and EasyZapperUpgrade applications to communicate on port 80 to the outside world. On the ZoneAlarm firewall, this is done via the Programs button.

We hope that this helps those customers who are experiencing firewall issues.

Best regards from the Harmony Team.