Flare and Windows Firewall

[enricosavazzi]

I switched to Vista 64 bit recently. Flare is in the list of exceptions of Windows Firewall, but the first time I start Flare at home or in the office I still get a dialog asking whether I want to allow Flare to access the network. What's up? (I know about the Flare Phone Home "feature", my question is why it is not enough to add Flare to the list of exceptions)

[RamonS]

You can try open the ports used, which should be 80 for the licensing check on startup (that one is just outgoing) and 2535 (???) for the IM function. Also make sure that you are allowed to hit *.madcapsoftware.com.
But why did you switch to Vista?

[Richard Ferrell]

I use vista 64 and do not have the problem, I just added Flare to the exception list and all worked, smoothly

[enricosavazzi]

But why did you switch to Vista?

I finally gave up on 32 bit software and their memory limitations. I do need more than 3.something GB. This is not for Flare's sake, which is strictly 32-bit code (but also Flare eventually will have to switch to 64-bit code to cope better with big projects: 15-20 minutes builds, no work allowed while building, and and no incremental builds all add up to perhaps one hour a day waiting for Flare to do its job).

[RamonS]

I understand 64bit, but why Vista?

[KevinDAmery]

Last I looked, XP 64 isn't that well supported for drivers, apps, etc. Vista 64 has better support (largely because it has a larger install base).

For 32 bit systems, XP is still the choice I would make, but for 64 I would take Vista. (And spend half an hour or so turning off all the "you clicked the allow button, allow or deny" crap...)

[LTinker68]

... but for 64 I would take Vista. (And spend half an hour or so turning off all the "you clicked the allow button, allow or deny" crap...)

And spend another hour arguing with RamonS about why you went with Vista.

[RamonS]

I use Windows XP 64bit exclusively, which is Server 2003 64bit with the XP desktop, the best mix Microsoft provides at the moment. All my hardware works except for my 8 year old USB scanner. For that one I have a VM, but anything other than XP 32bit wouldn't help either, because there are no drivers for Vista or Windows 7. The scanner appears to be fully supported under 64bit Linux.
What I was getting at with "why Vista" is that XP 64bit is about as solid as Windows can get and Windows 7 64bit is available in a month. Why anyone bothers switching to Vista now is really worth asking "why?".

[enricosavazzi]

I understand 64bit, but why Vista?

As mentioned by others in this thread, XP 64 bit does not work too well (co-workers' experience) and has only partial driver support. Windows 7 is not out yet here, so this leaves Vista as the only alternative for a laptop. So far, Vista works much better than when I briefly tried it (32 bit) two years ago (and reverted to XP 32 bit). Will try Windows 7 64 bit when I get my free upgrade.

[RamonS]

I have Windows XP 64bit on three systems running and driver support is the same as for Server 2003, in many cases the the 32bit XP drivers work fine as well. I guess debating this any more is pointless. I just think that Vista is about as bad as an OS can get, anything is better.