[curiosussira]

I've had a problem with my Mac, since about a year ago chat rooms NEVER work at all,(they used to work fine) also currently I have a mac game that cannot connect to the internet to play others online annnnd I've had this game for 4 months , I do know that someone in my family changed some security settings awhile ago but of course they forgot what they did. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!!

[ghporter]

Firstly, welcome to our forums. Secondly, your title is not very helpful-why should any of our members slow down to provide help when they have no clue what you're asking about?

Third, I don't understand your problem. Are you saying that you are experiencing a network problem that keeps you from using chat rooms and online games? If so, we have a Networking forum that would be more appropriate for this question. If not, please illuminate us.

Finally, we will NOT help minors evade limits put on them by their parents. We've had quite a number of kids ask us to do that, and we will not. Nor will we help employees evade network controls established by their employers, but that's a slightly different matter.

I'm looking forward to your next post so we can get started helping you out! And again, welcome to our forums!

[curiosussira]

Firstly I have no idea what is wrong, the creators of the game informed me it was security/firewall problem? 2nd possibly I have no idea if its a network problem, 3rd no I'm not trying to bypass my parents I really don't even care if chat rooms work or not, I care more about the game.

[turtle777]

W/o detailed information about your network setup and the apps involved, there is no way anyone can help.

We're not psychics.

-t

[curiosussira]

Oh yeah, my apologizes. The application/game is called blockland, to play online you need to connect to its server(which is impossible to me) I use a built in ethernet I have fire wall allowing incoming connections from this application. Anything else important you need to know?

[turtle777]

Any router ?
What firewall ?
Any special software installed that monitors / manages network traffic ?

-t

[curiosussira]

A qwest Actiontec® M1000 router/modem

The firewall was located in system preferences>security>firewall, don't know the type of firewall

I don't believe so.

[turtle777]

If you are behind a router, the OS X firewall doesn't need to be turned on.

Turn it off and see what happens.

-t

[curiosussira]

Nothing.

[turtle777]

Do you have Little Snitch installed ?

-t

[curiosussira]

I do not. Also I greatly appreciate the help!!

[turtle777]

Did the game ever work, and only recently stop after your family changed some security settings ? Or could it be a bad install ?

-t

[curiosussira]

Heres the interesting thing my family changed the security awhile ago probably last july, chat rooms used to work but then they didn't and this game (the offline part) works but the online (playing others) does not work.

[turtle777]

So the online game never worked after they changed the settings ?

-t

[turtle777]

Maybe there were some changes to the Unix firewall IPFW made.

In the Terminal, type "sudo /sbin/ipfw list" and post the output.

-t

[curiosussira]

I may have just solved the problem... I think somebody deleted terminal because I can't even find it, could this be the source of the problem?

[imitchellg5]

Terminal can be found in Finder>Applications>Utilities if you're not sure.

[besson3c]

What security settings were changed?

[curiosussira]

I guess it was just renamed, okay its asking for my password and entering some stuff...

[curiosussira]

ipfw syntax summary (but please do read the ipfw(8) manpage):
ipfw [-acdeftTnNpqS] <command> where <command> is one of:
add [num] [set N] [prob x] RULE-BODY
{pipe|queue} N config PIPE-BODY
[pipe|queue] {zero|delete|show} [N{,N}]
set [disable N... enable N...] | move [rule] X to Y | swap X Y | show

RULE-BODY: check-state [LOG] | ACTION [LOG] ADDR [OPTION_LIST]
ACTION: check-state | allow | count | deny | reject | skipto N |
{divert|tee} PORT | forward ADDR | pipe N | queue N
ADDR: [ MAC dst src ether_type ]
[ from IPADDR [ PORT ] to IPADDR [ PORTLIST ] ]
IPADDR: [not] { any | me | ip/bits{x,y,z} | IPLIST }
IPLIST: { ip | ip/bits | ip:mask }[,IPLIST]
OPTION_LIST: OPTION [OPTION_LIST]
OPTION: bridged | {dst-ip|src-ip} ADDR | {dst-port|src-port} LIST |
estab | frag | {gid|uid} N | icmptypes LIST | in | out | ipid LIST |
iplen LIST | ipoptions SPEC | ipprecedence | ipsec | iptos SPEC |
ipttl LIST | ipversion VER | keep-state | layer2 | limit ... |
mac ... | mac-type LIST | proto LIST | {recv|xmit|via} {IF|IPADDR} |
setup | {tcpack|tcpseq|tcpwin} NN | tcpflags SPEC | tcpoptions SPEC |
verrevpath (this is what I got after I entered my password)

[besson3c]

What did you type curio?

[curiosussira]

What turtle told me too then it asked for my password then asked to type ipfw -h or see ipfw manpage for details. (I typed ipfw -h)

[besson3c]

You didn't type what turtle told you to type, or else you wouldn't have gotten the output you got. What exactly did you type?

[curiosussira]

Sorry minor misspelling, thank you for correcting me. Here are my results (blablabla my user name) sudo /sbin/ipfw list
Password:
65535 allow ip from any to any
Macintosh:~ (blablabla my username)

[besson3c]

So, what security settings were changed?

[curiosussira]

I am unsure, the person who changed them forgot because they are not very tech savvy.

[ghporter]

I expanded the title of the thread to be more explanatory.

Curio, who changed the settings, and why did they do it? Do you share this computer with other users? Are you logging in to YOUR user profile?

[curiosussira]

Yes I do share the computer and my user ID with members of my household. When they had troubles accessing some sites they dialed up apple support and then I do not know what they did.

[Andy8]

You need to setup some other user accounts and fast user switching!

[curiosussira]

sounds like a good idea, but how will that help?

[imitchellg5]

The settings will not have applied to other accounts (most likely).

[curiosussira]

No change, even with the guest account.

[turtle777]

Until you know what exactly got changed, your best shot is probably a fresh OS X install.

-t

[besson3c]

Or revert to when it last worked via Time Machine. I agree with Turtle, there is little point in trying to guess what has changed unless you want to put in the time to systematically eliminate every feasible possibility (there are several).

[curiosussira]

Do either of these have side effects on files?

[besson3c]

What are "these"?

Helpful tip for posting to boards such as this and conceptualizing your computer problems on the whole: be more precise and specific with your thinking and communication, don't except fuzzy concepts and think "oh, I'll never understand this, so I'll just refer to this as some 'thing' and hope that other people can put the pieces together and understand what I mean".

Be specific, thorough, and precise in how you think and explain yourself to others.

[curiosussira]

the two options just suggested to me.

[imitchellg5]

Obviously a fresh install of OS X completely erases everything. I'm not sure what besson has in mind with Time Machine since we don't know the specific issue...

[curiosussira]

Then a fresh install is out of question because there is some many essential files I cannot erase, and even if I tried the other members of my household would raise H*ll.

[imitchellg5]

So you don't have anything backed up then?

[curiosussira]

zilch unfortunately...

[Big Mac]

Then you need a backup.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by curiosussira 

Then a fresh install is out of question because there is some many essential files I cannot erase, and even if I tried the other members of my household would raise H*ll.

You need to backup all your files (i.e., your "home" folders on your HD: Macinthosh HD/Users/) on an external disk, then do a complete reinstall of your OS X.

I'd actually recommend that you'd get an external drive, turn on TimeMachine and let it do a complete backup, then do a reinstall of OS X.

If anything goes wrong, you still have the TimeMachine backup, and you can always restore the complete working system from it.

-t

[besson3c]

I don't recommend the OS X install as there is no evidence that this would make any sort of difference here, but the backup is a no brainer recommendation!

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

I don't recommend the OS X install as there is no evidence that this would make any sort of difference here, but the backup is a no brainer recommendation!

Well, what else do you propose ?

A backup won't fix his issues.

-t

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

Well, what else do you propose ?

A backup won't fix his issues.

-t

I don't propose much of anything.

If he were to backup his machine via Time Machine and then restore from this backup, he could very well just restore the exact same set of problems he has now, accomplishing nothing in the process.

If he really wants to solve this problem, he is going to have to start systematically ruling out possible culprits.

I would start by contacting support of the game vendor (or searching their forums, if they have any), and find out what ports are being used and testing connectivity to these ports, find out if there are updates available to the game that solve the problem, check to see if anything is being logged that would provide some clues, check to see what updates have been installed recently via Software Update that may have broken things (although that's a long shot), try the game under a different OS X account, try a different version of the game. Does the game spit out an error message? If so, Google that error message along with the game title.

There are all sorts of things he can try. Reinstalling OS X is a blind stab in the dark, and probably a waste of time in lieu of not looking into these other things.

[turtle777]

Your troubleshooting suggestions are ok, but work only work for a knowledgeable person. The OP doesn't strike me as that.

Realistically, I don't see anything other than a clean install fixing the issue.

-t

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

Your troubleshooting suggestions are ok, but work only work for a knowledgeable person. The OP doesn't strike me as that.

Realistically, I don't see anything other than a clean install fixing the issue.

-t

I think we're talking past each other... Do you mean a clean install + Time Machine restore of all data? I know he doesn't have a TM backup yet, but obviously with no backup at all it doesn't make sense to wipe and reinstall without one.

If we are talking about a TM restore, this would probably just put him back exactly where he is now.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

I think we're talking past each other... Do you mean a clean install + Time Machine restore of all data? I know he doesn't have a TM backup yet, but obviously with no backup at all it doesn't make sense to wipe and reinstall without one.

Of course, I'd recommend (STRONGLY) to back up all user data before starting a clean install.

TM or other means doesn't matter.

The danger of just doing a TM restore of all user data is that some crap in your \User\xxx\Library\ would be carried forward. For all we know, the culprit could be in there.

-t

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

Of course, I'd recommend (STRONGLY) to back up all user data before starting a clean install.

TM or other means doesn't matter.

The danger of just doing a TM restore of all user data is that some crap in your \User\xxx\Library\ would be carried forward. For all we know, the culprit could be in there.

-t

Exactly, which is why I'm not big on starting off with what I feel would be a last resort.