FYI - A customer was having a strange problem where IE seemed to work fine for browsing, but GenSmarts would seemingly hang when the AVAILABLE ONLINE button was pressed. Deeper investigation showed that Windows itself was hanging the task... We were able to rule out any issue with the XP firewall, or other configurable things, so we turned to SpyWare blockers/monitors and the problem was resolved by re-installing AdAware, so there was apparently some bug, corruption, or incompatibility between the version of AdAware being run, and Windows.

These SpyWare tools have to do some pretty sophisticated things, and no doubt have hooks in, or visibility to Windows internals... naturally they have bugs like all software does, so it reminded us that:

...when a problem crops up with internet access by an application you're running, and you've installed or enabled tools whose job it is monitor, intercede, and/or defeat internet access... it stands to reason that the problem you're experiencing is likely the result of those tools and/or their configuration - not the requesting application.

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Tags:  Family Tree Maker  

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