zone problems!!

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.games (More info?)

Hello, i own a pentium 4 personal laptop with an isdn internet
connection. My operating system is windows xp home edition sp2(just recently
updated) through windows update. Also, i use norton antivirus 2005, spybot
sd, and adaware se for security. My computer is stand alone and i connect
from home. I am your simple everyday computer user, with minimum computing
experience, who checks his email, surfs a few pages here and there, and
plays online games.

Even before updating my computer to sp2, i have noticed strange behavior
when i play competitive backgammon on the zone. Frequent disconnects while
playing and even while chatting in the lobbies, game rooms take long time to
load, and when i try to sign out of zone i get a passport error message,
asking me what i was trying to do. Is this normal? I doubt it. I have
visited some of your sites, and have conversed with you in the past. Your
sites are very informative and to the point. Specificaly, i have optimized
explorer by following your guidelines, and downloaded the patch to reset
rooms. In the past i have reinstalled zone software many times in effort to
correct missing or corrupt files but nothing seems to work!

Currently, i am trying to open ports in windows firewall which will
hopefully solve my problem. I read that the following tcp ports should be
open:
80 Msn games
443 Net passport
6667 chat
28000-29100 game access

Direct x based games:
6073 udp
47624 udp
2302-2400 udp

A few more questions please! How should i enter 2800-29100 and 2302-2400.
When i try to type these two port ranges, i am told i should only type
numbers and - is not acceptable. Please dont tell me i have to type each
single port from 28000 to 29100 and from 2302 to 2400. There must be some
mistake here!! Also, i would prefer chosing which programs to have access
rather than opening ports individually, but dont know exactly which ones to
chose.

Lastly, before i go to zone, i disable norton antivirus 2005 auto protect
and have allowed zone, passport, skilljam popups to load. My security
parameters are at default levels and so is privacy in internet options.
Hearbeat object and all other internet objects are installed and ok. What
else could i possibly do?

Several months ago you told me to check my connection for instability,
however, i dont have any problems when i surf the web. All my pages load
fast and normal. The only problem i have detected is that when i try to
download a very large file say 30, 40 mbs or longer my modem hangs and i
have to reboot. Is this a tail tail sign? When i download files the rate
is about 15 KBs/sec. Could my lsp be damaged, because i have removed spyware
and viruses in the past.

Thanks for your attention in this matter and sorry for the length of this
post, but i am trying to give you as much insight so you can help me best.
If you like i can provide hijackthis logs, or any other logs you think are
necessary.