Question:
ok, the game my little sister plays is webkinz.com. since you can't get on it from buying a pet from a real store, its like a little kid game, and its interactive/multiplayer/whatever you call it. i've checked it out, and it seems like a pretty safe game, i don't think its dangerous to open up ports or whatever. whats going on with the game is, when she goes into one of these 'clubhouse rooms (where they like talk and trade or something with eachother..) she gets an error message. i've tried calling them and everything, and they said that they new they were having a problem with that, but now it shouldn't do that. but, its still doing that for us.

also, we just switched our internet, like right around when it started happening, we have internet from AT&T and its wireless.

here are the instructions again, that they gave me.:
Please make sure that all of your pop up blockers are off. If you have a router,
please make sure that the HTTP port 80 is open and the FTP port 21 is open.

If this still does not fix the problem, contact your internet service provider
to check that your security settings on your modem are not set too 'high'.


ok, i tried doing the popper blocker thing, and that failed. the game is still getting the error message.

to be honest, i really am not sure what a router and that stuff looks like. i mean, i think i know what a router looks like.. is it that thing that flashes lights and well on mine its called speedstream.. so yeah. i think that is a router.

and then when we got our new internet, we had a wireless adapter, but we got bad connection and so they replaced it, and did something else. but i don't see anything, i've looked at all the cords and everything, but i can't find anything that looks like a router or anything.

so, i'm assuming i don't have one?

i know my IP? but not ISP. i tried finding it, but i couldn't find it on at&t website. because someone said if you go to the internet website, and go to about us, you can find it. but i could not. so yeah.

if you could help me any further, that would be great.

My Answer:
So . . . have you checked for your open ports yet?

If you haven't, then
---open RUN
---Type in "cmd" (without the quotes) to activate Command Prompt
---in Command Prompt, type in "netstat -an" (without quotes)

You should see something like this:
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/7244/commandpromptport80.jpg

If port 80 is there, then that means it's open.

If it's not, then to open it, you need to first figure out whether you have a router or not. And if you have a router, then you need to know the exact version of it. There are many steps to be done. I suggest you go here for a detail tutorial http://portforward.com/

But still, I honestly don't think the problem lies in your port.

Why don't you check if it's your firewall that's blocking it? Go to
Control Panel--->Windows Firewall--->Turn off Windows Firewall

Once your firewall is turned off, clear your ALL OF YOUR INTERNET CACHE and try again.


If that doesn't work, uninstall your current flash player by using Adobe's uninstaller:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/141/tn_14157.html

Then try download a new web browser. Choose ONE of the followings then download and install it:

---Google Chrome: http://www.google.com/chrome
---It is the fastest web browser as of now. It offers you stability, security, and speed.

---Mozilla Firefox: http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
---It has many available add-ons--highly customizable. It offers you security and extendability. It is faster than Internet Explorer.

---Opera: http://www.opera.com/
---It is the most stable web browser as of now. Its speed is faster than Firefox but slower than Chrome. It has add-ons, but not as many as Firefox.


After that, install the latest flash player: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

(remember to close all web browsers before you installing it)


Clear ALL of your internet cache and try again.

If this doesn't work either, then it's a problem on their site. You will have to contact them.


If you have problem performing any of these step, you can email me or inbox me again.

By the way, just some suggestion, do you think your sister could use these sites while waiting for that problem to be fix?

http://www.buildabearville.com/
http://www.myepets.com/

Those sites seem pretty girlish to me -_-


===============================================
ABOUT ROUTER

To begin with, both modem and router "flashes" lights. It's kind of . . . hard (if not impossible) to rely on the lights alone to determine whether it's a modem or router, hehehe.


Anyway, by your description, I am pretty sure that you have DSL connection, which means that you DEFINITELY have a modem.

A router looks like a modem. If you see two modems, then one of them is the modem and the other one is the router. Yeah, try that.

If you have a router, your connection would go like this:
Computer--->Router--->Modem--->Internet

If you DON'T have a router, your connection would go like this:
Computer--->Modem--->Internet


And it's not your IP address that matters here. It's the address to the set up page of your router or modem. It's not the unique IP address of your computer; it's the IP address of the router or modem.

---For example: my IP address is 75.169.238.240
---but my router's address is 192.168.1.1
---and my modem's address is 192.168.0.1


Also, ISP stands for Internet Service Provider. That means your ISP is AT&T. Yes, you do know who your ISP is =)

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