Please read the following sections on how to get the most out of Ares and Ares MP3.
Before reviewing the sections on firewalls and Windows XP please make sure you are connected to the Internet. You can check your Internet connection by means of your web browser or email client.
To keep out hackers and spyware many users protect their computer by installing a firewall to limit access to their Internet connection to just a few trusted applications.
When a software firewall (e.g. ZoneAlarm, McAfee Desktop Firewall, Norton Personal Firewall, ...) is active on your computer it will pop up a warning each time Ares tries to send or receive data over the Internet.
If you deny Ares access to the Internet you will not be able to connect to the file sharing network or search or download media files.
To avoid any connection problems caused by your firewall please accept all requests by Ares to access the Internet. If you make a mistake you can always visit the program control section of your firewall to make a change in the permission rules.
Windows XP users may experience a number of connection problems after installing Service Pack 2 (SP2).
Because SP2 for Windows XP limits the number of available connections it is also possible that most of your downloads stay forever in the 'pending' state due to a lack of incoming connections.
To solve connection problems and problems with downloading after installing SP2 for Windows XP please upgrade your system with the following patches.
Microsoft has released a patch to improve P2P connectivity on systems running Windows XP SP2. More information on downloading and installing this patch can be found at the official Microsoft web site.
After installing the Microsoft patch, it is necessary to increase the number of available TCP connections to 50.
Increasing the number of available TCP connections can be achieved by downloading and installing a third party patch as detailed below.