3rd-party software won't run -- security issue?

I signed up to work as an online tutor, and was instructed to download &
install the Microsoft .net Framework, followed by the company's "classroom"
software.

Whenever I attempt to sign into the classroom, I get an error statement "A
connection to our server could not be established". I have spent hours
working with this company's tech support division. We have tried various
fixes, reinstallations, disabling my firewall, calling my ISP -- everything
we can think of, but we can't get around this error!

The support tech concluded the issue had to be either an issue involving XP
security, which was somehow blocking this program from running, or a
corrupted winsock file in the Windows folder. I recently tried running a
tool called WinsockXPfix, but the error continues to occur.

Could this somehow be a security issue? Or do you have any ideas about what
the problem might be, or where I would go for help?
--
Thanks!
-Bob

BobG wrote:
I signed up to work as an online tutor, and was instructed to
download & install the Microsoft .net Framework, followed by the
company's "classroom" software.

Whenever I attempt to sign into the classroom, I get an error
statement "A connection to our server could not be established". I
have spent hours working with this company's tech support division.
We have tried various fixes, reinstallations, disabling my
firewall, calling my ISP -- everything we can think of, but we
can't get around this error!

The support tech concluded the issue had to be either an issue
involving XP security, which was somehow blocking this program from
running, or a corrupted winsock file in the Windows folder. I
recently tried running a tool called WinsockXPfix, but the error
continues to occur.

Could this somehow be a security issue? Or do you have any ideas
about what the problem might be, or where I would go for help?

If you have access to a different computer - connected in the same manner to
the same network - try it.

Otherwise - truly you have been in contact with those who need to fix the
issue (the third party application's tech support.)

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html