When utilizing the desktop client application, it is important to make sure that your firewall is set to allow game-to-server communication. Blocking this communication will significantly limit the desktop client application game functionality.
There are different types of firewalls, each having their own unique control panel for allowing (or making exceptions for) particular programs like ours to function. The two main firewall programs are Microsoft that comes with your operating system or one provided by Norton (Symantec), which is usually part of their antivirus protection. The following programs need to be marked as 'exceptions' in order for the game to operate correctly: hrgcommn.dll horseraceatl.exe These two programs are responsible for communicating your game scores, transferring your horse data, your trainer game races, your breeding horses, your jockey and betting stats and other game communications required for full access, benefits and features including earning game game points, the currency in our game.
If you are not sure how to allow the two mentioned programs to communicate through your firewall, simply Google your firewall's name and "how to allow certain programs". If you believe you have set up the exceptions through your firewall to run our two programs (hrgcommn.dll and horseraceatl.exe) and the game is still not communicating with the server, you might have to restart your computer after you've set the firewall exceptions. Approximately 10% of firewall programs will continue to block our game-to-server communications even when you have granted permission to our two programs. This is a common flaw in several popular firewalls. To avoid this issue, simply turn your firewall off while playing our game and immediately turn it back on when you're finished playing.
How do you know if the game is communicating with the server?
Normally the main game screen of our desktop client application will tell you that we cannot connect to the server, but in some instances one of our two programs is allowed to communicate and the other is blocked by your firewall - therefore, you may not receive that message. The best way to test if the firewall is blocking our program from communicating is to simply run several races in the desktop client application from the Quick Start mode, then click the My Account tab in the community, which will take you to your profile page. After each race, the race count number in your profile box should increase. If that count is not increasing, chances are your firewall is blocking one or both of the above-mentioned programs.
I've been told never to turn off my firewall for any program.
It is very important that you keep your firewall on at all times, and that's why we strongly suggest trying the exception route first. We've been in business for over ten years and have built a reputation of providing a quality game and never interfering with a person's computer or any information associated with it. Our communications programs only pass race game data to our server. Therefore, if you have to turn off your firewall during game play, rest assured that the only information that is being passed through our communication programs is that associated with your game. While playing the desktop client application with your firewall off, visit only our game community and sites you absolutely trust. We also invite all players to participate in our community forums and ask any of our members if they've ever had an issue with allowing our desktop client application to communicate with our server. Even an Internet search will reveal that in our ten-plus-year history, there have never been any complaints by our game players pertaining to firewalls, privacy issues, etc.
