How do I get Darwinia to work over Steam with Zone Alarm?

[dgg9879]

When I try to play the game Darwinia over Valve's steam engine it keeps locking up. Valve's diagnostic tells me the firewall is preventing the game from working and provides the following advice on how to fix the problem. Someone please tell me how to remove permissions from the firewall's permissions list, as advised here. I have the free versio of ZoneAlarm. Please also tell me how I should have the settings for trusted zone security to play this game.

Troubleshooting Steps

1.
Remove Permissions for Steam Executables

Close the Steam client application and remove all instances of the following executables from your firewall's permissions list:
* steaminstall.exe
* steam.exe
* hl.exe
* hl2.exe
* steamTmp.exe

Permissions for these executables will need to be re-learned by your firewall.
2.
Set New Permissions

Open Steam to allow your firewall to re-learn permissions for the Steam executables. If your firewall does not prompt you to set new permissions, the security settings may be to strict - you will need to change these settings so you will be prompted to set permissions.

Give the Steam executables permission for all TCP and UDP ports when prompted.
3.
Reboot

Restart your computer and load Steam.

[Montyphy]

Have you tried opening Zone Alarm, clicking 'Program Control' (on the left) then clicking 'Programs' (one of the tabs in the top right), then scroll through the list and allow the programs you want to provide access? You'll probably want to provide steam or valve or whatever its name is.

And why are you asking for setting up "Trusted Zone"? Anything that accesses the internet should be "Internet Zone". Trusted zone is usually for your home/private/personal network. If you're connecting from a internet café or university network you should really have it set to Internet (assuming you're worried about security).

Failing that, just turn ZA off

[xander]

Question: have you actually managed to download the files for Darwinia, or is that where you are having trouble? If you have already downloaded the files, you should be able to play offline -- there is no online element of Darwinia, and it should be more than happy to run without an internet connection.

xander

[Montyphy]

Darwinia may not have online content but doesn't Steam require online verification when you first install a game?

[xander]

Darwinia may not have online content but doesn't Steam require online verification when you first install a game?

That is why I asked if he already had the files. If you already have the files, you can run Darwinia in the offline mode. If that doesn't work, you can move the data files to some other location, and apply the most recent patch from IV, and play without Steam at all, but I didn't mention this solution for three reasons:
1) If he can get Darwinia to work offline with Steam, there is no reason to go further.
2) This solution is a bit complicated, and I didn't really want to get into the details (and still don't).
3) It is an unsupported solution -- if one uses it, they cannot really expect to get help from Valve or IV.

xander

[Montyphy]

Fair enough

[trickfred]

...Plus, once you have the files downloaded from Steam, couldn't you just make a copy of them somewhere, then slap the latest stand-alone patch over top of the copy of the files to 'sever' the Steam link? (Didn't Lowell, or someone else, do this in order to beta-test the 1.4x patches?)

Edit: Too slow! I'm suffering from xanderism - loading a page, and posting 20 minutes later.

[xander]

...Plus, once you have the files downloaded from Steam, couldn't you just make a copy of them somewhere, then slap the latest stand-alone patch over top of the copy of the files to 'sever' the Steam link? (Didn't Lowell, or someone else, do this in order to beta-test the 1.4x patches?)

Edit: Too slow! I'm suffering from xanderism - loading a page, and posting 20 minutes later. :D

Oooo... "xanderism..." it has a name now!

Speaking of which, I went to the doctor the other day. Had some blood tests done, &c. You know the drill. Then, he disappeared into the back room for a bit. A few minutes later, he comes out and says, "Well, I have some bad news and some good news. Which would you like to hear first?"

Wanting to get the bad news out of the way first I elected to hear that first.

"Well," said he, "the bad news is that you are suffering from a disease that no one has ever seen before, and that you are going to die in a week."

Obviously shaken, I asked to hear the good news.

"On the bright side, at least the disease you are suffering has a name -- xanderitis -- we named it after you!"

xander

[trickfred]

...Plus, once you have the files downloaded from Steam, couldn't you just make a copy of them somewhere, then slap the latest stand-alone patch over top of the copy of the files to 'sever' the Steam link? (Didn't Lowell, or someone else, do this in order to beta-test the 1.4x patches?)

Edit: Too slow! I'm suffering from xanderism - loading a page, and posting 20 minutes later.

Oooo... "xanderism..." it has a name now!

Speaking of which, I went to the doctor the other day. Had some blood tests done, &c. You know the drill. Then, he disappeared into the back room for a bit. A few minutes later, he comes out and says, "Well, I have some bad news and some good news. Which would you like to hear first?"

Wanting to get the bad news out of the way first I elected to hear that first.

"Well," said he, "the bad news is that you are suffering from a disease that no one has ever seen before, and that you are going to die in a week."

Obviously shaken, I asked to hear the good news.

"On the bright side, at least the disease you are suffering has a name -- xanderitis -- we named it after you!"

xander

Dude, you are WAY too young to be telling jokes that lame.

[xander]

Dude, you are WAY too young to be telling jokes that lame.

I collect bad jokes. Don't get me started on elephants.

xander