I guess that's my cue...
David, I'm confident your problem isn't Nod32 or Windows security but rather that you have a CGNAT internet connection (going out on a limb here and assuming that a hobby shop doesn't have any enterprise networking in place).
There are a couple of ways to test for this:
If you know how to you can login to the store's modem and find the WAN IP address. If The WAN IP address of the modem falls in the number range 100.64.0.0 to 100.127.255.255 then you have a CGNAT connection.
If you don't know how or don't have login access to the store modem you can use the UDP test tool (found in the files section here on RailPro User Group) to run a PAT test. This will show you if the port numbers change (which would indicate a CGNAT connection if they do change). Do please read the documentation accompanying the UDP test tool if you wish to use it.
You can also try disabling Nod32 completely and trying RPA again to completely rule Nod32 out. I'd try that only after a CGNAT connection has been ruled out though.
Unfortunately if you do have a CGNAT connection there isn't a whole lot you can do expect:
1. Complain to Tim Ring that he still hasn't fixed the CGNAT problem
2. Ask your Internet Service Provider for a public IP address (they'll usually charge extra for this)
3. Ask your Internet Service Provider if they can give you the port that RPA uses (unlikely to happen)
4. Wait for an unknown amount of time until I can get a proxy sever running to negate the CGNAT issue.
Let us know how you go and we can take it from there.
Yes, I agree, it's probably been the largest issue facing Railpro overall , but looking over the search results, you'll see there are far fewer posts about this issue in 2019 than in previous years.
But is that, as a statistic, an accurate representation of the issue? I'd say we have but a fraction of the number of RP users out there on this forum, and of the users on this forum only a fraction of them post anything. I think it's reasonable to assume that the issue is more widespread than we think it might be; it's just that we don't hear about it here.
- Tim