I have a brand new (work) notebook running Windows 7 Professional that came with a 3-year subscription to NIS 2012. For my work, I need to use an Excel 2010 program that gets real-time stock price data from another program (eSignal). The smart firewall appears to be blocking communication.
I have gotten it to work at my office (on a network designated as a Work network) by a) rebooting, b) disabling the smart firewall, c) launching the two applications, and d) re-enabling the smart firewall. This procedure also works some of the time on my home network (which I have designated as a Home network), but does not work consistently.
The real problem is that I need to use these two programs when I'm on the road, including when I'm on Public networks. I have not been able to get the programs to communicate in such circumstances even when I disable the smart firewall.
I did not have these problems with my old computer running Windows XP and NIS 200X.
Is there a way to allow communication between these two programs so that a) they will work on Public networks and b) I won't need to disable the firewall, even temporarily?
Thanks for your help!
P.S. - Let me describe the symptoms: I launch the real-time data program. Then I launch Excel. Then I press a button on an add-in menu (it is a COM add-in) to build the spreadsheet I want. Normally, the spreadsheet gets built, pulling real-time data from the eSignal data application. With NIS 2012, the spreadsheet build just hangs, waiting for data (the spreadsheet program designers say that the log shows that the program is waiting for data). I then have to kill Excel and start over.