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However, I have installed the s/w without disabling the Windows Base Filtering Engine (BFE) service in Windows 7, as is required, according to TT.
This now is causing all sorts of issues, meaning I cannot run X_Trader Pro on my Windows 7 computer.
For those who do not know, the BFE service is integral to Windows and your PC's security and among other things controls all s/w firewalls, including Window's own. Diabling BFE apparently disables all s/w firewalls on your PC, including Windows' own.
I refuse to disable this core service, simply because TT are unable to work around the Windows (or any 3rd party s/w firewall). All other trading s/w vendors (Sierrachart, Multichart, Ninjatrader, CQG QTrader etc) manage to do this seamlessly and without problem.
I wanted to hear from other users, whether they share this concern or whether they do not mind. Are you all comfortable running a trading worstation without any PC securitty?
I have also posted this thread on the TT support forum.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
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Since he opened this thread here, it only seems to right to update it.
For anybody interested the thread that Mark/met68 opened over at the TT Forums can be found here.
TT's response was that
Mark/met68 was unwilling to try option 1 and unable to get option 2 to work, and appears to now be a very unsatisfied ex-free trial customer.
He complained a lot about customer service but I'm not sure whether he was dealing with AMP or with TT directly. In my approximately 10 years of dealing with TT, every time I have had a problem, I normally have a TT customer service rep remoting into my computer within a few hours to look at and resolve the problem, so I found this surprising.
I did check my desktop and can confirm that BFE is disabled. It should probably be pointed out that TTs Xtrader Pro, has been around, and working flawlessly for a lot longer than Window's 7 has been! Xtrader is sophisticated high end software, that can respond to quotes and route orders in milliseconds. As such any outside latency can have significant performance degradation. Doesn't make an issue like this alright, but does change the perspective slightly. Of course if you running Xtrader on a co-located server you probably have no issue at all switching off BFE, or many other unneeded windows process to help performance.
DISCLAIMER: I have no affiliation with TT at all, just a (very) long term user of XTrader.
Just to clarify, I spoke with both AMP and TT tech support. As I explained, there is no way I will diable the BFE Service in Windows 7, as I need it for my Windows 7 firewall to run and for IPsec VPN's, which I use a lot (IPsec VPN's will not run without the BFE Service enabled).
I have tried without disabling the BFE Service and instead with opening all the relevant ports inbound and outbound in the Windows Firewall as instructed by the TT tech support, but that did not work either.
So, in conclusion, if customers are unable or unwilling to terminate the BFE Service, they are unable to run X-Trader Pro. Or, in other words, it is not possible to use X_Trader Pro on a secure stand-alone worstation in a standard retail environment (i.e. without professional industrial-grade h/w firewalls), based on my findings, as all s/w firewalls (and IPsec VPN's) have to be disabled for X_Trader Pro to run.
But if anybody has been able to do so, I would still be very interested to hear about ut.
Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, VM may be a solution, that I had not thought about. I have not used VM's yet and not sure how they work, in terms of security, especially if I run the VM locally, rather than hosted (i.e. is my worstation at risk, if I run an unsecured VM locally?).
Also, I would obviously need an additional Windows licence. But that may be a price worth paying. Were you thinking of a hosted VM, and if so, could you recommend a Windows hoster/ package, ideally with a DC in or close to Chicago? And if not, do you know whether local workstation security can be compromised, if I chose to run an unsecured local VM?
The VM will add even more latency to your trading and the things are getting more complicated. I will suggest that you work on an solution to let your BFE enabled and open the X-Trader ports. The BFE service (with attached consumers like FireWalls, Virusscanner) adds more latency to ALL trading software products if the regarding traffic isn't excluded. The BFE service for himself is unvisible for X-Trader. If it is not working at all, reinstall your (hopefully dedicated) trading PC and let the X-Trader team install their product and make the required settings. It's a very expensive product, so i think they will help you out by all means.
As I have said, I have tried the scenario of leaving BFE service on and opening the required ports on the firewall, working with TT support, but this scenario does not work (at least for me, which is why I am soliciting feedback/ advice from users who may have gotten this to work). That is the whole point of this thread.
I've realized your journey. But for this purpose i've recommended to reinstall your whole system. Currently something is wrong with your system, if the TT support couldn't help you.
Are you suggesting, that on your machine, you get X_Trader Pro to work without disabling the BFE service and instead, just opening the necessary ports? (Even TT state, that the s/w will not run properly without disabling the BFE service). I really don't think there is anything wrong with my machine, as I have only just installed it recently. And I have no special configurations. Standard Windows 7 out of the box.
Anyway, unless somebody comes-up with a panacea to this issue, I will continue trading with Sierrachart and Multicharts.Net instead, both of which, especially the former, I have come to like quite a lot.
