It took me three days to discover this while building the site - I couldn't log into the site and I was driven insane trying to find out why ... so read carefully.

If you have problems registering with a site it is most likely to be your firewall that is causing it and I have found a fantastic site where you can check if this is the case.

Visit this pageand it will automatically test whether your firewall is blocking registrations.

Look at the image in the box and then scroll down to see what your firewall is up to.

If your firewall is blocking registrations it's probably being a bit over-zelaous and saying "I don't trust anything on the net, therefore I'm not going to let you do anything"

What you need to do is set your firewall to trust this site so that you can register with us. The following instructions will only apply to this site and you will get problems registering at other sites unless you do exactly the same thing for those sites.

I know its a pain but its better to have the protection of a firewall and put up with little inconveniences like this than risk your computers security. So DO NOT turn off your firewall! Instead take a little time - five minutes at most - to change your settings.

I have searched the internet and found as many fixes as I can for all the different firewalls and they are listed below.

For the technically minded here is an explanation of why the problem occurs ....

Firewalls prevent unauthorised data being transferred from and to your computer. This effects data between applications connecting websites. Usually firewall users can "allow" permitted applications to transfer data and set various levels of security.

For example, this site uses the HTTP_REFERRER information to check if you're registered or logged into the website. Some firewalls (most notably software firewalls such as Norton and ZoneAlarm) block this information being sent to the server. This could prevent you from registering or logging into this site. Typically this becomes evident when you log into the website, the login is confirmed, and you still see the 'login' box on the page, and you're not logged in at all.

Also, When you click a Web page, your browser notes the current page that you are on and sends that information to the server of the new Web page. This way, the server for the new Web page knows the last Web page that you viewed and logs it so that you can use your browsers back button.

For example, if you are on www.symantec.com and click www.microsoft.com , the browser sends www.microsoft.com the information that you are currently viewing www.symantec.com. If you block referrer information, the server of the page you are requesting to see does not know what page you saw last. By default, Norton Internet Security (NIS) and Norton Personal Firewall (NPF) block this information. If the server doesn't recieve that information the server may think that you are a not a valid user and will block your access to the site.

The solution is to add the site you're trying to log into to the Trusted Sites list of your firewall application.

Norton Internet Security 2003/2004:

1. Open NIS or NPF.
2. Do one of the following.
* In NIS/NPF 2003, click Options > Internet Security or Personal Firewall (This step is not always needed), and then click the Web Content tab.
* In NIS/NPF 2004, double-click Privacy Control, and then click Advanced.
3. Click Add Site. A new site/domain box appears.
4. Enter www.worldwidemediums.com and click OK. The site name now appears in the left frame of the Options window.
5. Click the name of the new site.
6. Click the Global Settings tab.
7. In the "Information about visited sites" section, clear "Use default settings."
8. Click Permit.
9. Click OK to close the Options window.

Norton Internet Security 2002 (or earlier):

1. Open NIS or NPF.
2. Click Options.
3. Click Internet Security or Personal Firewall. (This step is not always needed.) The Options window appears.
4. Click Advanced Options.
5. Click the Web tab.
6. Click Add Site. A new site/domain box appears.
7. Enter www.worldwidemediums.com and click OK. The site name now appears in the left frame of the Advanced Options window.
8. Click the name of the new site.
9. Click the Privacy tab.
10. Check the "Use these rules for..." box.
11. Change the Referrer from "Block" to "Permit."
12. Click Apply, and then click OK.
13. Click OK to close the Options window.

Zone Alarm Pro:

1. Click Privacy
2. Click Cookie Control
3. Click Custom
4. Uncheck "remove private header information"

McAfee Privacy Service


Right-click the red "M" icon by your system clock.
Click "Privacy Service."
Click "Options."
The McAfee Privacy Service window appears. Click the "Cookies" tab.
Enter each website address from which you would like to allow cookies.
Click "Add."
Once completed, close the window.

If anyone else knows of how to fix this problem with other firewalls please feel free to post here