[Crankshaft]

There could be a host of things you have left out. Are you running the game in OpenGL or Direct X, it's an OpenGL game, so make sure you have that checked. You did not mention what driver you are running for your video card, get the latest one from nvidia site for your GPU. Make sure you are getting the setup correct in IL-2 settings Start/All programs/ubi soft/IL2 1946/Setup for your video card. Also go to Start/Run type in dxdiag hit OK, when its done running go to the sound tab and make sure the Hardware Sound Acceleration level is set to "Standard" especially if you are using onboard sound chip and not a dedicated sound card. I have an Audigy 2 and I still set mine to standard. What ever sound you are using make sure you have the latest driver installed. If the game runs the same on and offline it might not be a firewall issue but could be a antivirus issue, try dissabling one and then both, and see if it improves your fps. One thing I have also found from way back when the game came out is to have the latest Java runtime environment package installed in your computer too. go to their website
http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp right below the download button it has the statement "Do I have Java" hit that button and it will scan your puter and tell you what you have, and recommend a download to get you up to speed. Make sure all your Cat 5 cables are good from your puter to your modem. Other than that there's no telling what could be your problem. Also go download Crap Cleaner at this site http://www.ccleaner.com/ read the tutorial and run the Cleaner and registry cleaner, and do that at least once a week, the first time you run it, it will take a bit, and you will not believe the amount of Crap you have in your temp files and bad install strings, and registry entries.

Good luck.......................

aka: =DFA= BeoWolf