Matrix Games Forums

I'm having lots of trouble setting up a PBEM game - every
time I try and set up a game my opponent and I fail to be
able to play the first turn - usually we get "Security
Corruption" messages, but also we sometimes get simple
"Failed to Load" messages.

I'm running on SPWAW v7.1 (after downloading the upgrade from
v7.0 from the Matrix web-site). My opponent is running v7.0
(uploaded from a megacampaign
disk)

I've followed the instructions in the WAW manual as closely as I can.

Is there a problem in v7.0 that might be solved by my
opponent upgrading to v7.1?

Could there be a problem with corrupted e-mail game files
messing up the system every time we try and start again (i.e.
once one game has failed to work any subsequent ones fail as well?

Are there any other common pitfalls we might be stumbling upon?

Let's say first it would be surely better if both player are running same version.
If one of the two is much older than the other one, it can cause the pbem not to run.In your case I think 7.0 and 7.1 should be rather compatible, tough.
The security warning is caused by this difference in version, but normally you can bypass it.It should ask you: "do you want to continue?" Just say yes.
Again, best choice here is to both upgrade to 7.1; the 7.0
-->7.1 file is few MB only.
The other message(game failed to load), it oftenly occurs when files are not properly saved at the end of a pbem turn.
The reason for this is, in most case, the player not waiting enough before exiting Spwaw, at the end of the turn (tha is not giving enough time to the system for saving).

There are some differences between the OOB's included in 7.0 and 7.1, that's the likely source of your problem. Have your friend upgrade to 7.1 and try again. If it's still not working, hop over to the OOB forum and both of you grab the most recent OOBs.