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Troubleshooting the Windows XP SP2 Firewall in Your Home Network

Configuration options aren't available

If the options on the General, Exceptions, and Advanced tabs aren't available (they're grayed out), it means you are not logged on to the computer with a user account that has administrative permissions. A user with administrative permissions must log on to the computer to change the firewall options, or to change your user account to an administrative account.

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How to turn on or turn off the firewall in Windows XP

Enable Windows Firewall in Windows XP SP2

1. Click Start, click Run, type Firewall.cpl, and then click OK.

2. On the General tab, click On (recommended), and then click OK

Edited by TheTerrorist_75
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Good idea. I just did, but Windows can't start the firewall service. Something like ICS or ISC service, I guess because it's in safe mode. I did safe mode with networking, but couldn't get online. I also noticed alot of things were disabled, like there wasn't any start menu and some things were just blank, such as Search. I did however make plenty of shortcuts to get to them again, such as Windows Firewall settings.

Thoughts?

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What anti-virus program are you using and does it have it's own firewall? In Services check Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) to see if it's set to Automatic and running. Also check to see if it's dependencies (Network Connection, Remote Procedure Call (RPC) and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)) are set to Automatic and running.

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As of today, I am using AVG. Yesterday, I removed Norton 06 and all of it's componants. I choose not to use other firewalls beside's Windows, however, if Windows firewall is ever turned off, then I will have to use something else. It is currently ON, but I do not have easy access to change it.

I checked services. Everything you mentioned is running, but I'm not sure about automatic. How do I tell? The one thing that is NOT running is RPC Locator.

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Norton! I believe that is your problem. There may still be files left behind causing the issue. To change a Service to Automatic double click on the service and under the General tab change the Startup type: box to Automatic, click Start button, clcik Apply then click OK. RPC Locater should be set to Manual. The regular RPC = Automatic. Network Connection and WMI both Automatic.

Using the Norton Removal Tool

Edited by TheTerrorist_75
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I doubt an repair install will help as this appears to be a SP2 issue. If 'pre-sp2' firewall worked; but uninstaling and reinstalling SP2 didn't help, it seems something else is messed up.

You could try the repair install, as you won't lose any of your data.

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Hi Everyone,

I worked with macfreeman7 this past weekend trying to clean everything up. I remotely connected to his machine and did a bunch of stuff. Let me try and recap what I did, but like I said it was a ton so I might miss one or two things.

1. I made sure his machine was completely virus/trojan/malware/rootkit free and it seems to be now.

2. I uninstalled Norton and installed AVG for him.

3. I ran a bunch of registry edits pertaining to the Windows Firewall.

4. I reset the Windows Firewall

5. I also had him uninstall and reinstall SP2 and as Matt stated above the firewall worked in SP1 and not in SP2.

6. I tried to edit some permissions but since it's XP Home it really wouldn't do much.

7. Restarted the firewall service

I believe that was everything.. I did not have him do a repair install, because I figured the SP2 uninstall/reinstall would have done the same thing as it however I could be wrong.

B

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I will try these ideas and get back to you guys.

Here's what you have to do:

1. run regedit to edit the registry

2. go to this location in the registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft

3. there should be a windowsfirewall key listed under Microsoft, delete just the entire windows firewall key, do not mess with the others.

4. Reboot and all should be fine.

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