Firewall vs LAN

[John]

Hi

I had turned on firewall when setting a win xp machine with a peer-peer LAN.
A few days later the pc stopped access to a mapped drive. I turned off the
firewall and the mapped drive is accessible again. What is the solution to
this problem? If I keep firewall off, the PC is venerable.

Regards

 

[Phil]

If you have lan, then you should have a hardware firewall. A router that
does NAT and SPI will work fine. Then you don't need the xp firewall on
because the router protects your network.
Or, you can also open the file and printer sharing ports in the xp firewalls
exception tab and that should let mapped drives to work correctly with the
xp firewall on, but a hardware firewall is really the way to go.

 

[Guest]

I agree with Phil. The best place for a firewall is
between your LAN and the big bad Internet. Firewalling
your PCs from your own LAN will always be a compromise
between safety and functionality.

 

[Mike]

-----Original Message-----
Hi

I had turned on firewall when setting a win xp machine with a peer-peer LAN.
A few days later the pc stopped access to a mapped drive. I turned off the
firewall and the mapped drive is accessible again. What is the solution to
this problem? If I keep firewall off, the PC is venerable.

Regards


.
Heed Phil's warning. Never share files or printers while

connected to the Internet. One of my contracts is with a
Cable Internet Service Provider. I have lots of stories
to tell about people who share files and map drives
without firewall protection. I am assuming you are
connected to the Internet since you did not mention it.
If you are not you do not need a firewall of any kind. If
you have a broadband connection there are several
broadband routers that are affordable. Linksys, US
Robotics, Netgear, DLink. I have sold all of these at one
time or another. Had some trouble with DLink backing
their warranty once. I no longer sell DLink but I know
lots of people who are satisfied with DLink products. US
Robotics and Linksys are stackable and look good. Take
your pick