Service Pack 2 & Fire Walls

[Guest]

Our local newspaper stated that Service Pack 2 will automaticaly turn on the
XP firewall. Would llike to know if this means I have to turn off my McAfee
Firewall to avoid a conflict with the XP firewall.

I realize this is a premature question but maybe some beta tester might
know the answer.

 

[Guest]

XP SP2 RC2 firewall is easily turned off an on. This firewall is designed for
XP and so is fully compatable across all platforms. McAfee on the other hand
is not designed specifically for XP. The native firewall in XP provides
excellent security for most users but the very very paranoid will require
more functions to monitor outgoing as well as incoming. MS is attempting to
make the firewall compatible with most third party ones but obviously with a
limitless number of system configurations out there it's impossible to test
them all. So all that can be said at present is there 'shouldn't' be any
conflicts but if you do experiance problems simply turn on of the firewalls
off. After all you only need one. }:~)

 

[Wesley Vogel]

It's my understanding that if XP SP2 sees a 3rd party firewall running, it
turns XP's firewall off.

 

[Jeffrey Struyk - MVP]

It's my understanding that if XP SP2 sees a 3rd party firewall running, it
turns XP's firewall off.

Not in my case. I run Kerio Personal Firewall. Installing SP2 simply
added another firewall to my machine. It seems to run fine with both
of them working. I don't expect that I am getting much extra
protection from running two, but it doesn't seem to have any adverse
effects.

 

[Steve Shattuck]

XP SP2 RC2 firewall is easily turned off an on. This firewall is designed for
XP and so is fully compatable across all platforms. McAfee on the other hand
is not designed specifically for XP. The native firewall in XP provides
excellent security for most users but the very very paranoid will require
more functions to monitor outgoing as well as incoming. MS is attempting to
make the firewall compatible with most third party ones but obviously with a
limitless number of system configurations out there it's impossible to test
them all. So all that can be said at present is there 'shouldn't' be any
conflicts but if you do experiance problems simply turn on of the firewalls
off. After all you only need one. }:~)

You need to read up on the features of the XP Firewall. IT IS AN INBOUND
ONLY FIREWALL, and as such is very inferior to other firewalls that provide
both inbound and outbound protection. While the new XP firewall is superior
to the old one, it's not nearly good enough to use. The best course is to
disable the XP firewall entirely rather than try to make more than one
firewall work efficiently.

 

[Mark Weinreb]

It will if the 3rd party firewall is SP2 compliant. For instance ZA 5.1.011
is SP2 compliant, and therefore XP's firewall remains off. Previous versions
of ZA weren't compliant, so you end up with both XP's firewall and ZA
running.
So far this weekend, I've applied SP2 to three machines, two with the latest
version of ZA, one with the prior version, so I speak from experience.

Well done Zone Alarm for releasing sp2 compliant versions (both the free
version and pro) before Microsoft released XP sp2.
Expect other firewall vendors to release sp2 compliant versions in the next
few weeks/months/when they can be bothered.

 

[Byron Hinson]

You can turn off your McAfee one when installing if you are worried, but by
default if SP2 notices that you have a 3rd party one running the XP firewall
shouldn't turn on. If you have a hardware firewall etc then you can just
switch off the XP Firewall off after installing as it isn't really needed.

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

I don't know that I'd say it isn't needed, Brian. The hardware firewall stop attacks from the outside, but not from malware getting out from the inside.

 

[Alex Nichol]

Our local newspaper stated that Service Pack 2 will automaticaly turn on the
XP firewall. Would llike to know if this means I have to turn off my McAfee
Firewall to avoid a conflict with the XP firewall.

You can turn off the XP one if you wish to use a different one. Indeed
if you get the latest build Zone Alarm, it will do so for you - and
without your being told. The benefit of the SP2 one is that it starts
up, giving protection, at a *very* early stage.

 

[robin]

how do you turn off the xp firewall in sp2 since it seems to be different
and in a different place?.
thanks
robin

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Understanding Windows Firewall
Introduction
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/security/internet/sp2_wfintro.mspx

Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) Support Center
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=windowsxpsp2

 

[Alex Nichol]

how do you turn off the xp firewall in sp2 since it seems to be different
and in a different place?.

It has its own item in Control Panel - Windows Firewall. In that there
is a global on/off; a page of exceptions to allow specific programs or
ports to have openings, and a page where you can set up different
connections separately, eg On for the Internet one, off for a LAN