Can't change Firewall Settings (Greyed Out)

[Guest]

I have a Dell PC that I recently loaded XP SP2 on and after the reboot I am
no longer able to go into the Firewall Settings and enable or disable it as
needed. I have a Unix Server that was originally sharing the printer that was
installed on that Dell and it can't access it any longer. I need to get this
fixed. Any ideas?

 

[Evolution]

Check Services to see if Security Center service is enabled/running.
Start -- Run -- Services.msc --

I've had a friend with the same problem. We still aren't able to get it
fixed. Any additional input from others are appreciated.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for trying to help but that didn't dp anything for me either. I had
tried just about everything to resolve this before I posted my message
initially. About 2 hours after I did I took and did a search in REGEDIT for
"irewall" references and compared this machine to another machine running XP
and found some keys that had been added to the machine that wasn't working so
I removed them and I also found some keys that had been enabled that should
have been disabled so I did and did a reboot. Once the reboot happened I was
able to change things again but my initial problem is still there.

The problem now remains as follows:

Can find anything that I am sharing on the network from any of the other
computers and can install or copy from aany of them. I still can't from any
of the other computers have access to the SHARED FOLDER or the SHARED PRINTER
I have installed on this PC. As a temporary fix I moved the SHARED PRINTER to
another PC in the office that unfortunately is running Win98 so that they can
use the SHARED PRINTER. I still need to resolve the issue so that I could
rehook the printer back to this PC.

 

[Mustafoinc]

go to command prompt
start ---> run ---> cmd and hit enter

at prompt type:
netsh firewall reset

should solve ur prob. let me know if it doesn't

If it still doesn't then one other thing i can think right away is that
you have a third party firewall software (e.g. notron internet
security, macafee internet with firewall) installed that is controlling
the firewall and therefore windows firewall is disabled.

Shizzle, even if this don't work. Eradicate all ur spyware using
Lavasoft Ad-Aware and Spybot. Sometimes spyware and viruses disable
firewalls. Good luck

 

[Kyuzo]

Well, this problem is different from your first post. Check if you have File
and Printer Sharing installed. Also, do you have a third party firewall that
might be blocking access to the computer (the one sharing the printer)? If
so, you might need to configure it.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply and suggestions listed. Let me make a few things clearer
for you and anyone else who might reply to this thread. I DO NOT HAVE ANY
FIREWALL software installed other than what comes with XP SP2 which I wanted
disabled. I have a VPN Router on the network that prevents most if not all
the problems I would want firewall software for.

I have FILE & PRINTER SHARING (ENABLED). Orginally the PC had problems and a
new MB had to be installed. A few days later the machine stopped working
right. I ran virus checks on it & spyware/ad-ware checks and it found
nothing. I tried to do simple updates from Windows & Office update site and
the system went whacko and I was having a problem with (RPC) and the system
shutting down 1 minute after I logged into the system.

I decided to do a complete system reload from the RESTORE CD and then get
all patches placed back on the system. During the reload process I started
having issues that I couldn't explain so I tried to uninstall XP SP2 to
resolve it and reload it but continued to have proiblems. I did one more
reload and after each step I created a restore point in case I needed to go
backwards. During the reinstallation of NAv2006 I found out I had a virus in
some of the software I had on a CD to reload the system with.

I removed it and then proceeded to get all of the latest updates from
Symantec. After several reboots I ran another virus scan and it found several
more viruses that the initial quickscan hadn't. I removed them and rebooted
the system and then ran Yahoo's AntiSpyware program and removed what it found
on the system. I ran another full system scan from NAV2006 and the system was
now clean.

I proceeded to get the remaining updates from Windows before I installed XP
SP2 which I created a restore point before starting that. I installed SP2 and
then rebooted the system. I went back to Windows Update and got the
remainging few updates. After a reboot I I created another restore point and
then proceeded to install Office 2003 completely.

After yet another system reboot I installed all of the Office updates and
then rebooted once more and created another restore point. Now I installed
AIM and the other required software that the client needed on this PC. I
brought the PC back to their office and put it in place and loaded the
printer software and setup the SHARE for it and the one folder where software
is kept to be installed on any of the PC's as needed.

I went to the Unix Server that has FILE & PRINTER SHARING enabled on it and
tried to reinstall the SHARED PRINTER from this PC and it just hiung there
and would not install. I then went to one of the (3) other XP machines and
the (1) Win98 machine and tried to install the SHARED PRINTER and was unable
to do so. I started to check all of the settings and found the FIREWALL
SETTINGS to be greyed out so I couldn't ENABLE or DISABLE it.

I went to Network SETUP Wizard and went back through the process to make
sure the system was setup the way it was before. I made sure the SHARE NAMES
of the printer and folder were correct and the proper access was set. I still
wasn't able to do anything with it. I went into REGEDIT and compared it to
other PC running XP and found entries that were not in one that was working
after searching for "irewall" then removed and rebooted PC. When it came back
up I was able to enable or disable FIREWALL but it had no affect.

Sorry for the lengthy story of the CPU but I figure this should make it
clearer for all you kind people who are trying to help me.

Thanks again for your support.

Joel

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the suggestion. I will have the client try this on Monday and see
if it resolves it. If it does great and if it doesn't then I will keep trying.

Joel

 

[Guest]

The client tried what you said and we had no resolution the problem remains.
I am going to open a new thread and explain this in detail to see if I get
any answers.
Thanks for your suggestions though.

Joel