Can't turn on the firewall

[John Smith]

My daughter's HP pavilion ze1230 laptop came home from college. She
primarily has been using desktop so the laptop has become mine. Trying to
set it up for myself (with my preferences) but having trouble getting the
win xp firewall on. It says the firewall is off because it's being
controlled by group policy. I've navigated to control panel, administrative
tools, services and it doesn't even give me an option to "start the service"
..
If I go into control panel then "windows firewall" both options are greyed
out. I can't turn it on or off. Under the general tab it states "for my
safety, some settings are being controlled by group policy".
I'd really like to get this turned back on since it's the only
firewall on the machine.

 

[S.Sengupta]

Troubleshooting Windows Firewall settings in Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=875357#XSLTH3241121123120121120120

See if the procedure given by Ramesh[MVP]in the link below
works for you.

http://tinyurl.com/b28qk
http://tinyurl.com/7sgc4

If that fails;you may post in the following newsgroup:-
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windows.networking.firewall



regards,
S.Sengupta[MS-MVP]

 

[Guest]

By the way, keep track of what you change for future reference!!!

 

[Guest]

Start>Run>gpedit.msc
Computer Configuration/Admin Templates/Network/Network Connections
even Windows Firewall under Net connect...

Look around for anything that is enabled.

All mine ( under this entire policy) are not configured!!

 

[John Smith]

I'll look into the posted KB and other suggestions. Thanks.
I'm wondering if it may have anything to do with my daughter coming off of
a college domain.Do you suppose the university overrides personal settings
for security reasons?

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Reset the Windows Firewall Policy settings to defaults:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/resetfwpol.htm

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User

Windows XP Troubleshooting
http://www.winhelponline.com


My daughter's HP pavilion ze1230 laptop came home from college. She
primarily has been using desktop so the laptop has become mine. Trying to
set it up for myself (with my preferences) but having trouble getting the
win xp firewall on. It says the firewall is off because it's being
controlled by group policy. I've navigated to control panel, administrative
tools, services and it doesn't even give me an option to "start the service"
..
If I go into control panel then "windows firewall" both options are greyed
out. I can't turn it on or off. Under the general tab it states "for my
safety, some settings are being controlled by group policy".
I'd really like to get this turned back on since it's the only
firewall on the machine.

 

[Guest]

Why not forget the windows firewall altogether and use "zone alarm" instead
it is free and much more sophisticated and user configurable than the
Microsoft product.
I know this does not directly answer your question but it should solve the
problem.

 

[John Smith]

I've used ZA in the past. It did a good job except for the fact that I've
still got "dialupasaurus" and I think it slowed my already painfully slow
connection to the point that I dumped it. Besides I always did like a
challenge when it comes to computers. Nothing better than beating the
machine and claiming victory over rebel software and glitches.

 

[Guest]

John

I quite agree with your comments about beating the machine too many people
these days have the "cant fix it - cant be bothered" attitude.

Good Luck

Mike

 

[Alias]

John

I quite agree with your comments about beating the machine too many people
these days have the "cant fix it - cant be bothered" attitude.

Good Luck

Mike

Keeps computer repair people in business though ;-)

 

[John Smith]

Just what I needed! Visited your link and followed instructions to delete
the Windows firewall key under HKLM/software/policies/microsoft/windows
firewall. Just like magic after the reboot the firewall was back on and
configurable. Didn't have an entry under HKCU so nothing ended up being
deleted there.
This solution also seemed to fix the trouble I was having d'loading
updates from AVG. It couldn't seem to find my current dialup connection.
Again after the reboot I was able to get the latest from AVG succesfully.
Don't know what could have caused the firewall settings to change,
(virus, I had one. or SP2 install or college's policy about security) but
seems to be back to "normal" now. Thanks a lot everyone for the help.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

You're welcome John. Follow-up with Malware cleanup, just in case.

Trend Micro Sysclean package
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=10820

The Parasite Fight - Quick Fix Protocol:
http://aumha.org/a/quickfix.php

AVG Anti-Virus: (freeware)
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


Just what I needed! Visited your link and followed instructions to delete
the Windows firewall key under HKLM/software/policies/microsoft/windows
firewall. Just like magic after the reboot the firewall was back on and
configurable. Didn't have an entry under HKCU so nothing ended up being
deleted there.
This solution also seemed to fix the trouble I was having d'loading
updates from AVG. It couldn't seem to find my current dialup connection.
Again after the reboot I was able to get the latest from AVG succesfully.
Don't know what could have caused the firewall settings to change,
(virus, I had one. or SP2 install or college's policy about security) but
seems to be back to "normal" now. Thanks a lot everyone for the help.