Firewall Settings

[Guest]

In control panel under Net Connections on Adv tab I have ICF checked to enable the XP Firewall; can someone tell me which services under "settings" I can safely allow? When I have all unchecked, IE 6 keeps crashing.

 

[sgopus]

There is no point to disabling that many services, as you
noticed it grinds your pc to a halt.
The firewall within XP is very basic, get a better one.
One that monitors outgoing as well as incoming.
Zonealarm does this look at zonelabs.com

-----Original Message-----
In control panel under Net Connections on Adv tab I have

ICF checked to enable the XP Firewall; can someone tell me
which services under "settings" I can safely allow? When
I have all unchecked, IE 6 keeps crashing.

 

[David Candy]

All should be checked unless you have a reason not to.

 

[Guest]

All should be CHECKED ? Huh ?

-----Original Message-----
All should be checked unless you have a reason not to.

message (e-mail address removed)...have ICF checked to enable the XP Firewall; can someone
tell me which services under "settings" I can safely
allow? When I have all unchecked, IE 6 keeps crashing.

 

[David Candy]

Unchecked. Set to block all.

 

[Guest]

OK that's what I thought . . .

-----Original Message-----
Unchecked. Set to block all.

--
----------------------------------------------------------
http://home.comcast.net/~wizardofwhimsy/index.html

All should be CHECKED ? Huh ?

-----Original Message-----
All should be checked unless you have a reason not to.

message (e-mail address removed)...

In control panel under Net Connections on Adv tab I

have ICF checked to enable the XP Firewall; can someone
tell me which services under "settings" I can safely
allow? When I have all unchecked, IE 6 keeps crashing.

.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the input. I know about zonealarm and will probably get it. I was just wondering if someone knew which of the boxes needed to be checked, say for, just normal Web browing and utilizinfg the newsgroup, etc. Clearly, when all are unchecked, I cannont do what I am doing now, using IE. However, with Netscape Navigator, I have no problems. On the other hand, when I checked all the boxes, which allows everything listed, I am able to use the newsgroup via IE without a problem. I would have thought I needed Remote Desktop checked, since I am using it, but I never have any problems with RD even when I didn't have it checked. Thanks, again.

 

[David Candy]

None of them. They are IF you are a web (or whatever) server. If netscape works obviously the firewall isn't interferring with your web access.

 

[Guest]

David, thanks for the reply. If I undersstand correctly, I don't need any of the items checked, because I am not a "server." is that correct?

By the way, I spoke too soon, althought my IE was working yesterday, it seems to have gone on the blink today. I had to revert ot NN. I know I'v got a prob with IE, but, for the life of me, I've not been able to "recover." Believe me, Ive tried as best I can, including reinstalling XP from the system disk that came with the system and downloading and installing all the updates. Oh, well, that's for another thread, I suppose...

Thanks, again, for your interest.

 

[David Candy]

That is correct. If you were www.microsoft.com you would have to tick web to allow people to connect to you. As a client (clients iniate conversations with servers) you don't as you only send traffic out with a reply address that the firewall memorses and so recognises when the reply comes back in. Firewalls stop the initial request as there is no reply address it its list of allowable conversations, so therefore it knows it's an unauthorised connection. Web servers of course need to take the request so it turn off the checking.

Client - please connect to 222.222.222.222 on port 80 (web server port) and send replies to 155.155.155.155 (your IP address) port 10000 (random port number)
Firewall makes a note of above and allows it out
The firewall will only accept a inbound data connection (ie the web page) from 222.222.222.222 (the server) addressed to 155.155.155.155 on port 10000.

This is known as a stateful firewall.

A typical user only EVER send requests and NEVER accepts conections it is not expecting.

Some features like messenger file transfer require one or both computers to be servers. Then you have to open a port to accept the clients request.

 

[CZ]

That is correct. If you were www.microsoft.com you would have to tick web
Client - please connect to 222.222.222.222 on port 80 (web server port) and
send replies to 155.155.155.155 (your IP address) port 10000 (random port
number)
Firewall makes a note of above and allows it out
The firewall will only accept a inbound data connection (ie the web page)
from 222.222.222.222 (the server) addressed to 155.155.155.155 on port
10000.

This is known as a stateful firewall.

David:

To add to your comment:
Note that NAT (Network Address Translation) in many end user routers does
similar blocking via a port table.
Also, a stateless f/w can do similar blocking with a rule that drops inbound
packets that have the SYN flag set by itself.

 

[Guest]

David and Others,<
Thanks for your feedback and advice. The purpose and use of the Firewall settings is clearer.