How to Fully Deactivate Firewall in SP2?

[Mark]

Hi,

I've got a one year-old Gateway (XP Home) running Zone Alarm, and I'd
like to turn off the Windows SP2 firewall. The problem is, it won't
turn off completely...

I've gone into control panel, clicked Security Center, and clicked
Windows Firewall at bottom, and Deactivated it. But after reboot, the
Windows Firewall asks if I want to block programs X, Y,.... It's
still on! When I check the Security Center, the Firewall light says
"ON", even though the Windows Firewall (at bottom) panel says it's
OFF.

I'm wondering if the Windows Security Center is detecting Zone Alarm
and that's why it says ON (green). But, I've no idea why the Windows
Firewall keeps trying to block programs, even when it says it's off. I
just keep clicking "Ask Me Later", so I can tell when it's actually
off.

Any idea on how to Fully Shut the thing OFF? What processes or
services need to be squashed and how to I nix them?

I've done some homework on this, and looked at..
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg0204.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/support/wftshoot.mspx
and several KB articles...but can't find the answer...

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>netsh firewall show state

Firewall status:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Profile = Standard
Operational mode = Disable
Exception mode = Enable
Multicast/broadcast response mode = Enable
Notification mode = Enable
Group policy version = None
Remote admin mode = Disable

Thanks in advance,

Mark

 

[David Parkes]

The only way to turn it completely off is by:

START --> RUN-- <Type>

services.msc

Scroll down to the bottom until you find windows firewall/internet
connection sharing. Double click it. From the drop down menu select disable,
stop it and then click apply.

 

[Guest]

If you are running Zone Alarm 6x, it turns off the Windows Firewall itself,
because you should not have two software firewalls running at the same time.

That green firewall ON means the other software firewall.

If you turn it off, XP will bring up a message from the Security Center
saying that your PC is vulnerable because it no longer has firewall
protection.

Eric,
PC Buyer Beware!
http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/

 

[Mark]

Hi David,

Thanks...I'll give it a try.

On thing that's strange on this Gateway, is that there's no
gpedit.msc. Some of the KBs say to control things from gpedit, but
when I type it on this machine, it says no service found. Is this
normal?

Mark

 

[Malke]

Hi David,

Thanks...I'll give it a try.

On thing that's strange on this Gateway, is that there's no
gpedit.msc. Some of the KBs say to control things from gpedit, but
when I type it on this machine, it says no service found. Is this
normal?

You apparently have XP Home Edition. The Group Policy Editor is not
available in Home Edition. To manage Home Edition machines, try Doug
Knox's Security Console or the MS Shared Computer Toolkit.

http://www.dougknox.com
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sharedaccess/default.mspx

Malke

 

[Mark]

I stopped the Firewall service, so it's off for sure. Thanks.

 

[Rock]

Hi David,

Thanks...I'll give it a try.

On thing that's strange on this Gateway, is that there's no
gpedit.msc. Some of the KBs say to control things from gpedit, but
when I type it on this machine, it says no service found. Is this
normal?

Mark

The group policy editor, gpedit, is only available in XP Pro so if you
have XP Home that's why.

 

[Mark]

It's also on Windows XP Media Center...just to add some confusion

 

[Rock]

It's also on Windows XP Media Center...just to add some confusion

That's not confusing. Media Center is a superset of XP Pro so you would
expect it.