Internet Time Blocked by Firewall

[Michael Gerbasio]

Hi,
I have Norton Internet Security 2007 installed on Vista Business x64. I
can't get the time on my pc to update Internet Time when the firewall is on.
I contacted Symantec, but they weren't helpful. I guess I need t ogive the
time applet permission to get past the firewall, but I don't know the name
and neither does symantec. Any ideas? Thanks.

Regards-Michael G.

 

[Paul Smith]

I have Norton Internet Security 2007 installed on Vista Business x64. I
can't get the time on my pc to update Internet Time when the firewall is
on. I contacted Symantec, but they weren't helpful. I guess I need t ogive
the time applet permission to get past the firewall, but I don't know the
name and neither does symantec. Any ideas? Thanks.

The time service is NTP and uses port 123.

However I would not have any Norton software installed on my machine, I'd
recommend using the built in Firewall, which doesn't block everything under
the Sun for no good reason. Then using AVG (http://free.grisoft.com/) or
NOD32 (http://www.eset.com/) for anti-virus.

Who knows why Norton have their firewall setup to block non-malicious
internet traffic out of the box which practically every Windows machine
uses. The amount of problems these heavy security suites cause is
unbelievable, and the number of hours wasted troubleshooting is
astronomical.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.dasmirnov.net/blog/
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*

 

[Michael Gerbasio]

Paul,
Thanks, I'll see if I can get it going.

Actually I agree with you on the Norton comment. There was a time when I
wouldn't consider anything else. However, it came as spamware on a Vista x64
pc and I didn't want to spend days looking and reading for something better
as Mcafee doesn't run on x64 yet.I need to hit the ground running with this
notebook and will take a closer look later.

So, from the something is better than nothing school, I'm using it for the
next 30-90 days, whatever it comes with. I've read a few good reviews of it
actually, either pcmag or cnet.

Regards-Michael G.

 

[Spirit]

Here is some more info that might also help :

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307897
Vista is same as here

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1459955&SiteID=17
Discussion with excellent tips if you need more help.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/262680
Listing of time servers available on internet

http://www.helpwithwindows.com/windowsxp/tune-17.html
Add time servers - same in Vista

 

[Guest]

I find the most worrying thing about this post is that the mighty (sic)
Symantec couln't explain how to open the NTP port in their own firewall!!
Very good advert as to why not to use them.

However the reply is not all that accurate as Windows Vista firewall also
blocks NTP by default! Microsofts own help does not even recognise the term
NTP !! I also note that NTP is classed as an unrequested incoming message
when it is always requested, howver a partial answer was hinted at in that
the request is a UDP ? on another port with the NTP packet returning on 123.
But how do we set this up in windows firewall?? My Kerio firewall on XP
handles it transparently in the standard settings - roll on the Vista version.

My business server at work has a special tick box for NTP and it documents
it as "NTP packets are akllowed only within 1 second of a corresponding
request to the same IP address", this seems a million miles from how desktop
firewalls handle it.