service pack 2 and now internet won't run

[wes]

I loaded the service pack 2 and now access to several
internet sites is blocked. Also now all of my internet
games are blocked. What happened? It worked before
service pack 2 was installed. The service pack is the
only change to my machine. How do I get my machine to
work properly again? Any suggestions would help.

 

[John Barnett MVP]

A quick guess is the new windows firewall. I had a similar problem but,
unfortunately, haven't had time to sort it out. My solution, for the
present, was to disable the firewall and use my third party sygate firewall.
Everything has run ok since. *Do Not* disable the windows firewall yet. See
if you can access either www.zonelabs.com or www.sygate.com and download
their 'free' firewall. Once downloaded disconnect from the internet and
'then' disable the windows firewall and install either zonealarm or sygate
and see if that makes any difference. To disable the windows firewall go to
Control Panel and click the Windows Firewall icon. When the windows firewall
window opens place a mark in the 'Off' option and then click Ok
Personally a third party firewall is better than windows own firewall.