SP2 Group Policy Configured Firewall activator/enabler?

[Bkaler]

I have a laptop that I recently enabled group policy firewall settings
for. The Policy works fine in nearly every way, except, when you
connect the laptop to ANY network; It automatically goes into domain
mode again (ie. no firewall). I tested it on another unlinked switch
(just to activate a
connection) and sure enough the firewall turns off!

I was wondering if anyone could enlighten me as to HOW windows
determines if it is or is not on the domain? To me, if you have not
logged onto the domain, you should clearly not be using the domain
profile. If it uses another method (such as locating a domain server)
that would be acceptable too, but I doubt this is used either.

I appologize in advance for any stupidity presented in this post, any
help or pointers into the workings of domain controlled firewalling is
appreciated!

 

[Torgeir Bakken \(MVP\)]

Hi,

From
The Cable Guy - May 2004
Network Determination Behavior for Network-Related Group Policy Settings
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg0504.mspx

<quote>
To apply this behavior to Windows Firewall settings:

() If the connection-specific DNS suffix of a currently connected
connection on the computer that is not PPP or SLIP-based (such as
an Ethernet or 802.11 wireless network adapter) matches the value
of the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group
Policy\History\NetworkName registry entry, Windows Firewall uses
the domain profile.

() If the connection-specific DNS suffix of a currently connected
connection on the computer that is not PPP or SLIP-based does not
match the value of the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group
Policy\History\NetworkName registry entry, Windows Firewall uses
the standard profile.


You can determine the connection-specific DNS suffixes of the
currently connected connections on the computer from the display
of the ipconfig command issued from a command prompt.

</quote>

Read the Cable Guy article for more about this.