Mark said:
I cannot connect WMI Control to a remote SP2 machine (on the same
subnet). I've checked to ensure the correct TCP port is open as
per the KB article I found -- it is -- but still no joy.
Is there anyway to use WMI against a remote XP SP2 machine now,
or has MS blocked that forever?
Hi
WMI (or more correctly RPC/DCOM) uses TCP ports 135 and 445 as well
as dynamically-assigned ports above 1024.
To handle this, you need to enable "Allow remote administration
exception" for the firewall.
This can be done with gpedit.msc for a local computer, or push it out
with a AD GPO if possible. You can also use the command line tool
netsh.exe to do this, see further down for how.
From PolicySettings.xls available here:
Group Policy Settings Reference for Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...c0-19b9-4acc-b5be-9b7dab13108e&displaylang=en
<quote>
Administrative Templates\Network\Network Connections\Windows Firewall\<some> Profile
Windows Firewall: Allow remote administration exception
Allows remote administration of this computer using administrative
tools such as the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) and Windows
Management Instrumentation (WMI). To do this, Windows Firewall opens
TCP ports 135 and 445. Services typically use these ports to
communicate using remote procedure calls (RPC) and Distributed
Component Object Model (DCOM). This policy setting also allows
SVCHOST.EXE and LSASS.EXE to receive unsolicited incoming messages
and allows hosted services to open additional dynamically-assigned
ports, typically in the range of 1024 to 1034. If you enable this
policy setting, Windows Firewall allows the computer to receive the
unsolicited incoming messages associated with remote administration.
You must specify the IP addresses or subnets from which these
incoming messages are allowed. If you disable or do not configure
this policy setting, Windows Firewall does not open TCP port 135 or
445. Also, Windows Firewall prevents SVCHOST.EXE and LSASS.EXE from
receiving unsolicited incoming messages, and prevents hosted
services from opening additional dynamically-assigned ports. Because
disabling this policy setting does not block TCP port 445, it does
not conflict with the Windows Firewall: Allow file and printer
sharing exception policy setting. Note: Malicious users often
attempt to attack networks and computers using RPC and DCOM. We
recommend that you contact the manufacturers of your critical
programs to determine if they are hosted by SVCHOST.exe or LSASS.exe
or if they require RPC and DCOM communication. If they do not, then
do not enable this policy setting. Note: If any policy setting
opens TCP port 445, Windows Firewall allows inbound ICMP echo
request messages (the message sent by the Ping utility), even if the
Windows Firewall: Allow ICMP exceptions policy setting would block
them. Policy settings that can open TCP port 445 include Windows
Firewall: Allow file and printer sharing exception, Windows Firewall:
Allow remote administration exception, and Windows Firewall: Define
port exceptions.
</quote>
Using netsh.exe, you can configure this from command line as well,
like this:
netsh.exe firewall set service type=remoteadmin mode=enable scope=subnet profile=domain
If not a domain computer, you need to change to 'profile=standard' or
'profile=standard'. Scope can also be set to 'custom' and then you can
add ip ranges to the command line as well.
The netsh.exe syntax is documented in WF_XPSP2.doc.
WF_XPSP2.doc "Deploying Windows Firewall Settings for Microsoft
Windows XP with Service Pack 2" is downloadable from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4454e0e1-61fa-447a-bdcd-499f73a637d1