XP Firewall Error

[Joe]

One of our senior group members who is using Windows XP has this problem

I have lost my firewall protection. The firewall appears to be off and when
I click on Windows firewall or Security centre the following message shows-

" Due to an unidentified problem, windows cannot display windows firewall
settings."


Has anyone got any thoughts on this. He has installed SP2.

 

[xfile]

Hi,

For your reference,

(1) Windows firewall off: Are there any other firewall software installed
(e.g. Norton Internet Security)? If so, it may not be a problem but a set
up issue since during installation or update process, some problems (such
NIS) will ask user's permission to turn off Windows firewall and let it do
the work. In this case, it's normal and should be ok (at least for me) to
turn off Windows firewall and let the other program do the job.

(2) Error Message: Any error message logged in Event Viewer (Go to - Control
Panel, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer, Application)? Also check if
Security Center service is enabled (Go to - Control Panel, Administrative
Tools, Services). It should be set to Automatic under Startup type, but you
may notice the status field is left blank which is ok.

Hope this helps.

 

[Joe]

Thank you xfile, I have passed your information on and will report back when
I know something.

 

[NotMe]

Another thought, it doesn't meet the exact criteris.
But after removing some spyware, winsock gets messed up.
from a command prompt
(start>run>cmd)
type
netsh winsock reset
<enter>
after running it, you'll need to reboot.