XP SP2 Firewall Problem

[Guest]

The security center on my computer shows my Firewall is OFF on the general
tab with a comment, "Your network admin is using group policy to control
these settings.". The option to turn on the Firewall is grayed out -
therefore not available. The Advanced Tab says the Firewall is enabled for
my dial up connection and a network connection that is not activated. Note,
my computer is a stand alone machine that accesses the internet thru a dial
up connection so I don't need network administration. I'm not sure if these
issues were mistakes I made when setting up the dial up connection or the
result of Spybot.worm that infected my computer, but has been cleaned (I
think).
I'd appreciate any guidance on how to turn the Firewall ON for my dial up
connection. I'd also like to simplify things by getting rid of unnecessary
group policies/network administration.
Thanks
J

 

[Steven L Umbach]

If you are using XP Pro open local Group Policy while logged on as a local
administrator and go to computer configuration/administrative
templates/network/network connections/Windows firewall and in both standard
and domain profiles set the option for protect all network connections to
enabled and enable any other settings there you want to use. Otherwise
delete the following registry keys while logged on as a local administrator
using regedit for XP Pro or XP Home. --- Steve

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/depfwset/wfsp2ngp.mspx

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsFirewall
\DomainProfile \EnableFirewall=1 (DWORD data type)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsFirewall
\StandardProfile \EnableFirewall=1 (DWORD data type)