Guest H.S. Posted July 12, 2008 Posted July 12, 2008 Hello, This is on a relative's Windows XP machine. I help him remotely now and then to solve his Windows or applications' problem. The last time I logged into his machine was a few months ago using VNC viewer. Just today he told me that he cannot access the internet. So I tried logging into his machine (using VNC) but it didn't work. After a small series of questions, I realized that his Windows firewall is turn ON and that was preventing me from opening a VNC session. I even tried making exception for VNC (port 5900) in the firewall, but to no avail. He is not able to browse either via Internet Explorer or Firefox. Now, I recall when I visited him last I had specifically switched off Windows firewall (his computer has Zone Alarm). The settings in Zone Alarm are as I expected -- so that part is okay. Clearly, something or somebody enabled the Windows firewall. Now, whatever I may try (all this is going on on a telephone, btw), I was not able to make him turn off his firewall. His user has administrative privileges, so that shouldn't be a problem. After a little web search, I followed the two steps given here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914230 Basically, I did "netsh winsock reset" and also reinstalled "%Windir%\Inf\Netfw.inf" file. These steps also did not help. The user is just unable to turn off the Windows firewall. So, what am I missing here? Can anybody give any advice on how to go about solving this problem? Thanks a ton. ->HS
Guest Nepatsfan Posted July 12, 2008 Posted July 12, 2008 Re: Help!! cannot disable (or turn off) Windows firewall "H.S." <hs.samREMOVEMEix@google.com> wrote in message news:%23PkQTD94IHA.784@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... > > Hello, > > This is on a relative's Windows XP machine. I help him remotely now and then > to solve his Windows or applications' problem. The last time I logged into his > machine was a few months ago using VNC viewer. > > Just today he told me that he cannot access the internet. So I tried logging > into his machine (using VNC) but it didn't work. > > After a small series of questions, I realized that his Windows firewall is > turn ON and that was preventing me from opening a VNC session. I even tried > making exception for VNC (port 5900) in the firewall, but to no avail. He is > not able to browse either via Internet Explorer or Firefox. > > Now, I recall when I visited him last I had specifically switched off Windows > firewall (his computer has Zone Alarm). The settings in Zone Alarm are as I > expected -- so that part is okay. Clearly, something or somebody enabled the > Windows firewall. > > Now, whatever I may try (all this is going on on a telephone, btw), I was not > able to make him turn off his firewall. > > His user has administrative privileges, so that shouldn't be a problem. > > After a little web search, I followed the two steps given here: > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914230 > Basically, I did "netsh winsock reset" and also reinstalled > "%Windir%\Inf\Netfw.inf" file. > > These steps also did not help. The user is just unable to turn off the Windows > firewall. > > So, what am I missing here? Can anybody give any advice on how to go about > solving this problem? > > Thanks a ton. > ->HS > An update to Windows, KB951748, which was released Tuesday, caused users running Zone Alarm to have problems with internet access. An updated version of Zone Alarm is available. If you want more info on the nature of the problem, do a Google search for Zone Alarm and KB951748. If you simply want to correct the problem on your relative's computer and move on, have your relative download and install the latest version of ZA. http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/pressReleases/2008/LossOfInternetAccessIssue.html Your relative will have to lower the security level in the Internet Zone to medium. This should restore internet access. Make sure the level is reset once the new version is installed. Good luck Nepatsfan
Guest H.S. Posted July 12, 2008 Posted July 12, 2008 Re: Help!! cannot disable (or turn off) Windows firewall Nepatsfan wrote: > http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/pressReleases/2008/LossOfInternetAccessIssue.html > > Your relative will have to lower the security level in the Internet Zone to > medium. This should restore internet access. Make sure the level is reset once > the new version is installed. > > Good luck hmm, okay. So,lower the security level, get internet access, get new Zone Alarm and upgrade it and see if it works out. That I get. I will try in the morning tomorrow. I did a search as you suggested and also read a very recent thread about that here. Thanks a ton for this pointer. But the big questions still remains, what is preventing him from switching off the Windows firewall? Regards, ->HS
Guest H.S. Posted July 12, 2008 Posted July 12, 2008 Re: Help!! cannot disable (or turn off) Windows firewall H.S. wrote: > > But the big questions still remains, what is preventing him from > switching off the Windows firewall? So, Anyone? ->HS > Regards, > ->HS > >
Guest Ken Blake, MVP Posted July 12, 2008 Posted July 12, 2008 Re: Help!! cannot disable (or turn off) Windows firewall On Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:16:37 -0400, "H.S." <hs.samREMOVEMEix@google.com> wrote: > Nepatsfan wrote: > > http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/pressReleases/2008/LossOfInternetAccessIssue.html > > > > Your relative will have to lower the security level in the Internet Zone to > > medium. This should restore internet access. Make sure the level is reset once > > the new version is installed. > > > > Good luck > > hmm, okay. So,lower the security level, get internet access, get new > Zone Alarm and upgrade it and see if it works out. That I get. I wouldn't do it that way. Running with the lowered security level, even for a short time, is dangerous. Instead I recommend that you turn on the Windows firewall and uninstall ZA. Then you'll be able to download and install the new version of ZA. Or just turn on the Windows firewall and uninstall ZA, and leave it that way. ZA doesn't really have any advantages over the Windows firewall anyway. > I will > try in the morning tomorrow. I did a search as you suggested and also > read a very recent thread about that here. Thanks a ton for this pointer. > > But the big questions still remains, what is preventing him from > switching off the Windows firewall? > > Regards, > ->HS > -- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience Please Reply to the Newsgroup
Guest Sam Posted July 12, 2008 Posted July 12, 2008 Re: Help!! cannot disable (or turn off) Windows firewall Ken Blake, MVP wrote: > > Or just turn on the Windows firewall and uninstall ZA, and leave it > that way. ZA doesn't really have any advantages over the Windows > firewall anyway. Yes, I see what you mean. But do you know why is one *not* be able switch off the Windows Firewall? Even when the user has administrator privileges. Thanks. ->HS -- --- Please remove underscores, if any, from my email address to obtain the correct one. Sorry for the trouble but this is to reduce SPAM.
Guest Ken Blake, MVP Posted July 12, 2008 Posted July 12, 2008 Re: Help!! cannot disable (or turn off) Windows firewall On Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:28:26 -0400, Sam <g_reate_xcalibur@yahoo.com> wrote: > Ken Blake, MVP wrote: > > > > Or just turn on the Windows firewall and uninstall ZA, and leave it > > that way. ZA doesn't really have any advantages over the Windows > > firewall anyway. > > > Yes, I see what you mean. But do you know why is one *not* be able > switch off the Windows Firewall? Even when the user has administrator > privileges. Sorry, no. I haven't run into that. -- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience Please Reply to the Newsgroup
Guest H. S. Posted July 12, 2008 Posted July 12, 2008 Re: Help!! cannot disable (or turn off) Windows firewall Ken Blake, MVP wrote: >> >> Yes, I see what you mean. But do you know why is one *not* be able >> switch off the Windows Firewall? Even when the user has administrator >> privileges. > > > Sorry, no. I haven't run into that. > This is really weird. I have never seen that happen before. As I mentioner earlier in the thread, this is on a relative's machine. Could that Live OneCare thing have anything to do with this somehow? -- --- Please remove underscores, if any, from my email address to obtain the correct one. Sorry for the trouble but this is to reduce SPAM.
Guest PaulM Posted July 12, 2008 Posted July 12, 2008 Re: Help!! cannot disable (or turn off) Windows firewall I have a script here to disable the firewall if you want to try it. http://www.paulsxp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=119 -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.paulsxp.com http://www.paulsxp.com/forum http://www.supportspace.com/home/affiliates.s2?aiu=paulm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Ken Blake, MVP" <kblake@this.is.an.invalid.domain> wrote in message news:439i74tdnmrmg845emnjqdloa9ga5t1u96@4ax.com... > On Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:28:26 -0400, Sam <g_reate_xcalibur@yahoo.com> > wrote: > >> Ken Blake, MVP wrote: >> > >> > Or just turn on the Windows firewall and uninstall ZA, and leave it >> > that way. ZA doesn't really have any advantages over the Windows >> > firewall anyway. >> >> >> Yes, I see what you mean. But do you know why is one *not* be able >> switch off the Windows Firewall? Even when the user has administrator >> privileges. > > > Sorry, no. I haven't run into that. > > -- > Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience > Please Reply to the Newsgroup
Guest H. S. Posted July 12, 2008 Posted July 12, 2008 Re: Help!! cannot disable (or turn off) Windows firewall PaulM wrote: > I have a script here to disable the firewall if you want to try it. > http://www.paulsxp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=119 > Interesting. I do not have access to the remote machine at present so I cannot try this out on that one. However, I am curious as to why would these registry changes work (I perused it in Notepad++) and not the firewall GUI. BTW, that particular machine has Zone Alarm installed. Would that have messed up Windows firewall GUI in any way? -- --- Please remove underscores, if any, from my email address to obtain the correct one. Sorry for the trouble but this is to reduce SPAM.
Guest PaulM Posted July 12, 2008 Posted July 12, 2008 Re: Help!! cannot disable (or turn off) Windows firewall That script will edit the registry. I do not know anything about Zone Alarm, but I have hear that it can mess with XP firewall. Have you installed SP3? -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.paulsxp.com http://www.paulsxp.com/forum http://www.supportspace.com/home/affiliates.s2?aiu=paulm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "H. S." <g_reate_xcalibur@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:uorQXvG5IHA.5012@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... > PaulM wrote: >> I have a script here to disable the firewall if you want to try it. >> http://www.paulsxp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=119 >> > > Interesting. I do not have access to the remote machine at present so I > cannot try this out on that one. > > However, I am curious as to why would these registry changes work (I > perused it in Notepad++) and not the firewall GUI. BTW, that particular > machine has Zone Alarm installed. Would that have messed up Windows > firewall GUI in any way? > > -- > --- > Please remove underscores, if any, from my email address to obtain the > correct one. Sorry for the trouble but this is to reduce SPAM.
Guest H. S. Posted July 12, 2008 Posted July 12, 2008 Re: Help!! cannot disable (or turn off) Windows firewall PaulM wrote: > That script will edit the registry. I do not know anything about Zone > Alarm, but I have hear that it can mess with XP firewall. Have you > installed SP3? > hmm .. no, not yet. Other than that, the machine is fully updated. The radio buttons of the two shields (green and red) in the firewall GUI window are grayed out. -- --- Please remove underscores, if any, from my email address to obtain the correct one. Sorry for the trouble but this is to reduce SPAM.
Guest Daave Posted July 12, 2008 Posted July 12, 2008 Re: Help!! cannot disable (or turn off) Windows firewall "H.S." <hs.samREMOVEMEix@google.com> wrote in message news:%23PkQTD94IHA.784@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... > > Hello, > > This is on a relative's Windows XP machine. I help him remotely now > and then to solve his Windows or applications' problem. The last time > I logged into his machine was a few months ago using VNC viewer. > > Just today he told me that he cannot access the internet. So I tried > logging into his machine (using VNC) but it didn't work. > > After a small series of questions, I realized that his Windows > firewall is turn ON and that was preventing me from opening a VNC > session. I even tried making exception for VNC (port 5900) in the > firewall, but to no avail. He is not able to browse either via > Internet Explorer or Firefox. > > Now, I recall when I visited him last I had specifically switched off > Windows firewall (his computer has Zone Alarm). The settings in Zone > Alarm are as I expected -- so that part is okay. Clearly, something or > somebody enabled the Windows firewall. > > Now, whatever I may try (all this is going on on a telephone, btw), I > was not able to make him turn off his firewall. > > His user has administrative privileges, so that shouldn't be a > problem. > > After a little web search, I followed the two steps given here: > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914230 > Basically, I did "netsh winsock reset" and also reinstalled > "%Windir%\Inf\Netfw.inf" file. > > These steps also did not help. The user is just unable to turn off the > Windows firewall. > > So, what am I missing here? Can anybody give any advice on how to go > about solving this problem? Are you absolutely sure your relative has the Windows firewall turned on? I would imagine that's probably the case, but since you didn't offer any hard evidence in your post, the possibility exists and it needs to be ruled out! You mentioned "a small series of questions." Just to be 100% sure, did you ask him to click Start | Run | firewall.cpl | OK? And if so, what exactly happened? And if he clicked in the circle next to "Off " and then clicked on the OK button, what exactly happened? That is, was there a specific message? Are there any clues in Event Viewer?
Guest H. S. Posted July 12, 2008 Posted July 12, 2008 Re: Help!! cannot disable (or turn off) Windows firewall Daave wrote: > > Are you absolutely sure your relative has the Windows firewall turned > on? I would imagine that's probably the case, but since you didn't offer > any hard evidence in your post, the possibility exists and it needs to > be ruled out! Yes. I saw it myself earlier today once I got his internet working again (the Zone Alarm not being compatible with KB951748 problem). Connected to his machine via VNC. > You mentioned "a small series of questions." Just to be 100% sure, did > you ask him to click Start | Run | firewall.cpl | OK? And if so, what Yes. > exactly happened? And if he clicked in the circle next to "Off " and The two options, the green and the read shield, are grayed out and hence he is unable to change them. I saw that myself today. > then clicked on the OK button, what exactly happened? That is, was there > a specific message? Are there any clues in Event Viewer? No, no error message or feedback message box at all. Did not check the event manager. The best lead I have for now is some message in a forum where the guy says he removed Live OneCare and he was able to switch the firewall off or on then. Didn't get a chance to try that out yet. Thanks. -- --- Please remove underscores, if any, from my email address to obtain the correct one. Sorry for the trouble but this is to reduce SPAM.
Guest Daave Posted July 12, 2008 Posted July 12, 2008 Re: Help!! cannot disable (or turn off) Windows firewall "H. S." <g_reate_xcalibur@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:e5$KbAH5IHA.4908@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... > The radio buttons of the two shields (green and red) in the > firewall GUI window are grayed out. That answers my question. :-) In that case, you should try one of the methods listed here: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/resetfwpol.htm There is also the possibilty that there is some malware in the equation mucking things up.
Guest H. S. Posted July 12, 2008 Posted July 12, 2008 Re: Help!! cannot disable (or turn off) Windows firewall Daave wrote: > "H. S." <g_reate_xcalibur@yahoo.com> wrote in message > news:e5$KbAH5IHA.4908@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... > >> The radio buttons of the two shields (green and red) in the >> firewall GUI window are grayed out. > > That answers my question. :-) > > In that case, you should try one of the methods listed here: > > http://windowsxp.mvps.org/resetfwpol.htm I will take shot now since now I can see the desktop via VNC. Earlier, I was talking the user through the steps over the phone -- very dangerous in that situation to screw around with the registry enteries. > There is also the possibilty that there is some malware in the equation > mucking things up. That is not good news. :( -- --- Please remove underscores, if any, from my email address to obtain the correct one. Sorry for the trouble but this is to reduce SPAM.
Guest PaulM Posted July 13, 2008 Posted July 13, 2008 Re: Help!! cannot disable (or turn off) Windows firewall If you want I have a script that will do what is here listed in http://windowsxp.mvps.org/resetfwpol.htm Just let me know. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.paulsxp.com http://www.paulsxp.com/forum http://www.supportspace.com/home/affiliates.s2?aiu=paulm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "H. S." <g_reate_xcalibur@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:ulOT$dH5IHA.5012@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... > Daave wrote: >> "H. S." <g_reate_xcalibur@yahoo.com> wrote in message >> news:e5$KbAH5IHA.4908@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... >> >>> The radio buttons of the two shields (green and red) in the >>> firewall GUI window are grayed out. >> >> That answers my question. :-) >> >> In that case, you should try one of the methods listed here: >> >> http://windowsxp.mvps.org/resetfwpol.htm > > I will take shot now since now I can see the desktop via VNC. Earlier, I > was talking the user through the steps over the phone -- very dangerous in > that situation to screw around with the registry enteries. > > >> There is also the possibilty that there is some malware in the equation >> mucking things up. > > That is not good news. :( > > > > -- > --- > Please remove underscores, if any, from my email address to obtain the > correct one. Sorry for the trouble but this is to reduce SPAM.
Guest H. S. Posted July 13, 2008 Posted July 13, 2008 Re: Help!! cannot disable (or turn off) Windows firewall PaulM wrote: > If you want I have a script that will do what is here listed in > http://windowsxp.mvps.org/resetfwpol.htm Thanks for the link. I will try it out when I connect to that machine next. Regards. > Just let me know. > -- --- Please remove underscores, if any, from my email address to obtain the correct one. Sorry for the trouble but this is to reduce SPAM.
Guest Daave Posted July 13, 2008 Posted July 13, 2008 Re: Help!! cannot disable (or turn off) Windows firewall "H. S." <g_reate_xcalibur@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:O1uWSFH5IHA.4268@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... > The best lead I have for now is some message in a forum where the guy > says he removed Live OneCare and he was able to switch the firewall > off or on then. Didn't get a chance to try that out yet. Sounds like a likely cause.
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