Dell Restore has no WinXP firewall and connection problems

Hi All,

No, DON'T ask me why I want to use the Win XP firewall - I don't. But neither can I find it to see if it's on or off, assuming it exists!

The story so far...

We installed XP on a Dell using a Dell reinstallation CD. Pretty much a normal style of installation, allowing us to create partitions to our choosing, but so far as my son recalls, there wasn't an option to do a custom installation of Windows and I don't remember noticing one either.

Having got it up and running, I installed all the security software and reasonably recent updates before connecting it to the internet. We have:

• Zone Alarm Free (latest version - 7.0.337)
• Spybot S&D, running the Resident SD helper (blocking protection for IE) and Teatimer
• Ad-aware Free
• AVG Free (version 7.5.463)

Currently I have Zone Alarm turned off because not everything seems to be able to get out to the web. I have successfully updated Spybot, AVG and Ad-aware with the firewall on, but am unable to get Windows Messenger to find its' way out with Zone Alarm off - it keeps saying that I don't have a connection.

I haven't done any Windows updates yet but I have downloaded and installed DirectX 9.

Does anyone have any idea whether I should be able to find a firewall on this? If so, where, please?

And what other suggestions do people have to sort this out?

Thanks!

 

Hi Chookers,

Have you installed Service Pack 2 yet?

Did you look in Control Panel and see Security Center?

 

No, no sign of a Security Center in the Control Panel - is this something that can be installed or not if you do a custom install? I've had a look through the Add/Remove Windows components and can't see anything there to add that seems relevant.

If I look in Help for information about the firewall and enabling/disabling it, I get this information:

And if you look at the pictures I've attached, you'll see that I can't find Network Tasks anywhere. One other picture is of my Control Panel to show what's in there.

I meant to write in my first post that I don't seem to be able to add users to shared folders either. Although I've just tested adding a user by typing in the name directly but I can't browse for names. Shouldn't I be able to? I've added a picture to show the dialog box I get.

Thanks all!

Edit: And given that I have heard sometimes that you may end up having to remove service packs, I haven't installed SP2 yet.

 

The instructions you got were correct for SP1. If you try Start, Run, type in "services.msc" wirhout the quotes and scroll down to Windows Firewall it is probably set to automatic and it is started. Since you are running another firewall double click on it and set it to disabled. I don't recall how it is listed in SP1, but you may need to click on Stop the service, or reboot after selecting disabled as startup type. Get it updated, this is when a broadband connection comes in handy, I also have SP2 on disk if I ever need it. Dell was a pain because we had to load a majority of the drivers manually. And I would suggest backing up your system and turning teatimer off. I use backups and turn off System Restore as well, along with the indexing service. Have fun :major

 

"Internet Connection Firewall" - found it. Thanks for that, BugBallou. Isn't it wonderful how using the Windows help gives you the wrong information?? I think this is has no SPs at all at the moment - it only says XP Pro when you right click My Computer but your information was enough to find the firewall service. I'm still puzzled why I don't have anything obvious in the way of a security centre that I can find.

I haven't had any trouble with drivers, I'm pleased to say. It's a GX240 which needs drivers installing if you load an ordinary Win2k on it but has loaded everything it needed with the XP disk. However, it still seems a bit of an unusual installation which is a shame, because I was hoping to learn my way around XP better using it. Does anyone know whether adding the SPs will change things installation-wise such as giving me an easy to find and use Security Centre?

Having found the firewall, we haven't made any progress with getting Windows Messenger going - the firewall was set to manual and not running. Any other suggestions? Perhaps other services that need starting?

And clues over why the Sharing doesn't give me a list of users to pick from but expects me to type them in and accurately at that?

Thanks!