Does Windows firewall have a brain?

Someone is claiming to me that Windows XP SP2's firewall re-activates itself spontaneously, even though they (claim) to have turned it off. I have never seen this happen in any of the XP systems I've dealt with, including my own. I'm inclined to think that this user has not really deactivated the firewall like they think they have.

Has anyone ever heard of Windows firewall turning itself on after you have specifically and correctly turned it off?

Reply to
Nil
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I've not heard of or witnessed this behavior. The only possible way that I could see this happening is if the PC is a domain member, and Group Policy activates the firewall.

Reply to
coppertrail

Yes. But its mincemeat. :::::::::::::::::::::::::

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Reply to
Rob

I've never seen that happen.

Reply to
Connected

On 20 Mar 2005, "coppertrail" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

That seems the be the consensus here and elsewhere that I've asked. I'm convinced that whoever claims that Windows XP Firewall turns itself on after you have turned it off has NOT turned it off after all. I mean, it could happen, I suppose if, say, the computer crashed before committing your configuration changes, but if it were a common bug or problem, there would be much more talk about it.

Thanks, all, for your comments.

Reply to
Nil

On 21 Mar 2005, "Clive" wrote in news:l0F%d.2810$ snipped-for-privacy@text.news.blueyonder.co.uk:

I don't think that was what was going on, but I can imagine it happening in some cases. I know that XP's Security Center recognizes some 3rd party anti-virus and firewall products, and I believe that it suppresses it's own firewall in the presence of an "approved" product. Maybe Zone Alarm is one of those products. If that were true, then maybe the act of uninstalling that 3rd party firewall might "liberate" the built-in firewall. I'll have to test my theory one of these days when I'm bored enough.

Reply to
Nil

Only if you remove another Firewall. I removed Zonealarm to put on sygate. when I rebooted the PC Windows firewall was active. I then disabled it and installed Sygate.

Maybe that is what someone meant?

Clive

Reply to
Clive

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 13:52:14 -0600, Nil spoketh

If the firewall service is set to "automatic" using group policies, then the firewall service will restart at regular intervals even if you stop the service and disable it. That is the only time I can think of that the system will override what the user does.

Lars M. Hansen

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Reply to
Lars M. Hansen

From what I know if the Windows XP SP2 Firewall has been disabled, the next time you perform a Windows Update (and depending upon the update), it will be re-enabled.

Reply to
Don Kelloway

I've seen this behavior too - I have started disabling the Windows Firewall Service instead of just stopping it.

Reply to
Leythos

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