ESS Firewall & vista network sharing center

Hello,

I really prefer having the Vista Network & Sharing Center control things like... sharing and network discovery. ESS prevents using this 'Center' from doing these functions, and instead you sort of control these things through ESS. I noted in a previous post that ESS actually disables the network discovery group policies, and even enabling network discovery via ESS doesn't turn them back on - you have to use the group policy editor.

Is it possible to either make it an option (user-preference) or simply default to allowing Vista's 'Network and Sharing Center' to perform these functions?

Should I send these requests / comments directly to Eset or is this forum an appropriate place to discuss this?

 

Hi,

what bit of Vista network sharing does not work ?

I've got three Vista machines and hadn't noticed a problem.

thanks.

 

He means that the very customisable Network Sharing in the windows control panel has been disabled in favour of ESS' enable/disable burried setting. And, I agree. I preffer Windows to ESS.

 

Sorry if I was confusing; Spooky's explanation makes it clear.

ESS causes several panes in Vista's Network and Sharing Center to be 'greyed out' with a message saying that you should adjust the settings using the firewall.

I'd prefer using the Windows controls and just have the instructions pass through to ESS if necessary. Or allow it to be a two way control, where users could modify the settings in either Windows or ESS.

Also, if you find that your Network Map that worked prior to ESS isn't working any more and gives you a message regarding the group policy for domains being disabled, follow these instructions to re-enable:

http://blogs.msdn.com/wndp/archive/2006/11/03/enable_5F00_vista_5F00_network_5F00_map.aspx

ESS appears to disable the Network Topology and Link Layer Discover Protocol policy by default, along with the Network Responder Policy. I might be getting the exact names slighly incorrect, but you get the idea.

 

Have similar problem. Installed ESS 3.0.563.0 on three PCs. Two are XP machines, XP Pro SP2 and MCE 2005 w/rollup 2. The third PC is Vista Home Premium. All machines could 'see' each other including shared printers and file prior to install of ESS. Had been using NOD32 2.7 and windows Firewall on all machines. After uninstalling NOD32 per instructions and installing ESS on all three PCs the two XP PCs could 'see' each other but not 'see' the Vista PC. The Vista PC could not 'see' either XP PC.

Tried to use the gpedit.msc in the elevated Command Prompt but got a command not found/recognized message.

Note all PCs were set to the 'sharing' mode during ESS install.

Why does this product not work like other Firewalls and allow a simple 'out of the box' local network setup! Why is network sharing/discovery disabled even when 'sharing' mode is selected!

Anyone know how to fix this until Eset comes out with a correction to ESS?

regards

 

It is possible that the group policy editor is not available on Home Premium; I have Ultimate and Business so I couldn't tell you.

My expectation with firewalls these days is that small networking should be easy to setup, but I had quite a few problems with my network, including my HP printer monitoring software, my wireless printer, and my 3-4 computers that are regularly part of my network.

It seems the 'trusted' zone that you set up with ESS isn't acting very trusting, for some reason. It requires a bit of baby sitting, log checking, and rule making - more than should be required for simple small home / home office type networking.

I've uninstalled for now and am just using the standalone AV package with the windows firewall & outlook's junk mail filter. This in addition to the modem's firewall will have to do.

 

@Balthazor
A quick search reveals that Group Policy Editor is NOT available on Vista Home or Home Premium! Guess I will have to go with your solution, uninstall ESS and use the standalone AV with windows F/W etc. Seems that this product, (ESS) was released without basic functionality and many bugs.
regards

 

Ok, reverted back to NOD32 2.7 and Windows Firewall on all three PCs and all is fine. Can 'see' shared folders/printers from all PCs. I am sure this product will be fine once it has been fixed but IMHO it is definately 'not ready for prime time'.

 

Time to update, after using NOD32 2.7 since ~13 Nov on all three PCs (2 XP, 1 Vista) without problems decided to try some things out during spare time this weekend.

Reinstalled ESS ver 566 on the two XP PCs. All works fine, all three PC see the shared files, printers etc. Will run this for a while and then try to install ESS on the Vista PC (after making an Acronis image). Will report results.

Happy Thanksgiving to all

 

Another update; ran for about two days with ESS 566 in the two XP PCs and NOD32 2.7 in the Vista with no network problems. was just about to install ESS 566 in the Vista PC when the Vista PC suddenly could not longer 'see' the XP PCs! Took the easy way out for now and reverted all three PCs back to NOD 32 2.7 w/windows firewall. I will wait for the next ESS release before trying again.

I feel that ESET should extend all current ESS licenses until they correct this problem, it makes my network setup unusable.

 

Saw the new release (.621) yesterday and installed on all three PCs. Set all to 'trusted zone' and 'interactive filtering'. After a few reboots and answering a few pop up permissions all seems to be operating fine so far. Looks like the problems I was having were fixed. Will run for a while to see if they remain so.

Thanks Eset for an early Christmas gift! Now if they would extend licenses purchased on or about 5 Nov by 60 days I think we all would be quite pleased.

thanks again and Happy Holidays to Marcos and the Eset staff for all theair hard work in getting this update out


Update, guess it was too good to be true. after running ok for a number of hours the Vista PC can no longer see the XP PCs or the shared printer! there is some change from the previous release (.566) as the XP PCs can still see the Vista PC and access shrared folders/files. Rebooting the XP or Vista PCs does not help. I guess its back to good old NOD32 2.7.