XP Firewall Deactivation Protection !

Hi, Spanner intheWorks. Thanks for the info.

One thing - I'm pretty sure that the Zone Alarm Pro firewall on my PC repeatedly switches off XP firewall. I wonder whether anyone knows if Watchdog can counteract ZA Pro's activity?

 

Dude... it uses a script.
It's NOT for me...
every couple of secs, alerts all around for scripts.

 

Kwesi

You should NEVER run two firewalls at the same time that's why ZA disables Windows XP firewall.

 

Zone Alarm, by default, switches off the XP FW; but if you disable ZA (for whatever reason) the XP FW will automatically switch on again (so long as you leave it enabled). This is highly desirable, since it means you always have one, but only one, FW running. Kwesi was enquiring whether WatchDog will prevent ZA from doing the switch off, which would be a bad thing since you would end up with two FWs running and risk a conflict and crash.

When you first boot up, the XP FW is extremely quick to get going, whereas ZA is (I think!) a little slower; therefore for a brief period in time at boot up you get protected by the XP FW before finally ZA comes into play seconds later. You don't want something like WatchDog interfering with this arrangement - so if it does, it gets a big thumbs down from me!

PS - To get ZA to switch off XP FW, you need to check the relevant box in the Firewall/Advanced tab.

 

Hello Topper,

You're right, WF will switch off by itself, and could you point out the "relevant box" in the Firewall/Advanced tab you're reffering to. I never came across anything like that.

Regards - Charles

 

Hi ZCV,

I'm attaching a screenshot to make things clear; you just click the Firewall tab, then the 'Advanced' button to bring up the box. Please note I am using Zone Alarm Pro, so it could be different in the free version.

This is an extremely useful function, 'cos (for example) if you want to download something and your FW settings are preventing this, you don't have to re-configure the FW settings, just switch it off and the XP FW will automatically come into play (so long as you have left it enabled) to cover you while you D/L. Then as soon as you've finished you click the ZA desktop icon and 'bingo' it switches the XP FW off and you are back to normal.

If you bring up the Windows Security Centre, and click the FW button, while doing the switch-over, you can see how quickly it happens.

 

That's perfectly true Spanner, but surely WatchDog is only going to be useful if you use the Windows FW instead of another SW FW, and why would you want to do that with good free alternatives available?

 

Very useful info here. TopperID - thanks for the explanation.

 

Hi Topper,

A bit of confusion on my part, I thought you were referring to WF's advance tab rather than ZA's which would explain why I never saw it.

Regards - Charles