Windows XP Firewall is Switched Off... and won't switch on again!!

[catspyjamas]

over the last 2 days I've been getting alerts telling me the firewall on my PC is switched off.  Which is normally fixed by simply clicking the alert balloon & going to the security centre.  However, concerns are now growing - no matter what I try I CAN'T GET IT TO SWITCH ON again. 

I've been to every related topic on the Support website, but there's nothing that helps specifically with this problem!!  Normally it would be as simple as going to Control Panel, Windows Firewall, and clicking the "ON" box under the General tab. 

I get as far as Windows Firewall, then get the following message "Windows Firewall Setting cannot be displayed because the associated service is not running.  Do you want to start the Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) service?" 

which is as helpful as a chocolate teapot because when I click "YES" (which I'm not 100% certain is what I really want to be doing, but "NO" helps even less ) I get this message "Windows cannot start the Windows Firewall/Internet Connection (ICS) service".  And thats it, no other options.

I dont know exactly how much risk there is to my pc if firewall isnt working.... but I DO  know I'd feel much happier if I could just switch it back on. 

If it helps to know - the antivirus software installed on my machine is Trend Micro

PLEASE HELP!  :8(

[guy9663]

This may not be quite the answer you want but try one of the links below. Both are free firewalls which are better than the Windows firewall. They check what's going out as well as coming in. The Windows firewall does not!

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/z nalm/freeDownload.jsp

http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm

[stevie21]

If any of those take you to Zonealarm, I'd use another. It's better than Windows' own firewall but still not great.

If it's Windows' firewall *service* that you want to start, try going through the control panel then:
Administrative Tools
Services
(you may need to click on "Classic View" or something to see these).

In there, under "W" is Windows Firewal....
Right click, properties and make sure that it shows as Startup Type = "Automatic" and that it's already started.

At worst, you might get a message that another service that Windows Firewall relies on needs to be started first.

The best option is just to use a decent (non-Windows) firewall. Much easier and also much safer.

[Mattk]

i dont use the windows firewall as in my opinion this is the thing all the hackers are gunning for so i use the free firewall by sygate mentioned above.i used to use zonealarm also mentioned above but it clashed with my xbox live and wouldnt let me connect unless i switched it off which defeated the object of having a firewall in the 1st place !

[Denise S.]

I had to disable Windows XP firewall to update Norton and was instructed to do the following:-

click start > control panel

double click  network connection

right click  Local Area Connection

click properties

click Internet Protocol(TCP/IP) > properties

On the advanced tab uncheck/check protect my computer and network

click OK and OK again.

 See if this works!