RE: CANNOT ENABLE SP2 FIREWALL

From: steve (steve_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 09/09/05 

Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2005 17:02:02 -0700

"carly" wrote:

> Dell Dimension 8200, XP SP2, Norton Antivirus 2002 (up to date).
>
> PROBLEM: The windows xp firewall isn't active. When I go to the security
> setting to turn it on, I click on the icon and get the following:
> Windows firewall settings cannot be displayed because the associated service
> is not running. Do you want to start the window's firewall/internet
> connection service? I click yes then get:
> Windows cannot start the windows/Internet Connection Service.
>
> HAVE READ USER GROUP COMMENTS AND HAVE ATTEMPTED THE FOLLOWING, ALL WITH NO
> SUCCESS:
>
> Start>Run cmd [enter]
> netsh winsock reset [enter]
> Follow prompts and reboot.
>
> Start/Run --> cmd.exe
> and then, in the command prompt that opened up, type:
> netsh.exe winsock reset
> and hit Enter. Follow prompts and reboot.
>
> If that didn't work, see if registering the following DLLs helps:
> From Start/Run, run the following commands:
> regsvr32 %windir%\system32\atl.dll
> then
> regsvr32 %windir%\system32\hnetcfg.dll
> regsvr32 %windir%\system32\netshell.dll
> regsvr32 %windir%\system32\netcfgx.dll
> regsvr32 %windir%\system32\netman.dll
> Then do a reboot.
>
> Check to see if the Internet Connection Firewall is not disabled:
> In the desktop, right click on the My Computer icon\Manage\Services and
> Applications\Services\on Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) Status column
> should read Started and Start type shoud read Automatic if any or both are
> set different, double click on ICF Service and click on the Start button
> and/or set to Autostart in the rolldown window.
>
> I HAVE WORKED ON THIS FOR THREE DAYS, AND AM ABOUT READY TO GO BACK TO
> SERVICE PACK 1. ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECITATED.
>
>
> Carly, I got the following from a post. I can't find this post anymore but I had copied it. It worked for me, and although your problem seems slightly different it's worth a shot:

"One thing you can check:
Start regedit.exe (from Start/Run).
If you under the registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsFirewall\DomainProfile\
and/or
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsFirewall\StandardProfile\
find a registry value named EnableFirewall that is set to 0, set it to 1 and
reboot. If those registry keys/values does not exist, the system will default
to the same as EnableFirewall set to 1.
Another thing: If this computer is in a domain, also the network
administrator can have disabled the firewall with Group Policy (GPO).
-- torgeir, Microsoft MVP Scripting and WMI, Porsgrunn Norway Administration
scripting examples and an ONLINE version of the 1328 page Scripting Guide:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/default.mspx"

When I do this the firewall becomes set to 'On', but the selections are
still dimmed out.

Anyways, hope this helps

Steve

>