I have a Dell 8300 series pc running windows xp SP2. The problem i am having is i can't figure out how to turn on the windows firewall. When i go into control panel-security center-firewall the options for changing the settings are all greyed out and i can't change them. I don't know why it is like this and how to fix it. I recently had some viruses but with the help of the good people here my pc is now clean. Has anyone had this happen to them. Carl
after looking around, there seems to be a common thread between removing malware and the windows firewall not working. this thread on techspot discusses it. http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic16323.html seems a winsock reset fixes most cases. you could try that.
You may also want to check to see if the firewall service has been stopped, or has been checked "disabled". Start, run, services.msc run down the list and look for the Windows Firewall. If it's disabled, double click and in the pull down menu, select automatic. Either restart, or click on the Start button to turn it on. If the service fails to start, check the Dependency tab to figure out what other services need to be running first. Then, when you're done being frustrated with the Windows Firewall being a piece of crap that it is, turn the bloody thing off and use a third party firewall such as ZoneAlarm, Sygate...or other.
