- Aug 25, 2001
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I've been using the unencrypted wifi connection at the library lately. I'm using XP SP3 on a laptop. Yesterday, I downloaded an ISO of MS Visual C++ 2010 Express edition (which is free from MS directly). I installed it. It suggested going to Microsoft Update (not Windows Update), which I did. It installed a .Net hotfix, as well as about 12 other security hotfixes.
After I rebooted, I noticed that some of my icons didn't want to come up, specifically the wireless and wired network icons. I thought nothing of it and shut the machine down.
Today, I power on, and those same icons don't come up, for like 2 minutes. When they do come up, something flashes something about the firewall not working. So I check network connections, they no longer say "Firewalled" in the description in the Network control panel. So I check my firewall settings, they all say it is enabled, for all connections.
What could have killed my firewall?
Today, in the security event logs, it shows some "AUDREY-PC" workstation has made an anonymous login connection to my machine as well. Just now after logging into the wifi. (That's not my workstation name.)
Edit: I turned the firewall off, Security Center popped up telling me my firewall was off, and then I turned it on, and now the Network control panel is listing the connections as Firewalled.
Hope that it was just a glitch with the install, and my firewall is now truely on.
Edit: A little more searching of my Security Audit Logs, and it shows "PINKY-PC" doing an anonymous login, and then an immediate logoff, twice in a row. Same thing that "AUDREY-PC" shows. I wonder if this could be normal MS networking discovery traffic, since there are other PCs on the lan here at the library.
Edit: Firewall was down again next time I rebooted, so I had to disable/enable it again. So I went to the Advanced Properties, and "Reset settings to default". Next time I rebooted, the firewall stayed up.
Just a guess, but perhaps the VC 2010 Express install added a firewall rule for SQL server express (part of the default install, unfortunately), which was corrupt, and prevented the firewall from being enabled.
Edit: After uninstalling SQL server (and finding out that VC 2010 Express uses it for code browsing, not just development, oye!), and resetting the firewall rules to default another time, I'm still having issues. The network icons take forever to show up, and in the meantime, sometimes I get a Security Center alert, briefly, that my firewall is disable. It seems to be a race condition whether or not the firewall enables and is shown in the descriptions under Network control panel.
After I rebooted, I noticed that some of my icons didn't want to come up, specifically the wireless and wired network icons. I thought nothing of it and shut the machine down.
Today, I power on, and those same icons don't come up, for like 2 minutes. When they do come up, something flashes something about the firewall not working. So I check network connections, they no longer say "Firewalled" in the description in the Network control panel. So I check my firewall settings, they all say it is enabled, for all connections.
What could have killed my firewall?
Today, in the security event logs, it shows some "AUDREY-PC" workstation has made an anonymous login connection to my machine as well. Just now after logging into the wifi. (That's not my workstation name.)
Edit: I turned the firewall off, Security Center popped up telling me my firewall was off, and then I turned it on, and now the Network control panel is listing the connections as Firewalled.
Hope that it was just a glitch with the install, and my firewall is now truely on.
Edit: A little more searching of my Security Audit Logs, and it shows "PINKY-PC" doing an anonymous login, and then an immediate logoff, twice in a row. Same thing that "AUDREY-PC" shows. I wonder if this could be normal MS networking discovery traffic, since there are other PCs on the lan here at the library.
Edit: Firewall was down again next time I rebooted, so I had to disable/enable it again. So I went to the Advanced Properties, and "Reset settings to default". Next time I rebooted, the firewall stayed up.
Just a guess, but perhaps the VC 2010 Express install added a firewall rule for SQL server express (part of the default install, unfortunately), which was corrupt, and prevented the firewall from being enabled.
Edit: After uninstalling SQL server (and finding out that VC 2010 Express uses it for code browsing, not just development, oye!), and resetting the firewall rules to default another time, I'm still having issues. The network icons take forever to show up, and in the meantime, sometimes I get a Security Center alert, briefly, that my firewall is disable. It seems to be a race condition whether or not the firewall enables and is shown in the descriptions under Network control panel.
Last edited:
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