I have disabled the Application Layer Gateway service, and the Windows firewall seems to work just fine. But I have read various reports online that says it's absolutely needed and you will mess up your system if you disable it. Everything I did on my system seems to function just fine without the Application Layer Gateway service enabled. It says it's to proivde support for third party protocol plugins for Internet Connection Sharing/Windows Firewall. But without any third party protocol plugins, is it needed for just running the Windows Firewall in Windows XP SP2?
Case in point, I was working with a Windows Server 2003 SP1 Enterprise Edition server at school in a class lab. The Internet Connection Sharing/Windows Firewall service is disabled by default in Windows Server 2003 SP1. The Application Layer Gateway service is set on manual by default, but it wasn't started. I changed the ICS/Windows Firewall Service to automatic and started it, and turned the Windows Firewall on. The Application Layer Gateway service even though set to manual did not start. If the ALG service was really needed for just the Windows firewall, than why didn't it start when I enabled the Firewall in Windows Server 2003 SP1?? But in Windows XP SP2, the ALG service seems to start when set on manual during system bootup. But if you disable it, it, the Windows Firewall starts and still works just fine??
SO what's with all the articles that say the ALG.exe is needed if you use the Windows Firewall?? Is it really needed, and I'm missing something, or is it not needed, and the artciles that say it is needed are refering to something else or wrong all together?? For instance, this site here: http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/alg.exe.html
says it's needed for even third party firewalls and that if you disable it, you will loose all Internet connections until next restart or login. I know that's not true because I have disabled it before, and my Internet connectivty still worked perfectly.
Case in point, I was working with a Windows Server 2003 SP1 Enterprise Edition server at school in a class lab. The Internet Connection Sharing/Windows Firewall service is disabled by default in Windows Server 2003 SP1. The Application Layer Gateway service is set on manual by default, but it wasn't started. I changed the ICS/Windows Firewall Service to automatic and started it, and turned the Windows Firewall on. The Application Layer Gateway service even though set to manual did not start. If the ALG service was really needed for just the Windows firewall, than why didn't it start when I enabled the Firewall in Windows Server 2003 SP1?? But in Windows XP SP2, the ALG service seems to start when set on manual during system bootup. But if you disable it, it, the Windows Firewall starts and still works just fine??
SO what's with all the articles that say the ALG.exe is needed if you use the Windows Firewall?? Is it really needed, and I'm missing something, or is it not needed, and the artciles that say it is needed are refering to something else or wrong all together?? For instance, this site here: http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/alg.exe.html
says it's needed for even third party firewalls and that if you disable it, you will loose all Internet connections until next restart or login. I know that's not true because I have disabled it before, and my Internet connectivty still worked perfectly.
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