XP Firewall goes koo koo

[dickow]

At some point my XP's built in firewall/TCP filter feature has gone awry. No matter how I try to set it, port 21 (FTP) is blocked. It is blocked even if TCP filter specifically allows port 21 to be open. It used to work fine, but FTP services went dead. I did find a fix though: I removed all references to TCP port numbers, turned off filtering, and installed ZoneAlarm instead of using XP firewall.

But, why did it break???? XP had itty bitty buggie-poos I'd say.

 

[Bytes Back]

Originally posted by dickow

But, why did it break???? XP had itty bitty buggie-poos I'd say.

I think Micro$oft would be very upset about this, Bills at this moment on the phone to the bug department.
People are being woken up all over the world, offices are being opened to allow staff in to sort out you problem !!

Bill will no doubt take personal charge because the thought of a bug in his OS is just to much to bear

Makes you feel proud to own/ripped off a Micro$oft product

Sniff

 

[dotbatman]

jeez

wow

was that a slight against poor old Bill, or are you getting cranky with Dickow?

Well, dickow, in my experience and from what I have heard from regulars at this site, there is some evidence that you are not alone in your issues with the XP firewall.

However, it may be a configuration issue. According to this article on the Microsoft KB, you may need to have the firewall AND Internet Connection Sharing working together in order for specific services such as FTP to work properly.

If this does not help, do write back. I would not dare speak for Bytes, but perhaps he meant that it might be too soon to yell "bug!".

 

[dickow]

Well, can't use ICS here.

Hmm, yes I think I ran across mention of the configuration having something to do with my ftp port problem. But...

I can't use ICS with my Intel AnyPoint Home Wireless networking.

and...

I had the darn thing working great until ftp spontaneously gave up the ghost, and I spent hours trying to track down the settings. Never used ICS when it was working.

I have fixed the problem by replacing XP's firewall with ZoneAlarm.

What was funny is that I had full control of any other ports I fancied (e.t. telnet, arbitrary ports, etc.) but had NO control over port 21 only. Now that is curious, I think.

 

[dotbatman]

"I can't use ICS"...

and why would you want to, hee hee.

The only other thing I could think of, if you really want to use the XP firewall, is to use a network monitoring tool. Of course, ZoneAlarm being free, I suppose there is not much incentive (plus it does monitor traffic BOTH ways, not just inbound as the XP FW).

For some free network tools, I have found this site to be very helpful.

Also, there is the MS Knowledge Base, where I found that tidbit about the config issue.

Just a thought, what are the config options on the Intel Anypoint?

 

[dickow]

Anypoint vis a vis ftp port closure

Well, my ftp port closure problem existed before I installed the Anypoint, but since you mentioned it, I might point out that I had to use my own settings for the Anypoint before it would work at all. The Intel install notes and website's settings recommendations don't work for me AT ALL. I came up with bizzarro ones that DO work, though, so I'm happy.

(specifically, using gateway IP addresses when Intel says leave blank, inventing my own IP numbers different from install defaults, mucho other tweaks.)

Now... if only my USB system would remain active for more than an afternoon...

 

[dotbatman]

one more thing

I understand you said you configured the ICF to allow port 21, but I was reading this article and I noticed it said to use 127.0.0.1 as the host (the loopback address), I thought this might be something to check. Again, if you are happy the way things are, I guess you don't have much incentive to change it, eh?

 

[Bytes Back]

Re: jeez

Originally posted by dotbatman
wow

was that a slight against poor old Bill, or are you getting cranky with Dickow?

.

A definite swipe at bill methinks. !