XP Firewall help please

[Alakazam]

Ok, I thought I would give the built-in firewall a go since ZA has a habit of not remembering it's settings. It seem pretty simple to turn on, but it won't stay on. I go to network connections/right click my isp/properties/advanced/check the enable box.

If I set it to enable while I'm online it stays on, when I go offline, the check box stays checked. Now the fun part, when I reconnect to the web, (dialup) and look at the settings, the tick box is blank and I have to enable it again. Now maybe I can't see the forest for the trees, but I don't run a network, and this is the only comp in the house at the moment. What say?

[Alakazam]

Ok, I've tried using the wizard to set it up with different configs but it still won't stay on. I'm running out of ideas here.

[James]

ZONE ALARM

[Alakazam]

Hi James, I've been using ZA for the past several months, I've had to reinstall it twice, and every once in a while, it has to be reminded to let IE6 use the internet. It was more annoying than anything else, I just got tired of trying to remember to close ZA before shutting down.

This little thing with the XP firewall has me baffled right now, I'm as stubborn as a mule sometimes, hehehe. I know a couple of the guys are using the built-in firewall, just need to get them here

[James]

Ok Zammy,In the interim,"while your still waiting for OUR resident
Gugu's to show up, install,Norton Personak firewall 2001,NOT 2002 Version.

[Montana]

Alakazam, I can offer no help except to commiserate. I've had XP since Dec and 3 times now I've had to inexplicably re-enable my firewall. I'm on a cable modem, no network.

[Mad dog]

As all apps tend to store setting in the registry these days i'd suggest you look there. Are you running any of the maintanace apps that clean out the registry, tried removing them? If not have you considered trying one or some kind of app that scans and fixes the registry.

Beyond that all i can suggest is an OS re-install, drasitc i know, but it might work.

[Cool Canuck]

Don't know what it is with XP. It has this habit of turning things on or off at will. With my buddy, it's his mike, me it mutes my audio (while I'm using it). I've seen other reports of similiar occurences.

Give Tiny Firewall from Tiny Software a try. Freebie and it worked well in Win98 for me.

[whipat]

I also have trouble with keeping xp firewall clicked, so I use tiny personal firewall on that comp. No trouble with xp firewall on another comp?

Pat

[Alakazam]

I clean out the registry from time to time with regclean, never had any problems with it doing something it's not supposed to so I don't think that is the problem.

Gimme: hehehe, no, I am not using both ZA and the built in firewall, just one or the other.

Montana: Thanks for the reinforcements, I thought it was something with just my machine. XP is still the best OS I've run, but there are a few annoying things associated with it like this, I'm not running a network either as this is the only comp at the moment.

I'm defintely not going to do an XP reinstall but I did put ZA back on and all seems well, at least for now. Thanks everyone.

[Alakazam]

Thanks for the effort Gimme, but until we get moved to Florida and setup down there, only 1 comp in the house. I really appreciate the offer though.