Originally Posted by
hellsbrink
Well, there has been issues in the past with the winders firewall which is why I refused to use it.
Would you care to elucidate on these?
Also, by preventing some outgoing traffic (under defined parameters) you can also see if your computer has been compromised as a dodgy email attachment, for example, may "send" data to a known "naughty address". So by limiting things to inbound only you reduce the effectiveness of the firewall as there are plenty things out there which can can cause problems. So there is a major gripe I have with Winders Firewall.
A fair point, but as I have mentioned earlier it is the lesser of two evils. If you're worried about SMTP outbound connectivity (for instance) you could always set a rule on your broadband router to block rather than on your home network. I know it isn't a panacea, but it's a better step IMHO than something on your PC blocking outbound traffic.
Now, to the "issues". "Password is incorrect", in either direction when setting up the network, is NOT something being blocked as you could "see" each computer when you looked at the network. You just couldn't access them due to a strange issue with the network itself.
Define "see" - is it via PING? which is an ICMP packet, is it via browsing the network? which is via browse mastering and isn't necessarily talking to the machine in question at the time, is it via browsing the machine in question via connection to a CIFS share? in which case the firewall could be blocking one or more TCP and/or UDP ports from 135-139, or possible TCP/UDP port 445 which is the direct connection to the SMB share. You see, there's a lot of scope for blocking a port or ports which would give partial usability whilst screwing things up in the long run.
Also, exiting the firewall program, not merely disabling it but actually shutting it down completely, made no difference whatsoever
I covered this in my previous post.
it was like Winders was changng the password seconds after I set it. Now, if it was an issue with Comodo, why do the other two computers on the network, using the same, fully updated, version of Comodo have no issues? Therefore, since the same problem does not exist on two computers (running Win7 Ultimate and Win7 Home Premium) running the same version of the same 3rd party firewall, the firewall cannot realistically be at fault since these two computers would show the same issues.
You're assuming 2 things:
1) They're running IDENTICAL rulesets (rather than just roughly similar ones)
2) They're installed correctly in the TCP/IP stack and didn't have any issues under install which have impaired their usage
My thoughts did turn to the AV program, Avira, as being a cause of the problem as it does go a little bit further than being a "pure" AV program. That was why I uninstalled it, and the firewall, on one PC to see if the problem would still be there. The other two are still running the same, fully updated, version of Avira, yet have no issues talking to anything on the network.
Avira, being an "Internet Security" application, contains it's own firewall. Good luck in lining up the holes in the swiss cheese!
So how can it be that changing the setup on ONE computer and leaving the other two with EXACTLY the same setup as the one which had Microsoft Security Essentials installed cures the problem IF the 3rd party firewall was the issue, especially since I have setup home networks before using that very same software on Vista/XP?
Because you're not considering the wider implications of home networking, where the 2 machines in question are NOT necessarily the only ones participating in the dialogue.
You might want to read this:
Ultimate Troubleshooting Guide for Windows 7 HomeGroup Connection Issues