XP firewall exceptions - what to do

[Osem]

Hi guys. As my wife just started up the PC and clicked on IE she got a small warning box in the systray area appear stating that our PC might be at risk as the firewall is off of something like that. By the time I got here it'd gone so I can't tell you more but it may have originated from avast or spybot I guess. Anyway I checked to see if the XP firewall was on and it is. I then had a look at what's listed under the 'exceptions' tag and found a number of programmes listed - some checked and some not. IE was not checked but quite a few other were and I was wondering if they should be or not. Most appear to be linked to windows live messenger, remote assistance and our ms lifecam which I guess are OK but there were some I'm unsure of. These were itunes, Nero Media Home, NetMeeting, UPnP Framework. What are these and what should I do about them? Presumably unchecking the boxes means that connections are blocked.

[Raistlin]

If you're not sure then uncheck the boxes, if you later discover that something isn't working you can just add it as an exception again and get it working.

[Dai]

I've seen that warning on other systems. It appears to be linked to the start-up speed of various different processes. If the security centre wakes up before the AV or firewall processes have finished initialising then you may see a warning. A few seconds later once the firewall process is fully started it goes away. Nothing to worry about.

[toonlight]

Originally Posted by Osem

Hi guys. As my wife just started up the PC and clicked on IE she got a small warning box in the systray area appear stating that our PC might be at risk as the firewall is off of something like that. By the time I got here it'd gone so I can't tell you more but it may have originated from avast or spybot I guess. Anyway I checked to see if the XP firewall was on and it is. I then had a look at what's listed under the 'exceptions' tag and found a number of programmes listed - some checked and some not. IE was not checked but quite a few other were and I was wondering if they should be or not. Most appear to be linked to windows live messenger, remote assistance and our ms lifecam which I guess are OK but there were some I'm unsure of. These were itunes, Nero Media Home, NetMeeting, UPnP Framework. What are these and what should I do about them? Presumably unchecking the boxes means that connections are blocked.

Well it happens if you, switch off you machine without shutting it down through windows - a basic full reset. (windows xp)
If that happens disconnect your net connetion, wait till you computer is fully booted, then go in to the settings, turn on your firewall (windows may be?) others if you have other software from Eg; norton macfee etc

But do have your windows firewall on with your other protection software as duel layer set up, just making it that much more harder for the hacker/malware/spyware/rootkit. I have to say I.E is the you wifes bigest problem in term of safety on the net - it's rubbish for protection To say that I.E 8.0 has more holes in it's programme than that of my kitchen drainer - too buggy, too poorly written & too much tied to the O/S if you ask me !

My understanding is that IE is written for poorly written scripted web pages , so works with all sites but others like firefox does require a higher standard of script so is a more improved platform to work of across the ranges, so why try others with a better up date time & productive update record + custom addons Eg; firefox, oprea, chrome etc Then go from there to your email software, if your using outlook of any other MS product - move to an open software product like thunderbird which is same as mircsoft but much better at up-dated & not forgetting the addons
In another-ones word think out side the box not within the box ....."step over to the darkside luke" -starwars (film)