[OT] Which firewall is good..?!

[Lefteous]

2Wilhelm M.

2 questions: what have you heard? And do YOU have installed a PFW?

That has been a joke
Actually I heard that people installing personal firewalls to get a ''Allround No-Worry package" which protects system in all circumstances.

No.

[Wilhelm M.]

@lefteous
See, not even I am this stupid to believe in ''Allround No-Worry package" solutions (Smile).

[Lefteous]

2Wilhelm M.

See, not even I am this stupid to believe in ''Allround No-Worry package" solutions (Smile).

The problem is that this IP world is quite a complex subject. My knowledge may be enough to know what personal firewalls are good for or not and which strategies are useful or not but when it comes to details (unfortunately there are really important) I'm really lost.

[Wilhelm M.]

@icfu
Moderators will probably throw me out but all I can say is "Thats a real damned f.....g sh.... !!"
Now the services are in the list (good) but if I start them manually I get (I refuse to translate it from German):
"....konnte nicht gestartet werden. Fehler 1083: In dem ausführbaren Programm, in dem der Dienst ausgeführt wird, ist der Dienst nicht implementiert." Note the sublime construction of that sentence. Shurely doesn't sound better in English.

[nevidimka]

PFWs can be usefull in some circumstances. If you configure this kind of software properly it doesn't hurt and helps to keep some malware out and some data in your system. Yes of course it doesn't work perfectly - it is only a masterpiece of software made by humans.

[Wilhelm M.]

Since I do not have the impression that we disagree in principal - what advice can we offer Xtrician? Install a PFW, that gives you as much control as possible (balderstrom has mentioned some examples) - but do not rely on it?

[nevidimka]

I use WXP PFW only and I'm happy with that.

[icfu]

@Wilhelm M.:
Looks like you have shreddered your operating system. Have you used a regcleaner? If yes, restore a backup.

Anyway, it can have many reasons. Your system may even be infected by a rootkit. I can only recommend to not take this too easy, something is very wrong. Backup your data and reinstall Windows 2000, at least check your system from a clean boot device with an up-to-date scanner, Kaspersky highly recommended.

As I have no physical access to the box, my help ends here, sorry.

Icfu

[Wilhelm M.]

@icfu
I was afraid you would say that! It's my own fault, of course. Yes, I have tried several regcleaners. But I think that the problem dates from my usage of XP-AntiSpy. This program also shuts down services that may be a safety issue. In an older version you could only decide to apply a change or not. A newer version offers several "profiles", one of them enables Windos Update to work. Note: only one of them! One has to conclude that the others can cause WU to stop working. And thats what probably happened. The previous version did not have an option to keep WU going - and I stupidly applied the changes and now I have to suffer (?).

However thanks for your generous help!

[icfu]

I doubt that XP-Antispy is the cause despite being a very questionable utility. Have you tried option 4, restore to system default?
Anyway, I am pretty sure that it doesn't delete service entries from the registry which definetely has happened on your box.

Stick to the regcleaners, even the worst one of them should have a restore function. You can only hope that you have not deleted them by mistake or because you thought you don't need them anymore.

Icfu

[Wilhelm M.]

Option 4 + restart did not solve the problem - as you expected. But I have noted something else: in the service list there is a service "Automatische Updates" but there is no service "Windows Update". Should'nt be there something like that?

[icfu]

Nope, there is no service "Windows Update". "Automatische Updates" is responsible for the updates.

Icfu

[deus-ex]

@Wilhelm M.

This is a list of my native running services (third Party services excluded), "Automatische Updates" working as expected. Maybe that can help you to find whats broken?


HINT: Listing created using Services.wfx & Makebat.wcx. This allows for easy comparison with a backup list.

Code: Select all

Running: Arbeitsstationsdienst
Running: Automatische Updates
Running: COM+-Ereignissystem
Running: DCOM-Server-Prozessstart
Running: Druckwarteschlange
Running: Ereignisprotokoll
Running: Geschützter Speicher
Running: Intelligenter Hintergrundübertragungsdienst
Running: Kompatibilität für schnelle Benutzerumschaltung
Running: Kryptografiedienste
Running: Netzwerkverbindungen
Running: NLA (Network Location Awareness)
Running: Plug & Play
Running: RAS-Verbindungsverwaltung
Running: Remoteprozeduraufruf (RPC)
Running: Server
Running: Shellhardwareerkennung
Running: Systemereignisbenachrichtigung
Running: Systemwiederherstellungsdienst
Running: Taskplaner
Running: Telefonie
Running: Terminaldienste
Running: Verwaltung logischer Datenträger
Running: Windows Audio
Running: Windows User Mode Driver Framework
Running: Windows-Verwaltungsinstrumentation
Stopped: Ablagemappe
Stopped: Anmeldedienst
Stopped: Anwendungsverwaltung
Stopped: COM+-Systemanwendung
Stopped: Computerbrowser
Stopped: Designs
Stopped: DHCP-Client
Stopped: Dienst für Seriennummern der tragbaren Medien
Stopped: Distributed Transaction Coordinator
Stopped: DNS-Client
Stopped: Eingabegerätezugang
Stopped: Fehlerberichterstattungsdienst
Stopped: Gatewaydienst auf Anwendungsebene
Stopped: Hilfe und Support
Stopped: HTTP-SSL
Stopped: IMAPI-CD-Brenn-COM-Dienste
Stopped: Indexdienst
Stopped: IPSEC-Dienste
Stopped: Konfigurationsfreie drahtlose Verbindung
Stopped: Leistungsdatenprotokolle und Warnungen
Stopped: MS Software Shadow Copy Provider
Stopped: Nachrichtendienst
Stopped: NetMeeting-Remotedesktop-Freigabe
Stopped: Netzwerk-DDE-Dienst
Stopped: Netzwerk-DDE-Serverdienst
Stopped: Netzwerkversorgungsdienst
Stopped: NT-LM-Sicherheitsdienst
Stopped: QoS-RSVP
Stopped: Remote-Registrierung
Stopped: Routing und RAS
Stopped: RPC-Locator
Stopped: Sekundäre Anmeldung
Stopped: Sicherheitscenter
Stopped: Sicherheitskontenverwaltung
Stopped: Sitzungs-Manager für Remotedesktophilfe
Stopped: Smartcard
Stopped: SSDP-Suchdienst
Stopped: TCP/IP-NetBIOS-Hilfsprogramm
Stopped: Telnet
Stopped: Treibererweiterungen für Windows-Verwaltungsinstrumentation
Stopped: Universeller Plug & Play-Gerätehost
Stopped: Unterbrechungsfreie Stromversorgung
Stopped: Verwaltung für automatische RAS-Verbindung
Stopped: Verwaltungsdienst für die Verwaltung logischer Datenträger
Stopped: Volumeschattenkopie
Stopped: Warndienst
Stopped: Webclient
Stopped: Wechselmedien
Stopped: Windows Installer
Stopped: Windows-Bilderfassung (WIA)
Stopped: Windows-Firewall/Gemeinsame Nutzung der Internetverbindung
Stopped: Windows-Zeitgeber
Stopped: WMI-Leistungsadapter
Stopped: Überwachung verteilter Verknüpfungen (Client)

Regards,
deus-ex

[Wilhelm M.]

Thanks deus-ex! Comparison will take some time...

[icfu]

The list from deus-ex is from Windows XP, so don't wonder if there are some services you won't find.

Icfu