[ozzie]

I am playing dangerously at the moment as i have noticed that my firewall has been blocking my weather station uploads and a couple of other ftp programmes.Does anybody know how i can turn my firewall back on and allow these programmes to run with firewall.

[John Mason]

What make & model is your firewall Ozzie? You can usually create an appropriate rule to permit certain programs to make contact with certain servers.

Cheers - John 

[ozzie]

Hi John it is windows firewall i am using and the strange thing is that weather display was on the exception list but it still would not allow it.i only realised that it could be the firewall when i had a couple of other issues with ftp programmes.

[John Mason]

Maybe try uninstalling and reinstalling it??

 Cheers - John

[paul.m]

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Personally I would get yourself another firewall, the one on windows is too basic and doesn't properly protect your pc from hack attacks. A good one to get it zone alarm if you want a free one.

[ozzie]

Thanks Paul i will have a look

[ozzie]

I have just tried allowing some programs and still does not like it,Not sure if is due to the fire wall on xp pro that is causing a problem but i am going to try Paul's suggestion of Zone Alarm and see how i get on with that.

[DMrqwq]

I have a free copy of Sygate personal firewall here! Cracking program - I have used it for years and keeps everything out but lets what I want upload. It is frequently updated and updates are free. If you want to have a look then PM me!

[Stuart Robinson]

Ozzie, / look at your ADSL hardware file wall to see if is blocking port (21 FTP). you will also need to have port 20 open as well on TCP not UDP.

[paul.m]

Sygate have been taken over by Symantec and the free firewall discontinued, it hasn't been updated for some time. I'd recommend you pick another one up!

[DMrqwq]

Ah ok then! I think i'll have a look around! I was under the impression it was still up and running! off googling I go!

[Optrex]

Must agree with paul, if you want a free one - zone alarm

[ozzie]

Yes i forgot to say that i did zone alarm it all o k,just got to remember how to get website sorted now.

[David Hollingworth]

I've had a similar problem recently that wasn't Windows Firewall but Norton Antivirus's worm blocker that was preventing ftp connections. I think this was allowing connections out OK; but it wasn't allowing any replies back in and so the ftp sessions were failing.

I would agree that ZOneAlarm seems the best free firewall. The only problem I has was that it doesn't allow a shared dial-up connection (a windows XP feature that allows several PC's to dial-out through one PC) and as my wife and I use shared dialup I couldn't use Zone Alarm.