Computer contracted "backdoor trojan" virus and now I can't get my Windows Firewall turned on; it's stuck off.

Question

I believe I have gotten rid of the virus, but for some reason my Windows Firewall will not turn on. I've tried turning it on from the control panel, from programs/accessories/tools, everything I know of . I know it worked before the virus.

Answer 1

Are you settings greyed out? If so, part of the trojan may have been to adjust your local group policy settings. Open GPEDIT.MSC and navigate through computer configuration==>Administrative Templates==>Network==>Network Connections==>Windows Firewall and select both standard and domain profile and look for the Protect All Network Connections settings and make sure they are both set to enabled. You may not have the Domain profile.

This setting may also be disabled by your adminstrator if you have a company owned computer.

Answer 2

Make sure you have run SpyBot Search and Destroy and AdAware (both free) from www.filehippo.com. Also get AVG from there if you don't have current anti-virus. To turn your firewall back on:

For Windows XP Home Edition
Click Start, Run and type Regedit.exe
Navigate to the following locations:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Policies \ Microsoft \ WindowsFirewall

-and-

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ SOFTWARE \ Policies \ Microsoft \ WindowsFirewall

Backup and then delete the WindowsFirewall key.
Close Regedit.exe and restart Windows.
For Windows XP Professional
Click Start, Run and type Gpedit.msc
Navigate to the following branch:
Computer Configuration
=> Administrative Templates
==> System
===> Network
===> Network Connections
====> Windows Firewall
=====> Standard Profile

Set the following options to Not Configured (defaults)
Windows Firewall: Protect all network connections
Windows Firewall: Do not allow exceptions
Windows Firewall: Define program exceptions
Windows Firewall: Allow local program exceptions
Windows Firewall: Allow remote administration exception
Windows Firewall: Allow file and printer sharing exception
Windows Firewall: Allow ICMP exceptions
Windows Firewall: Allow Remote Desktop exception
Windows Firewall: Allow UPnP framework exception
Windows Firewall: Prohibit notifications
Windows Firewall: Allow logging
Windows Firewall: Prohibit unicast response to multicast or broadcast requests
Windows Firewall: Define port exceptions
Windows Firewall: Allow local port exceptions

Exit the Group Policy editor.

Answer 3

What you need to do is ctrl/alt/del and go to processes. Take the program names you don't know and plug them into google. That should tell you which are malicious. Then turn them off in the processes screen. After that restart your computer and make sure those programs are not opening on startup. Once that happens you should be able to turn on your windows firewall. But you have to get some sort of good virus like Kaspersky. Norton and McAfee may be allowing the block also.

Answer 4

Go into safe mode (F8 on boot-up) then try enabling it. It is possible that you did not get rid of the virus or, by doing so, also killed a dll that you need. If it won't turn on and you also scanned your system in safe mode to ensure nothing is still active, download Znealarm - it is a better firewall and it is free,

Answer 5

Chances are, the virus probably disabled it.while it was infecting your computer... personally i would suggest forgetting about windows firewall to start with.... it's proven itself not to be a very good defender... theres much better choices for a firewall

Answer 6

dear mommy,
it seems that backdoor trojan really got up your rectum and has reamed you out well.
or maybe you need to log on as Administrator to change your security settings.

Answer 7

Just back up ur computer to an earlier time