we have win2000 server as domain Is there way to manage XP workstations remotely as disable firewall remotely.

Answer 1

How remote are you talking? Away from your network?

We actually have a Win2000 server as well, and all of our computers off of that are XP - you can disable all the firewalls on the XP machines by going into your control panel and click on your icon for your WINDOWS FIREWALL and disable it...however I do not know if you are talking about disabling the Win2000 server firewall.

I'm not too techie of a person, but I know we fixed it at our office, however, our machines are all 'connected' through our LAN, not in different areas of the world.

-Em

Answer 2

I'm not sure I understand exactly your question, but I'll try to answer...

First of all, the Windows Firewall in a new concept in XP, therefore your Windows 2000 domain doesn't normally have any tools to manage it. However, if you were to install a Windows 2003 server, you could use group policies to manage it and open/close the ports that you want.

Now, there are several ways of managing remote workstations. Do you want to install software, or stop/start services, or take control of the PC remotely?

My guess is that you want to have remote access. To do this, open TCP port 3389 on your XP workstations. To increase security, you can also limit the users that can connect this way AND limit the subnet that can connect to this port. For example, to avoid connections for the internet, you could limit the access to your sub-network only (for example: 192.168.0.xxx).

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

Please tell me you want to disable the XP firewall because you want another firewall running??!!
There is no reason to disable the XP firewall, just make the necessary exceptions to it i.e. ports and software allowed to run.
From a 2000 domain controller you can load the XP/2003 management pack and that gives you the option to configure the status of the windows firewall through a GPO. you can create a group policy object and link it to an OU containing your XP machines or any group of PCs that you want to have setup the same way.
To disable a windows firewall remotely, right click My Computer from your server, and click manage. Right click your server name, and click connect to...
type the name or browse to the name of the PC and connect to it.
Under services, disable windows security center and the windows internet connection sharing/firewall service. Double click the service, stop it, then change from automatic to disabled.
But please don't leave the boxes alone without a firewall, I don't care what you're running at your gateway, have a second line of defense or your XP boxes will turn into a huge zombie botnet mess.