Configuring XP , SP2 Firewall

[Fordtruckmaniac]

Is it enough to just "enable" the Microsoft XP SP2 firewall.

Or does it need personal tweaking?

My son's gilrfriends fairly new Dell 5100, XP Home, may have croaked earlier tonight. Her Norton AV that came with the Dell expired just about a week ago. They removed it all and the firewall that was with it. Installed free Avast, and just checked the box to enable the Microsoft firewall. She is on a high speed wireless IP. The Dell would not completely boot. It would only go right to where the desktop was supposed to load, but would not.  They called and I tolg them to boot in safe mode, which it loaded all the way there. I told them to run Avast in safe mode, since they were there. It had several viruses, when she cleaned it up with Avast, afterward it pretty much died and said a re-install was needed.

I have no idea what transpired prior, other than phone comunication.

Is it time to break out her "Recovery Disks"?

With the XP SP2 firewall how can this be prvented from happening again?

Thanks.

[dl65]

Fordtruckmaniac

Is it time to break out her "Recovery Disks"?  

Based on what you have said ......I would say yes ...

With the XP SP2 firewall how can this be prvented from happening again?

I don't believe it was the lack of a firewall that did in the machine , but rather the absence of a anti virus ......
Remember Windows firewall is just that A firewall , which only blocks incoming threats  ....it is not a anti virus ....... I would be installing a AV app such as AVG or Avast .

dl65  

[Fordtruckmaniac]

I guess I did not say it right about installing Avast.

It was installed immediately after removing the Norton system that came with the Dell, which was about a week ago. Then my son just put a check mark in the box for enabling the XP, SP2 firewall after removing Norton's program.

Is there anything that can be set better for not letting this happen again after doing the re-install? I think she gets her e-mail through AOL. Will or can the firewall be set to protect e-mail? I think Avast can be set to scan e-mail, right?

Thanks.

[dl65]

Fordtruckmaniac..... Ok, if I understand the sequence of events , the Norton Security trial (90 day probably ) expired . Norton Security , includes both a anti virus and a firewall. So this software was removed and the machine had no AV installed for a period of time until Avast free version was downloaded .......Thats probably when the machine became infected .  Turning on the Firewall that is included in SP2 from microsoft would have had no effect on the machine  as far as preventing the virus attack. So if the pc wont boot up in normal mode , it is time to run the recovery disks .........and once its back to normal ....make sure that the anti virus that is installed is up to date ......in fact , if they dont have Avast on a cd ..... they should use another pc and D/L either Avast or AVG and burn it onto a disk . Then they can load that disk onto the Dell and they will have virus protection and can safely go on-line.
Hope this helps you.

dl65  

[Fordtruckmaniac]

You have it all correct but the time from deletion of Norton to installing Avast.

Avast was loaded immediately after the deletion of Norton. Which your right, was still an open window for a little bit.

She has a highspeed wireless IP and it took just a couple minutes maybe, to load it.

But my son ran Avast in the boot scan mode, including checking archive files, right after installation of Avast and it found nothing.

And after running Avast when it was acting up, it is really messed up now. In safe mode now all you get is a black screen with "safe mode" in the corners. No start menu, icons, nothing. just the error message "win" something, "dll missing files" then doing a re-install to fix the problem. I may actually have it Sunday to look at.

I myself, do have Avast burned on a disk that I use to install it without being online unprotected. So it will get used after the re-install.

Thanks.