Posts tagged norton internet security

In my years working as an IT support specialist, one of the biggest frustrations of typical internet users is that the firewall software that they have installed ‘breaks’ their access to the internet. Especially dial up users.

Whether it’s Norton Internet Security, McAfee’s Security Center or any other third party firewall software, the individual settings for that software can (and eventually will) completely shutdown your access to the internet.

The most common symptoms of this is getting the ‘page cannot be displayed’ message in Internet Explorer or a ‘timeout’ error message in Outlook Express or Outlook.

What typically happens is that the firewall software will do an automated update (especially if it is part of a ‘suite’; an antivirus and firewall software combination, for example). the update will prompt a restart of the computer, and upon restarting, you won’t be able to access the internet or receive email.

A firewall is an important part of system protection. Especially for a person who uses a dial up connection. it blocks the attempts of anyone on the Internet trying to connect to or access your system without your permission. the firewall should also ask for your permission–which you can grant permanently by establishing an exception–to allow connections you need for programs such as email, instant messenging or gaming. in addition, they can provide some protection against viruses and Trojans.

However, when your firewall blocks your ability to access the internet, then it’s overstepped its usefulness. if you can’t get to any websites or receive emails and you aren’t sure what is happening, here’s what to do–short of calling your ISP’s technical support or turning off the firewall completely.

Windows Firewall

Included in Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, Microsoft has a built-in application called Windows Firewall. By default, this firewall is turned on when installation of SP 2 is completed.

To access Windows Firewall, go to the Start menu, open the Control Panel, and click Windows Firewall.

If Windows Firewall is blocking Internet Explorer, you might receive a security alert indicating such is the case. if so, click Unblock in this dialog box, and your problem should be solved.

However, if you can’t use Internet Explorer and don’t receive a security alert, a better course of action is to open Windows Security Center–it is best to make sure you are logged on as an administrator when doing this–and click the Windows Firewall link so you can manage its security settings.

In Windows Firewall, click the Exceptions tab. This displays the list of programs and services that Windows Firewall will not block. if Internet Explorer is not listed, click the Add Program button and use the Browse button to find it. (The file Iexplore.exe should be located in C:PROGRAM FILESINTERNET EXPLORER.) Highlight it and click OK, then click OK once more.

Third-Party Firewalls

If you’ve installed another firewall, the installation process more than likely will ask you to turn off Windows Firewall, or it may automatically disable Windows Firewall.

As mentioned, installing a third-party firewall, even if it’s just an incoming firewall that is part of another program, will result in disabling Windows Firewall. (If this doesn’t happen automatically, or if you aren’t prompted to do so, you should disable Windows Firewall because in most cases it’s best to have just one firewall running at a time.) Once the firewall is installed and activated, if you encounter a problem using IE, check the security settings.

I won’t go into changing specific settings within Norton or McAfee since that is an article all by itself. Suffice it to say that the ‘help’ area of the software itself should be fairly helpful.

The easiest way to find out if your firewall software is causing the problem is to right click on the program icon in the system tray of your taskbar and disabling or turning it off completely and see if that solves the problem.

High Speed Connections

Typically, users who access the internet through a high speed DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) connection don’t have to concern themselves as much with firewall software. the reason for this is that a typical DSL connection involves the use of a modem, which acts as a DHCP server. This modem acts as a hardware firewall using NAT (Network Address Translation). put simply, the computer you are using is assigned a private IP address (let’s say 192.168.0.5) and the modem is using an IP address that is assigned by your ISP.

Let’s say you have an instance of Internet Explorer open and you type ‘yahoo.com’ into the address bar. the computer will send a message to the DSL modem requesting the information from the yahoo website. the DSL modem will relay that request to the web server at yahoo.com and then receive a reply. Once this reply is received, the modem will determine what computer (yours.192.168.0.5) sent the request, and it will forward the information from yahoo to it. This all happens in a matter of seconds.

I would recommend that users of Cable connections use some sort of firewall software since the computer they are using is directly connected to the internet. Unless of course you have more than one computer in the home and you are using a router.

Update Your Virus Protection

If a firewall detects a security risk, such as one posed by a virus or worm, it might prevent a user from going online through IE. This is why it’s very important to keep your antivirus program updated. when you update your antivirus program, you are staying on top of the virus definitions the program uses to identify the latest virus threats.

Of course, it’s ideal to do this on a regular basis so that your system does not get infected. But if you find access to IE blocked and tweaking the settings in your firewall doesn’t work, the problem might actually be a virus. One solution is to go online with a different computer and visit the Web site of the manufacturer of your antivirus program. Download the latest definitions to a CD and then insert the disc into the computer with the nonfunctioning IE.

Once you load the new definitions, initialize a full-system scan with your antivirus program and then use a repair wizard or similarly named tool to fix any security risks that are found. Restart your system, and you should be able to launch IE.