Re: XP File and printer sharing SOLVED!! A HIDDEN FIREWALL!!

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

In article <eoLm0vONHHA.4244@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "KenV"
<kvatz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Chuck and Steve,

I am going to cross post this in two threads, because I think it is so
important, and it may help a lot of other people here.

After going through everything in all the various posts, links, etc.,
multiple times, I decided that it /had/ to be a firewall problem. This is
after changing NICs and cables, updating drivers, setting up permissions,
fixing Winsock, TCPIP, etc., disabling the Windows and OneCare firewalls,
everything. It was obviously a problem with the one computer A, and it had
to be a firewall.

I noticed that when I used the Live Update feature in Symantec's Norton
Ghost it was still trying to update--unsuccessfully--some sort of security
software. I hadn't used any Symantec security software for over a year (!),
and had gone through all their uninstalls, and, in fact, the network was
working fine until early December, 2006.

So I went into the Registry looking for keys with Symantec files that were
unrelated to Ghost. They were all under HKLM, System, CurrentControlSet,
Services. I found all the files referred to in the Registry located under
\Windows\system32\* and I tried to delete them. I couldn't delete them,
which meant they were in use, even though I couldn't find them in Task
Manager. I then deleted the Registry keys, rebooted, and deleted the files
(which I didn't have to do, once the registry keys were gone). These files
were: symtdi.sys, symfw.sys (likely the real culprit here), symndis.sys,
symids.sys, symredrv.sys, symdns.sys, and symRedir.inf.

Like magic, both Computer B and the Mac immediately saw Computer A and all
its folders and files! No browser problems, nothing.

Two frustrating weeks for me and everyone else on a problem that wouldn't
even exist--a completely hidden firewall--if software companies made it easy
to completely uninstall their security programs. This company in particular
is notorious for such behavior, and it is very costly to the end users in
terms of time wasted. It does not go unnoticed, for whatever that is worth.

It wouldn't surprise me if this were a common problem. I see similar posts
to mine here every day--can't see one computer on the network--and the
firewall is always given as one likely cause. But what if you can't find the
firewall?

Anyway, thank you both for all the time, energy and expertise you put into
this for me. I learned a huge amount about networking along the way, and got
an incidentally (?) broken Winsock fixed in the bargain.

Ken

Nice going, Ken. I'm sure that your experience will help other
people. Thanks for the report.

Problems with un-installing Norton products are so common that
Symantec provides downloadable tools to do the job. This web page has
more information and links to the tools:

http://basconotw.mvps.org/SymRem.htm

I keep the Norton Removal tools on a USB flash drive along with my
virus removal tools. Birds of a feather . . . :-)
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
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