Firewall Configuration, Usage, and Software Expiration

The usual questions that come up in this area include:

Can I continue using the product after the end of the upgrade protection period?

As with most software, the Personal Firewall will never stop functioning, once it has been registered. Purchasing the Upgrade Option gives you free updates and upgrades for a year, which includes updates to the Intrusion Detection signatures and upgrades to the Personal Firewall software.

Will the Firewall work on a computer that has multiple IP addresses assigned to a single NIC?

The Personal Firewall cannot detect your network card if you are running Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows XP, AND if you have multiple IP addresses assigned to one of more of the network adapters. You will need to remove the other IP address if you want to run the Personal Firewall software.

What should I do if I am having trouble with Network Shares?

In order to share files and printers, or to access mapped drives with the Personal Firewall, you must allow this feature for your inside NIC. To do this:

  1. From the Main Menu, click Tools|Options|Network Neighborhood.

  2. Enable both network settings for your inside NIC, by clicking Allow to browse Network Neighborhood files and printer(s), and by clicking Allow others to share my files and printer(s).

  3. From the Main Menu, click Tools|Options|Security.

  4. Be certain that Enable driver level protection and NetBIOS Protection are disabled. The default for these settings is enabled.

  5. From the Main Menu, click Tools|Applications, or click the Applications button.

  6. Set the following applications to Allow in the Running Applications list:

  7. mpsrv

  8. kernel

  9. ntoskrnl

  10. svchost

  11. NetBeui

also, possibly set these applications to Allow: