I have my McAfee firewall permanently turned off. I have a hardware firewall that suits me fine.
But....
Today I have been trying to upload files to my Web Site using Filezilla and FTP with absolutely no success. The server connection kept 'timing out'
Took a look at the ISP support site which informed me that the servers were up and running. Then trawled the net about FTP time out errors. Every time the solutions to the error suggested that one of the issues could be 'firewall'. But mine is turned off so that is not the problem!!!!
Or so I thought.
I opened up the Mcafee control panel to confirm the firewall was down and yes, it was reported as down. But I have been in this industry too long.
I simply turned on the firewall, turned it off once more and hey presto, my FTP upload works again.
I suppose someone could argue that the issue was not at my end but my ISP was lying about their servers and they just happened to come up as I toggled my firewall.