Firewall won't stay on

[flo]

I just started getting the alert that my Firewall is off.  I click Turn On and with in a few seconds the alert comes up again and the firewall is off.

on 03/04/12 6:54:24 EDT AM

[tomar82403]

I have the exact same issue today - however I wrestled with a malware this am (the windows antivirus 2012) - think I have it all cclean and the last step is to turn on the firewall - which it will not do... still surfing for an answer...

[k3tg]

You mentioned you may have recently had a virus or a malware issue. This document from McAfee has a lot of good information and I hope you have already taken a few steps which are mentioned in it already. Basically make sure your Windows updates are current. Try running the McAfee Stinger scans which are mentioned.

Just curious if you have ever had any previous security software installed before McAfee?

The following link has more information in it and can give you a second opinion if everything checks out in the link above.

[tomar82403]

On this particular laptop, I have only had McAfee... interestingly - neither the Stinger software or McAfee found any Malware files nor did the online Microsoft scan.  I downloaded the

superantispyware portable scanner http://www.superantispyware.com/portablescanner.html?tag=SAS_HOMEPAGE  (I was very skeptical) but it found the malware in less than 3 minutes and nailed it!  I do not recommend this method other than it worked for me.

I have had Norton, Vipre and AVG before -  most likley when this subscription runs out - I will go back to Norton - even though they are expensive.

[exbrit]

No antivirus is going to afford you 100% protection so no matter what brand you settle for, the risk is always there.   For instance many of these fake malware entities are designed to circumvent anitvirus software and often rely on some action on the part of the recipient, no matter how trivial, to activate them.

Keep Windows totally up to date, including any parts of it you may not use, surf safely, be careful what you download and keep some extra tools handy and updated at the ready, just in case.  Tom k3tg posted a link at the end of his post above to some.

Message was edited by: Ex_Brit on 03/12/11 5:12:35 EST PM

[tomar82403]

You are absolutely correct on that no software can afford 100% protection - most likely ever.  I have had a computer since Tandy came out with a color computer back in 1980 (with a whole 4k and a cassette tape drive) - so I have been around these machines awhile.  Each software AV provider has pro's and con's - Norton is real quick to prevent the insertion from happening as opposed to McAfee which is really good at search and destroy.  I have Mcafee for two years to go... so there's a chance they could change my mind. 

BTW - Toronto is our favorite vacation city ( I would move there in a heart beat if my wife didn't love her job so much) we visit at least once a year... I would love the Blue Jay's to take a real run in the MLB too and Go Leaf's!

Tom A

Albion, Michigan

[exbrit]

Thanks Tom.  I regret to say that the only place I ever visited in Michigan was Detroit a few years ago.  I was staying with a now-deceased friend up at 5th mile who worked at GM...actually I like the place.  That was long before the rot set in there though.

I like Toronto of course, it's a great place to live, but getting rather expensive when one is on a fixed pension.   But then most large cities are the same in that regard.

Message was edited by: Ex_Brit on 03/12/11 6:55:58 EST PM

[alteris]

Just wanted to say, I have the exact same problem detailed by tomar above.  I'd done battle with Win 7 Security 2012 yesterday and the Stinger tool here finally neutered the little piece of junk for me.  That was yesterday.  As a note I did use Malwarebytes to help but the actual malware was quite a punk, every time I tried to use a normal McAfee or Malwarebytes scan to take it out it would stop the scan and restart its annoying little shakedown for your credit card number and locks on programs.  The Stinger tool was the weapon that finally beat it, but I had to set the heuristics to Very High.

I log in today to find my McAfee firewall and real time scanning unable to stay set just as described above.  I did try what worked for tomar and found a whole lot of tracking cookies in the many varieties of runthroughs I managed.  I have run Malwarebytes and found 3 malwares once again two of which were FakeAV trojans.  I ran a full McAfee scan and got nothing.  I just ran another Stinger scan and nothing has changed.  None of that has changed the problem.  I can't find by four programs any malware within a mile of my computer.

So I'm about at the end of my rope where I go back to the good old System Restore.  I searched high and low for answers and found a few people on here that had the exact same problem.  None of them had a definitive answer, though.  I wish what tomar did worked for me, unfortunately it did not.  Where do you folks suggest I go from here?

[exbrit]

You could try the following scan and post it's logs on the forum mentioned for expert advice:

Download DDS: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/anti-virus/dds

Post the log here:  http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/forum22.html

Read their guidelines first.

[aclockworkorang]

Hi,

My problem is nearly identical to what the original poster described:  Mcafee internet security main window says firewall is on, but when I click settings, the firewall is labeled as "off". I click "Turn on" and the button momentarily switches to indicate that the firewall is on, but immediately switches backto the off setting. I downloaded and ran mcafee virtual technician and the program acknowledged that the firewall service was not running but could not resolve the issue.

I actually went so far as to do a system restore but cannot for the life of me get the firewall to turn on.