Problem with firewall (periodically turning off) SOLVED! (I think)

[sweatpantsarnie]

My system:

Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 - all "Important" and "Recommended" updates installed to date

McAfee AntiVirus Plus 2012 - up to date

Windows Internet Explorer 9.0.8112.16421 (Update ver 9.0.12)

HP PC - 64-bit OS

Things have been working a lot better since I uninstalled McAfee (using Windows control panel) and re-downloaded and re-installed it from my McAfee account.

You might try this if you are still having problems with your firewall periodically turning off.

I'd be happy to detail the process for anyone who has any questions - I'll keep an eye on this forum for a bit.

Hope this helps

[sweatpantsarnie]

Well, DISREGARD MY SUGGESTION ABOVE.

My problems are back

[karthiks]

Sweatpantsarnie,

Please post the screen shot of Windows Firewall  screen. I need to start with Windows Firewall first.

Message was edited by: karthiks on 2/25/13 10:17:08 PM CST

[sweatpantsarnie]

karthiks -

Here's how my Windows Firewall usually looks when opened from Control Panel:

Of course, the choices on the left side that appear in bold are not accessible.

[sweatpantsarnie]

Incidentally, a few days ago I performed a system recovery, using the recovery discs.  This took the PC back to its original factory settings.

I then ran Windows Update and downloaded and installed all of the "Important" OS updates.

Then I downloaded McAfee AntiVirus Plus again from my McAfee account page, thinking it would work better.  Nope.

I'm still having the same problems with the firewall intermittently "snoozing," (according to feedback from Windows Action Center, which is a great tool, btw, to monitor what is going on in real-time with your firewall).

Below are a series of screenshots taken within a minute of each other, after a reboot.  I had my modem off the entire time.

On the left side of the screenshots is McAfee's user interface, which reports the firewall is on and everything is all good.

On the right side is the Windows Action Center page, with the Security section expanded.

Then, soon after I was saving the above the screen capture, the Action Center window changed to this (image below), and reported:

SPYWARE AND UNWANTED SOFTWARE:  "Windows Defender and McAfee Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware both report that they are turned off."

VIRUS PROTECTION: "McAfee Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware reports that it is turned off."

NETWORK FIREWALL: "Windows Firewall and McAfee Firewall both report that they are turned off."

...

And about 30-45 seconds later, the Action Center window changed again to this (image below), and reported:

NETWORK FIREWALL: McAfee reports that it is currently turned on.

VIRUS PROTECTION: McAfee Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware reports that it is up to date and virus scanning is on.

SPYWARE AND UNWANTED SOFTWARE PROTECTION: McAfee Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware reports that it is turned on.

...

Note: During all of this, the McAfee user interface window on the left didn't change, and would have you believe everything was cool.

I hope this helps somebody figure this out, for the sake of all the suffering McAfee users out there.

Message was edited by: sweatpantsarnie on 3/2/13 11:19:10 AM CST

Message was edited by: sweatpantsarnie on 3/2/13 11:20:00 AM CST

[sweatpantsarnie]

To the Moderators:

I'd like to thank you for your helpfulness and patience on this forum. I've read many posts here, and I often see a lot of frustration directed at you... it shouldn't be. So thank you all for being so patient and professional. I'm somewhat frustrated too, but not at you.

I've been using McAfee for many years, with no problems, and I'm grateful for those happy times. For whatever reason, this latest version of AntiVirusPlus does not seem to work on my newer PC reliably. I know it works fine on some PCs (like my older PC for example, which is very similar to my newer one).

Anyhow, this morning I thought I would un-install AVPlus and re-install it again, so I did. And actually, so far, the firewall seems to be staying on without snoozing, which is great! Maybe it's just all wound up from its trip today from the McAfee servers to my hard drive! I hope it continues to work. More on this in a second.

But let me backtrack a little bit... A few days ago, when I did a system recovery / factory reset (and subsequently updated the OS and re-installed McAfee from my online account), I noticed that under the Navigation-->General Settings and Alerts-->Informational Alerts, there were no items to select (see below)...

Then I happened to check back a day or so later, and there was one item there!...

It was like Santa Claus had come during the night!  But, on my older machine, there are way more choices...

It's the same exact McAfee product, btw, same builds, engines, etc. And the same OS and all that too... very similar.

So, that's really why I un-installed and re-installed AVPlus this morning on my newer machine... I thought maybe the full range of choices under the informational alerts might re-appear. But it's empty again.. Not even that one choice

There's one more thing that I want to mention to the Moderators here that may or may not be helpful in troubleshooting the firewall on/off issue. I've read on this forum somewhere that the problem with McAfee firewall turning off unexpectedly is related to some problem(s) with Windows Firewall.

After taking my (newer) HP back to its original factory state, I looked at the list of programs/features allowed through the Windows Firewall. I restored the defaults, just for laughs, and then manually unchecked everything, so nothing was allowed through. Then I ran Windows Update and got all the "Important" updates installed.

After those were installed, I checked out the Windows Firewall list of programs/features allowed again, and there was a new item on there, "Windows Communication Foundation," which was the only item listed there that was allowed through the Windows Firewall.

Here's where things get strange... I hit the button to restore the Windows Firewall defaults again, and this "Windows Communication Foundation" disappeared from the list. And I wonder what else did also... if maybe when I restored the defaults, the firewall went waaaaayyyyyyy back in time, and a year's worth of OS updates, (pertaining to changes in code related to the Windows Firewall), had been undone by restoring the Windows Firewall defaults? I don't know... It seems unlikely that Microsoft would allow you to screw yourself that hard just by restoring some default settings, but it was pretty strange to see that item disappear completely from that list. If I ever do this all again, I'll make sure to pay more attention to the list as it appears after all the updates are installed.

Anyhow, I guess that's it. Hope that helps.

[karthiks]

Kindly try the below steps for the Action Center issue (also applicable for Firewall issues)

Open Command prompt window in Run as Administrator

In the command prompt, type net stop winmgmt then hit enter->type Y for the asked question and keep the window open

Open Run Window and type wbem and hit OK

You can see a folder with the name Repository, right click and rename it to Repository.OLD

Close that window and type net start winmgmt in the command prompt again and hit enter

Restart the computer once and check the Action center status

Message was edited by: karthiks on 3/3/13 11:37:44 PM CST

[sweatpantsarnie]

Mr. Shankar,

Thank you for suggestion.  I would try it, but I've reached the point where I can't spend any more time on this.

As far as I'm concerned, it is McAfee's responsibility to test their products thoroughly before releasing them, on all systems on which they claim it will work.  Not the end user's.

My hardware meets all the minimum system requirements as stated on the box that I purchased, and yet, as of the release of the new UI, the software no longer runs reliably.  Of course I understand that new releases sometimes have bugs that get overlooked, but I would expect those issues to be fixed in a matter of days, not weeks (and counting), especially when it comes to glitches that compromise user's security.  After all, that is the software's primary purpose.

Anyhow, I appreciate your time, Mr. Shankar, and I hope the dialog in this thread will prove useful.

-Regards,

Sweatpants

[karthiks]

Sweatpantsarnie,

I really be thankful for your comments, I hope you will try my suggestion to check the issue. Next time if you happen to do a system restore kindly check McAfee is present on the machine after doing the restore. If present then update the McAfee and then check the General Settings pane to confirm.

[stuwlittle]

Hiya,

I too am having issues,

Brand new asus laptop windows 8 got AVP.

Tried the resporitry.old, worked for 10 mins but then flagged up again.

In BFE should the mcafee personal firewall service be manual? Cant change to auto though........

Msft defender is auto normally but if mcafee is scanning then its triggered.

Tried the other command in command prompt admin, cant recall the info

Many thanks

Message was edited by: stuwlittle also it appears norton having similar issues if you google action centre windows 8 on 4/20/13 5:40:09 PM CDT

Message was edited by: stuwlittle and looking over ms same issues on 20/04/13 18:15:06 CDT