IT Queries: Computer problems answered

 Hi I have always used sygate personal firewall rather than windows on all my computers with no probs, however I installed it on my dell inspiron laptop when mcafee expired and it doesnt want to allow my wireless network connection or my modem and therefore I cant access the net.

 

They both work perfectly once I remove it from the computer. This is with windows firewall turned off.

 

Any suggestions as it means I can only use the windows firewall which I am a bit dubious about.

Sygate Personal Firewall is a favourite program of ours and it was a sad day when it disappeared into the maw of Symantec. It was probably the most configurable and powerful of the consumer firewall products. However the nature of firewall is that if they go wrong, then the Internet and network stop.

The first thing you need to do is to uninstall McAfee. If you have already done this, we’d recommend you download and run the McAfee Removal Tool just to be on the safe side.

Once you’ve done this, restart the computer. If the problem hasn’t cleared uninstall, reboot and reinstall Sygate.

The clue to diagnosing Sygate problems is the icon in the task bar. If the icon is showing the “blocked” symbol then it is blocking all network traffic. Right-click on the icon and select “Normal”.

If the problem still continues, then right-click  the Sygate icon again and choose “options”. Check that the Sygate Personal Firewall service is ticked to automatically load, in the Security section click the button that reads “reset all fingerprints for all applications”. This will drive you mad with prompts but it may be blocked programs that are stopping you from getting on to the net.

The final option to tick allow all the Network Neighborhood settings on all the adapters. You’ll find this in the Network Neighborhood tab. We don’t recommend this as a long term solution if you are connecting directly to the Internet.

An excellent resource for Sygate Personal Firewall is at the Sygate Basics site. This covers all the settings in the Pro version.

Firewalls can be funny beasts and you sometimes find they just won’t play properly regardless of what you do. If you find problems continue then you might want to consider another firewall. PC Tools has a free firewall which may work better.

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