Some Programs Seem To Stop Working After You Install Windows XP Service Pack 2
After you install Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), some programs may seem not to work. By default, Windows Firewall is enabled and blocks unsolicited connections to your computer. This article discusses how to make an exception and enable a program to run by adding it to the list of exceptions. This procedure permits the program to work as it did before the service pack was installed.
To help provide security for your Windows XP SP2-based computer, Windows Firewall blocks unsolicited connections to your computer. However, sometimes you might want to make an exception and permit someone to connect to your computer. For example, the following scenarios describe occasions when you might want someone to be able to connect to your computer:
You are playing a multiplayer game over the Internet.
You are expecting to receive a file that is sent through
an instant message program.
After you install Windows
XP SP2, client applications may not successfully receive data
from a server. Following are some examples:
An FTP client
Multimedia streaming software
New mail notifications in some e-mail
programs
Alternatively, server applications that are
running on a Windows XP SP2-based computer may not respond to
client requests. Following are some examples:
A Web server such as Internet Information Services (IIS)
Sometimes, when Windows Firewall blocks a program, a
Windows Firewall Security Alert dialog box
appears. The dialog box includes the following information:
...to help protect your computer, Windows
Firewall has blocked this program from receiving unsolicited
information from the Internet or a network
The message
displays the name of the program and the name of the publisher
of the program. This dialog box has 3 options:
Unblock the program
Keep blocking this program
Keep blocking this program, but ask
me again later
The next section explains how
to use this dialog box as one of the methods to enable
programs.
To work
correctly, some programs and games must receive information
over the network. The information enters your computer through
an inbound port. For Windows Firewall to permit this
information to enter, the correct inbound port must be open on
your computer. To enable a program to communicate like it did
before Windows XP SP2 was installed, and to enable programs
that you want to run, use one of the following methods.
Enable programs by using the
Security Alert dialog box
In the Security Alert
dialog box, click Unblock this
program.
Click OK.
Enable programs by using
Windows Firewall
If you do not click Unblock the program in the Security Alert dialog box, the program
continues to be blocked. To enable a program by using Windows
Firewall, follow these steps:
Click Start, click Run, type wscui.cpl in the
Open box, and then click
OK.
Click Windows Firewall.
In the Windows Firewall
dialog box, click the Exceptions tab, and then click Add Program.
In the Add a Program
dialog box, either select the program from the list that
appears, or click Browse to
locate your program.
If you cannot locate your
program, see the next section.
After you select your program, click OK.
On the Exceptions tab,
make sure that the check box next to your program is
selected, and then click OK.
Note If you later decide that you
do not want the program to be an exception, clear this check
box.
Adding a program to the list of exceptions has
the following advantages:
You do not have to know a specific port number. (By
contrast, when you want to open a port, you have to know the
number of the port that is used by the program. This is
described later.)
The port that is used by the program that is on the list
of exceptions will be open only when the program is
waiting to receive a connection.
If your program still does not seem to work after
you add the program to the list of exceptions, or if you
cannot locate the program in step 4 of the previous section,
you can open a port manually. Before you can add a port or
ports manually, you have to identify the ports that are used
by the program. A reliable method for identifying the ports
that are used by the program is to contact the vendor. If you
cannot do this, or if a list of ports that are used by the
program is not available, you can use Netstat.exe to identify
the ports that are used by the program.
Identify ports by using
Netstat.exe
Start the program in question and try to use its network
features. For a multimedia program, try to start an audio
stream. For a Web server, start the service.
Click Start, click Run, type cmd in the
Open box, and then click
OK.
Obtain a list of all listening ports. To do this, type
the following at a command prompt, and then press ENTER:
netstat –ano > netstat.txt
Obtain the process identifiers for the processes that
are running. Type the following command at the command
prompt, and then press ENTER:
tasklist > tasklist.txt
Note If the program in question
is running as a service, add the /svc
switch to list the services that are loaded in each process:
tasklist /svc >
tasklist.txt
Open Tasklist.txt and locate the program that you are
troubleshooting. Note the process identifier for the
process.
Open Netstat.txt and note any entries that are
associated with that process identifier. Also note the
protocol that is used (TCP or UDP).
The number of
ports that the process uses may affect how this issue is
resolved:
If the process uses more than 1024 ports, the
number of ports probably will not change.
If the process uses less than 1024 ports, the
program may be using a range of ports. Therefore, opening
individual ports may not reliably resolve the
issue.
If you cannot identify the ports that are
used by the program, you can open a port manually. To identify
the specific port number to open, contact the product vendor
or see the product user documentation. After you identify the
port number that you want to open, follow these steps:
Click Start, click Run, type wscui.cpl in the
Open box, and then click
OK.
Click Windows Firewall.
On the Exceptions tab,
click Add Port.
In the Add a Port dialog
box, type the number of the port that you want to open in
the Port number box, and then
click either TCP or UDP.
Type a name for the port, and then click OK. For example, type
GamePort.
To view or set the scope for the port exception, click
Change Scope, and then click
OK.
On the Exceptions tab,
notice that the new service is listed. To enable the port,
click to select the check box next to the service, and then
click OK
See:
875357
Troubleshooting Windows Firewall settings in Windows XP
Service Pack 2 Back to the top
Programs that may require
you to open ports manually
The following lists the
programs and games that may require you to open the port or
ports manually so that the programs can work correctly.
