DSM-G600, DNS-3xx and NSA-220 Hack Forum

That is not a practical solution for me. Is THAT the firewall "solution" that somebody hinted previously - "turn it off"?. In other words, "if the finger hurts, cut the hand" <g>.

leper wrote:

it would help to pin point your problem, if you turned the firewall off and then tried accessing the unit. if you don't do that, it won't be any use trying to troubleshoot anything else.

the dns323 works ok for me with vista home premium (32bit) over a wifi connection (intel 3945abg wifi) through a dir-635. but only so after installing a beta firmware to the router, due to problems with the wificard, vista and the dns323.

I have the latest firmware on my FM114P router (which is not so hot since it is quite old). Anyway, the 323 works perfectly with all the devices on the network - Win XP Pro SP2 + Archos 704wifi (which is quite unexpected!), so I have to conclude that the problem lies with some compatibility issue between Vista and the 323. Yes, I've applied the registry hack.

OK now - I understand your point. I will disable the FW momentarily to see if it works and report back.

Thanks,
Al

OK. Let's start with the good news: the 323 does work with Vista, and I did not need to disable the Windows FW.

What is the "bad" news then? Well, the reason it did not work until now was that on top of the Vista FW, I had installed (automatically) also Norton's FW. That thing was doing that in the background - although I might have given it the permission to do so in the past - and it was blocking the link to 323.

How did I find the problem?

1. I disabled the Vista FW as suggested above, but that did not help.
2. Then, I've noticed that the Vista PC is not "seen" by other PCs on the network. Never did need any sharing with that PC since it is mainly a "browsing PC", but that raised more questions.
3. Dug really deep and decided to give Norton a second look and surely enough, it had the FW on! I tried to find some kind of "pass through" that would allow connectivity, including by adding trusted IPs et. but to no avail. I had to simply disable the Norton FW in order for the 323 to be seen and for the Vista PC to be accessible on the network.
4. I am somewhat cool that I did not leave that Vista PC without any secondary protection as the Vista FW seems not to interfere with the 323 work (at least on my PC).

At the moment I'm running the Vista Media center and watching movies off the 323, while uploading 120BG worth of media (movies, pictures and music). The transfer rate over a 100MB network is +10MB/sec. Hope this helps those who are concerned with network performance.

Now the remaining question is: how can we make Norton FW, 323-friendly?

Thanks,
/Al

Last edited by lalex (2007-10-21 09:56:27)

I don't have any firewall running on my machine and I disabled Vista's firewall.  I feel that the hardware firewall that comes with my router is good enough.  Installing a software firewall on top that seems like overkill

dan.crouthamel wrote:

I don't have any firewall running on my machine and I disabled Vista's firewall.  I feel that the hardware firewall that comes with my router is good enough.  Installing a software firewall on top that seems like overkill

Just an FYI.

Most consumer grade hardware firewalls will permit any outgoing connection unless specifically blocked, so if your system becomes infected with a remote access trojan or similar, which can happen by clicking on the links you see in your spam - you know the ones that promise free pictures, etc. - or visiting certain types of website - sure, you know better, but can you say the same for every other user of that PC - and the malware on your system will "phone home" through your hardware firewall without your knowing.

A good software firewall will prompt every time an unapproved program attempts a connection, giving you a "heads-up" that something is going on.

lalex wrote:

Xactly MY thoughts and the reason NOT to accept operating a network without a firewall...

/Al

I think you're confused - YOUR network firewall is the FM114P, not the one(s) running on your computer.

When folks suggested you disable the Vista firewall, you assumed network firewall, and almost went bananas - truth of the matter is, you could disable the SPI firewall on that FM114P and not risk a thing, the protection afforded by NAT is what blocks the incoming traffic.

Also, generally speaking, running multiple software firewalls does nothing other than complicate things (as you already discovered) and burn processor cycles that could be better used elsewhere.

fordem wrote:

lalex wrote:

Xactly MY thoughts and the reason NOT to accept operating a network without a firewall...

/Al

I think you're confused - YOUR network <SNIP>.

When folks suggested you disable the Vista firewall, you assumed network firewall, and almost went bananas - truth of the matter is, you could disable the SPI firewall on that FM114P and not risk a thing, the protection afforded by NAT is what blocks the incoming traffic.

Also, generally speaking, running multiple software firewalls does nothing other than complicate things (as you already discovered) and burn processor cycles that could be better used elsewhere.

Not really - I understood perfectly well they meant "Vista Firewall", and the reason I went bananas was the one explained above - OUTGOING traffic. I may have confused everybody by using the term "network firewall" while actually referring to that specific Vista PC firewall and not the FM114 router. Sorry for that.

Second:  I was not aware that Norton was enabling the FW automatically. When I discovered that I disabled it. Now Norton FW is not on, so all is cool.

/Al

Last edited by lalex (2007-10-24 16:56:11)