3rd Party Firewall Causing Issues With Sharing Control

rayofsunshine · 26 Mar 2011

I've tried both Comodo and ZA firewalls.I prefer either over W7 built-in firewall.The problem I have is after installing either of these I have control issues with Network Discovery and File Sharing.More exactly,even though the system shows these two items are off and/or disabled(manually),Start>Computer>Network will start showing available computers to connect to, whereas, W7 firewall will inform me that both items are turned off.I use a public WiFi so this is obviously not a good thing.Has anyone dealt with this 3rd party firewall/File Sharing issue and have you found a solution? Is the fact that the 3rd party firewalls are blocking any connection attempts a sign that everything is okay? Or should I just stay with W7 firewall?

Maguscreed · 26 Mar 2011

I will say this much, both comodo and ZA require a massive amount of user input when they are first being installed, and setting themselves up directly after install.
If any windows process or service winds up blocked while this is going on. It will more than likely remain so, even after the software has been removed. I haven't used ZA in awhile but last time I did, after about 3 hours of digging through everything it was blocking and manually allowing what I needed to, it finally started to function properly.
That's all the input I have on this one.

rayofsunshine · 28 Mar 2011

I'm trying to avoid to posting a new thread on this issue, but I'm going to re-ask this differently.So the new question(s) would be - I am using a public WiFi.I have installed a 3rd party firewall and disabled W7 firewall.I also have all known Network Discovery and File Sharing options either disabled or turned off.Yet, since installing the 3rd party firewall Start>Computer>Network is suddenly showing other users on the public network.Previously, W7 firewall would inform me in Start>Computer>Network that Network Discovery and File Sharing were turned Off.Are Network Discovery and File Sharing somehow now turned On even though the system shows they are off(LAN Properties and Advanced Sharing Settings)?The 3rd party firewall is blocking any incoming network connections so is my system secure or should I resort back to W7 firewall?