Sharing Printers when Firewall is OFF (Corporate GPO)

[data1025]

Hello everyone,

I am looking for the "correct" way to share printers using a Windows 7 Professional installation when a group policy turns off the firewall.

When I attempt to share a printer and apply the settings, I get an error that the operation could not be completed. I did some basic research and found it how to turn ON the Windows Firewall. Once done, I am able to save the printer settings. I then run gpupdate /force to get the firewall back "off" so it appears "red" in the firewall settings gui (control panel > windows firewall).

I keep thinking I am overdoing something. Is this really the professional way to have to do this?

This post is a precursor to a larger problem I am having... I am trying to share some HP printers via this Win 7 Pro computer. When an XP computer attempts to print, the print job never completes and stays "Printing".

Is there any documentation on sharing printers in Win 7 (on a domain) with XP computers? All their firewalls are off.

Thanks for any help. I've been beating my head against the wall with this.

 

[cluberti]

Is Group Policy disabling the firewall PROFILES (Domain, Public, Private) or disabling the firewall SERVICE? Note the latter is not supported, and for good reason - it breaks stuff. Given the behavior you're seeing (red X in the firewall MMC), I'm believe the service is disabled.

 

[data1025]

Windows Firewall with Advanced Security - Domain Profile Settings - Firewall State = OFF

Everything else under that heading is "not configured".

Under another GPO, there is one option set for Network/Network Connections/Windows/Firewall/Domain Profile called "Windows Firewall: Protect all network connections" = DISABLED

 

[cluberti]

What's the state of the Windows Firewall service in services.msc?

 

[data1025]

Windows Firewall is Started and set to Automatically start.

 

[cluberti]

OK, so at least we are sure that is working. What type of printer are you sharing (local, TCP port, etc) and what is the exact error message? If you have a screenshot of it, that would be quite useful.

 

[data1025]

Attached is the screen shot. Sorry for the delay in responding. This is when adding a new printer (to share) or just sharing an existing printer.

 

[cluberti]

Very interesting - that error code equals "EPT_S_NOT_REGISTERED". So, I wonder if (when the firewall is enabled) the print ports are blocked in both directions, or someone has locked down RPC in both directions???

 

[data1025]

I can see and print to the shared printer from another computer after I turn off the firewall again (after the initial step of sharing the printer), so could anything still be blocked if that's the case?